(CNN) — A federal judge in Pennsylvania told the campaign Trump and the Republican Party that they must present any evidence they have of vote-by-mail fraud before this Friday.
The judge’s order – in a high-profile case about voting by mail for the presidential election – essentially compels the campaign to Trump to try to back up the president’s false claims about massive voter fraud regarding vote-by-mail.
“The Court finds that the voter fraud cases are relevant to the claims and defenses in this case,” District Judge J. Nicholas Ranjan wrote Thursday, telling Republicans they must provide evidence of fraud to the Democratic Party and the Sierra. Club, which are part of the lawsuit.
Ranjan, the judge overseeing the lawsuit, was appointed by President Donald Trump.
Democrats had asked for information and documents showing the steps Republicans took to study the possibility of fraud in the most contested states, especially in relation to the use of mailboxes, ballot collection and ballots mailed in the primary elections. .
The Trump campaign and the Republicans had refused to do so. But with Thursday’s court order, they must answer questions from Democratic groups and turn over communications logs, or say they don’t have any. The Trump campaign has until Aug. 14 to respond, the judge said.
Democrats have called Trump’s claims an attempt to stoke fears about unproven fraud related to voting by mail. Trump has repeatedly claimed that there is massive electoral fraud, something that CNN’s fact-checking team has repeatedly debunked. Legal scholars from both parties and nonpartisan experts acknowledge that there is no widespread fraud in American elections.
The case is one of the most audacious attempts by the Trump campaign in court to reduce voting by mail in the 2020 elections. The Trump campaign had claimed that voting by mail could raise questions about the accuracy of voting results. the elections “and, ultimately, chaos,” according to the court record.
A hearing on the evidence is scheduled for the end of September.
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