Judge says Trump knowingly pressed inaccurate voter fraud claims in court

By Jacqueline Thomsen

(Reuters) – A California federal judge on Wednesday said then-U.S. President Donald Trump had signed a sworn statement asserting that voter fraud numbers included in a 2020 election lawsuit were accurate, despite being told the numbers were not correct.

U.S. District Judge David Carter made the disclosure in ordering conservative law professor John Eastman to provide more emails to the congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by Trump’s supporters.

Eastman was one of Trump’s attorneys when the former president and his allies challenged his 2020 election loss to Joe Biden.

Carter said Wednesday that Trump had “signed a verification swearing under oath” that the inaccurate fraud numbers were “true and correct” or “believed to be true and correct” to the best of his knowledge and belief, when alleging the improper counting of votes in a county in Georgia.

“The emails show that President Trump knew that the specific numbers of voter fraud were wrong but continued to tout those numbers, both in court and to the public,” the judge wrote.

Carter has previously ruled that Eastman and Trump had likely committed a felony by trying to pressure his then-vice president to obstruct Congress.

The ruling was made in a lawsuit filed by Eastman to block disclosure of the emails to the Jan. 6 select committee, following a congressional subpoena.

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