Trump-appointed elections official happy to believe Trump's lies about 'voter fraud'

The chair of the Federal Election Commission on Monday endorsed baseless claims by Donald Trump’s campaign that the 2020 election was stolen. His reasoning was that if Trump’s lawyer alleged there was fraud, it must be true.

Trey Trainor, a Trump appointee to the agency tasked with enforcing campaign finance law, argued in a tweet, “Having practiced law for almost 2 decades as a member of the State Bar of Texas, I’ve never known fellow TX lawyer [Sidney Powell] to be anything but forthright and honest in every case she’s ever taken on. If she says there is rampant voter fraud in #Election2020, I believe her.”

Trainor was referring to false claims made by Powell, a Trump lawyer, over the weekend on Fox News that the incumbent “won by not just hundreds of thousands of votes, but by millions of votes” and that there were “lots of ways to prove it.”

Trump was decisively defeated, in both the popular vote and Electoral College totals, by President-elect Joe Biden.

Powell declined to provide any actual evidence of her claims that software had been used to “rig” the election or any other widespread issues with the vote count.

Trump’s own Department of Homeland Security, meanwhile, has rejected by Trump’s team of massive election fraud. The Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency noted last week in a joint statement with the Election Assistance Commission and elections officials that “the November 3rd election was the most secure in American history,” and that there was “no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised.”

A team of international observers also found no evidence of significant fraud.

That has not stopped Trump from falsely — and repeatedly — claiming that he was the real winner of the 2020 elections.

Trainor spent many years working as a Republican election lawyer in Texas prior to his appointment. His clients included the Texas Republican Party and the 2016 Republican National Convention’s platform committee.

Last week, he told a right-wing outlet that he believed “there is voter fraud taking place” at vote counting sites because “otherwise they would allow the observers to go in.” Observers from both campaigns were allowed to watch counting, while following social distancing requirements to curb the spread of COVID-19.

The Federal Election Commission, by design, is a six-member panel — made up of no more than three members of either party — responsible for overseeing and enforcing federal campaign finance laws. But because Trump failed to replace outgoing commissioners before the election, it was left with no quorum for the 2020 campaign cycle and unable to do much of anything.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.