{"id":2756,"date":"2026-07-18T08:03:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-18T08:03:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/coloradospringsmoverss.com\/?p=2756"},"modified":"2026-07-18T08:03:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-18T08:03:14","slug":"trump-says-these-documents-prove-his-false-claims-of-election-fraud-heres-what-they-really-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coloradospringsmoverss.com\/?p=2756","title":{"rendered":"Trump says these documents prove his false claims of election fraud. Here\u2019s what they really say"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Getting your Trinity Audio player ready…<\/strong><\/div>\n
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By JILL COLVIN and ERIC TUCKER<\/strong><\/p>\n

WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 President Donald Trump released a trove of documents during a primetime address to the nation that allies had hyped as a smoking gun that would prove his long-debunked allegations of mass voter fraud.<\/p>\n

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Speaking from the White House on Thursday night, he described shocking revelations, like Chinese meddling to undermine his failed candidacy in 2020 and a cover-up by the \u201cdeep state.\u201d He claimed, \u201cAmericans were blatantly lied to about the security of our election infrastructure.\u201d<\/p>\n

But a review by The Associated Press found no such confirmation in the collection of newly declassified reports, investigation files, intelligence analysis and assorted correspondence. Many pages are so heavily redacted that their findings are unclear. Others outline vulnerabilities and assessments that have been well-documented for years. There\u2019s no evidence that China or any other foreign entity manipulated the vote in 2020 or any other year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe White House promised a bombshell, and they delivered a dud,\u201d said David Becker, executive director of the Center for Election Innovation & Research, who attended a White House briefing on the material ahead of the speech. Despite what appeared to be a concerted effort by administration officials, \u201dthere was absolutely nothing here that was news, nothing here that even calls into question past elections and certainly not the 2020 election.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a look at what the documents say.<\/p>\n

China has our data. Lots of it<\/h4>\n

\u201cStarting during the 2020 election cycle, the People\u2019s Republic of China carried out what is believed to be the largest compromise of election data in history, resulting in China\u2019s illicit acquisition of 220 million U.S. voter files,\u201d Trump said Thursday night.<\/p>\n

There is no evidence, however, that China actually used that information in any way.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

It has long been established that China collects immense volumes of data on Americans unrelated to any efforts to manipulate votes or alter election outcomes. And public versions of voter files are widely available, including online, and can be bought and sold by campaigns and political parties so they know which doors to knock on and where to send mail.<\/p>\n

China\u2019s efforts to influence the 2020 campaign were already well-documented, and there was no assessment of any direct election interference. The records released Thursday night do not refute that conclusion, but reveal an internal intelligence community debate about how to characterize Beijing\u2019s efforts and motives.<\/p>\n

The emails show that a dissenting viewpoint was that China had taken steps to \u201cdenigrate\u201d Trump. But that perspective, instead of being hidden, was already reflected in the intelligence community assessment produced after the election.<\/p>\n

China on Friday called Trump\u2019s allegations \u201cgroundless\u201d and \u201centirely fabricated\u201d and said it has never interfered in U.S. elections and has no interest in doing so.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

Noncitizens may or may not be more common on voter rolls<\/h4>\n

In his remarks, Trump touted the release of a new Department of Homeland Security investigation, based on state voter rolls and public records, that he said had identified approximately 278,000 noncitizens registered to vote in federal elections.<\/p>\n

The report said the agency uncovered more than a quarter of a million noncitizens illegally registered to vote in California, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Nevada, based on public records, which are often erroneous or incomplete. Another 28,000 noncitizens, it claimed, were found on voter rolls in 25 states using the new Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements system.<\/p>\n

There is no allegation, however, that any of those people actually voted, which would be a crime.<\/p>\n

That data has also not been verified. Reports have found that the SAVE database is plagued with errors, including outdated information that has often classified naturalized citizens as noncitizens. Indeed, a federal judge has barred the database from being used over fears that voters will be wrongly purged from voter rolls.<\/p>\n

Studies have found noncitizen voting to be extremely rare. Noncitizens are also allowed to vote in some local elections, and could be on the rolls for that reason.<\/p>\n

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Documents detail Russia\u2019s election efforts<\/h4>\n

Trump has spent years criticizing the intelligence community\u2019s assessment that Russia meddled in the 2016 election to help him win. But the documents shed new light on the country\u2019s ongoing efforts.<\/p>\n

One declassified document from 2020 portrays Russia as the country that has tried the most to penetrate American election systems \u2014 but in an effort to defeat Joe Biden. It notes how Russia worked to amplify claims that Biden, while serving as vice president, engaged in inappropriate behavior involving Burisma, the Ukrainian energy firm that employed his son Hunter, a charge frequently repeated by Trump and Republicans.<\/p>\n

\u201cTheir aim is to defeat the former Vice President and ensure the President\u2019s victory,\u201d reads the document from the National Intelligence Council.<\/p>\n

The document went on to state that both China and Iran wanted Trump to lose. But it included a chart documenting each country\u2019s known efforts. Only Russia was marked as having been known to have engaged in \u201ctargeting, accessing, or manipulating election processes or election-related systems.\u201d<\/p>\n

Russia has continued to deny interfering in U.S. affairs.<\/p>\n

Michigan in the spotlight<\/h4>\n

Many of the documents released involve a Michigan case in which a seemingly pro-Biden canvassing operation submitted thousands of questionable voter registrations to a local election official in 2020. The official did not accept the registrations and alerted authorities.<\/p>\n

The documents include notes from at least one FBI agent that are heavily redacted but indicate that the agent unsuccessfully pushed for further investigation and charges through 2024. Michigan Republicans in 2023 complained the state\u2019s Democratic attorney general did not charge anyone.<\/p>\n

However, the case was closed \u201cbecause logical investigation and\/or leads have been exhausted, and the investigation to date did not identify a criminal violation or a priority threat to national security,\u201d according to one of the records.<\/p>\n

Vulnerabilities in voting systems<\/h4>\n

The documents, Trump told the nation, included intelligence \u201crevealing shocking vulnerabilities in our election infrastructure\u201d that leave it vulnerable \u201cto hacking, exploitation and foreign interference.\u201d<\/p>\n

One report included a list of recent breaches \u2014 mostly by Russia \u2014 and called on state and local election officials to step up their defenses to prevent information from being used to obtain absentee ballots or alter voter rolls. Election officials acknowledge that voting machines also carry risk \u2014 which is why they don\u2019t rely on them alone to ensure the accuracy of the vote. Safeguards like physical security, equipment testing, paper ballot backups and post-election audits help to catch machine errors or threats.<\/p>\n

But it is unclear what the administration is doing to facilitate their efforts. Earlier this month, Trump ousted members of a bipartisan federal election commission that distributes federal grants to states, oversees the testing of voting systems and maintains the national voter registration form, after the group resisted his efforts to require potential voters to document their U.S. citizenship before registering.<\/p>\n

Trump has also cut millions of dollars in federal funding from the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, known as CISA, which helped state and local election officials keep elections secure, and disbanded an FBI task force focused on investigating foreign influence operations, including those that target U.S. elections.<\/p>\n

The documents make repeated reference to the risks posed by large databases of voter information, including registration databases and election websites that could be accessed or manipulated by foreign adversaries.<\/p>\n

But the SAVE system, which Trump has been pushing states to adopt, has been criticized as an unlawful, centralized federal database of voter information, which could be another target.<\/p>\n

Colvin reported from New York. Associated Press writers Nicholas Riccardi, Ali Swenson, Katie Vogel and Mary Clare Jalonick contributed to this report.<\/em><\/p>\n

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The reports showed no evidence of China or any foreign entity manipulating votes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2755,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2756","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national-politics","category-news","category-politics"],"yoast_head":"\nTrump says these documents prove his false claims of election fraud. 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