Trump attacks Michigan Republicans after senate report finds no fraud in 2020 election

As Michigan considers election law changes, top election leader stands opposed

Michigan lawmakers are considering legislation to change how elections are held but Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson is coming out in support of a national bill to support voting rights.

Former President Donald Trump accused two Michigan state Senators of attempting to "hide the truth" about the 2020 election in Michigan after the Oversight Committee released a report finding no evidence of fraud last November.

In a statement, Trump said state Senators Mike Shirkey (R-Clarklake) and Ed McBroom (R-Vulcan) were doing "everything possible" to stop another audit of the state's election and accused the report of being a "cover-up."

It's the most recent attack Trump has directed toward the November general election, falsely claiming it "very possibly rigged" in a Thursday statement. In addition to the committee's report, the state has conducted hundreds of audits on the previous election, finding no evidence of claims of fraud.

The committee's report was released after several months of interviews, public hearings, testimony, and reviews of subpoenaed documents from Livonia and Detroit. The committee heard from 87 people and looked at allegations of fraud relating to absentee ballots, accusations of harassment of poll watchers, dead voters casting ballots, and faulty machinery tabulating ballots.

The report "found no evidence of widespread or systematic fraud in Michigan’s prosecution of the 2020 election," according to the opening letter from McBroom, who chairs the committee.

Trump's statement specifically mentioned votes in Antrim County and in Detroit, which became centerpieces to the 2020 election discussion in Michigan, as well as a source of conspiracy theories about voter fraud.

In Antrim County, a series of clerical errors initially led to 6,000 ballots registering as votes for Joe Biden. But a review of those ballots later determined they were meant for Trump.

In Wayne County, the TCF center where poll workers were counting absentee ballots the day after election day was swarmed by conservative activists after accusations of ballots being delivered secretly spread online.

Workers responded to the crowd by covering the windows of the center, calling police, and denying lawful challenges to ballots. The senate report determined those responses "seem necessary to them at the time."

Trump's statement also mentioned a forensic audit, which is already being conducted in Arizona. A third-party company not affiliated with the state's election systems has overseen a review of the 2020 election that has been criticized by experts.

Some Republicans floated the idea of conducting a similar audit in Michigan, but the report concluded "another audit, a so-called forensic audit, is not justifiable."

You can read the full report here.