DETROIT – The Trump campaign has withdrawn a federal lawsuit that was challenging certain Michigan votes in the 2020 General Election.
Trump lost Michigan by more than 150,000 votes. However, his campaign was making allegations of fraud surrounding the count at the TCF Center in Downtown Detroit. The lawsuit asked the court to require an independent audit of votes cast by people in Wayne County.
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The lawsuit was withdrawn Thursday morning after being denied by two separate courts.
“This morning we are withdrawing our lawsuit in Michigan as a direct result of achieving the relief we sought: to stop the election in Wayne County from being prematurely certified before residents can be assured that every legal vote has been counted and every illegal vote has not been counted,” reads a statement Thursday from President Trump’s attorney, Rudy Giuliani.
But Giuliani is wrong to suggest the certification was stopped in Wayne County -- the Wayne County Board of Canvassers unanimously voted to certify the November election results Tuesday and asked the Michigan Secretary of State to conduct an audit of any Wayne County precincts with unexplained mismatching vote totals. Read more about that here.
INBOX: Rudy Giuliani wrongly asserts the vote wasn't certified in Wayne Co. It was and the state says there's no legal recourse to undo the certification pic.twitter.com/QnYthJbemd
— Grant Hermes (@GrantHermes) November 19, 2020
Back to the lawsuit: On Friday, a Wayne County judge denied the Trump campaign’s independent audit request, saying the lawsuit was “incorrect and not credible.” Lawyers appealed and were rejected on Monday.
The state Court of Appeals said it wasn’t convinced the Wayne County judge made a mistake by refusing to stop the work of county canvassers.
Republican challengers observing the counting of absentee ballots at TCF Center claimed fraud in favor of Joe Biden, who won Michigan by more than 150,000 votes.
There is no evidence of widespread fraud in the 2020 election.
Read the latest here: Michigan: GOP canvassers can’t legally rescind Wayne County election certification vote