Washington, Feb 1: Former US President Donald Trump had a bigger involvement than previously known in exploring proposals to use federal security agencies to confiscate voting machines in US states in a bid to prove electoral fraud in the 2020 voting, The New York Times reported, citing three people in the know.
The accounts about Trump’s involvement in plans to prove electoral fraud in the 2020 which he lost emerged after his rally in Texas on Saturday, when the politician said that if he joins the next presidential race and is reelected, he will pardon Capitol rioters charged with crimes related to the storming more than a year ago.
After the rally, Trump said that his vice president, Mike Pence, could have “overturned the election.” Trump decided to address at least three federal security departments after his defeat in the election, which would help to provide the alleged evidence of voting fraud, according to the newspaper.
The proposals on involvement of security agencies were earlier known to have been codified in draft executive orders. Less than two months after the November 3 vote, Trump ordered his lawyer Rudolph Giuliani to ask the Department of Homeland Security if it can lawfully take control of voting machines in key swing states, which the agency replied it had no mandate to do, the sources told the newspaper. Right after the election, Trump accused Dominion Voting Systems providing voting machines of illegally deleting 2.7 million votes for him. The company rejected the accusation. Later, Trump said that there were numerous faults in operations of the voting machines which distorted the real outcome of the election.
