Trump's own lawyers debunk his voter fraud lie

One of the things that appears to most aggrieve Donald Trump is the fact that he lost the popular vote by more than any other president in U.S. history. And he has lately tried to cope with this by simply denying it is even true.

At a meeting with lawmakers on Monday, Trump stated that there were 3 to 5 million illegal votes in the 2016 election, with absolutely no explanation of where he got those numbers or what evidence he has to support the claim.

After the White House press corps challenged Trump, he announced he would be launching a “major investigation” into voter fraud, which will come at a time when Republicans all up and down the country have been seizing every excuse to pass laws making it harder for many citizens, particularly minorities and low-income people, to vote.

I will be asking for a major investigation into VOTER FRAUD, including those registered to vote in two states, those who are illegal and….

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 25, 2017

even, those registered to vote who are dead (and many for a long time). Depending on results, we will strengthen up voting procedures!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 25, 2017

The funny thing, however, is that Trump’s own team argued quite the opposite not too long ago.

After Green Party candidate Jill Stein’s attempts to bring about recounts in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania, Trump’s lawyers petitioned in December to block those efforts. And in Michigan, their petition explicitly stated that there was no evidence of voter fraud in the general election:

On what basis does Stein seek to disenfranchise Michigan citizens? None really, save for speculation. All available evidence suggests that the 2016 general election was not tainted by fraud or mistake.

Apparently, there was no fraud when Trump was trying to quash efforts to verify the result of the electoral college. But now that he is governing without even a tiny mandate due to losing the popular vote by nearly 3 million votes, suddenly he seems convinced there were up to 5 million illegal votes.

The Democratic National Committee eviscerated Trump’s voter fraud lie in a blistering press release:

Everyone knows there was no massive voter fraud in the election – even President Trump’s own legal team admitted it in court. But he can’t let go of his voter fraud fantasy – both because he cannot bear the thought that millions more Americans voted for Hillary Clinton than for him, and to cover up the real crime: Russian efforts to help him win.

This transparent and baseless “investigation” is a signal from Trump that he is willing to throw away millions in taxpayer money investigating his own conspiracy theories and attempting to preemptively revise the history of his presidency  — even when he and his inner circle cannot keep their own narrative consistent.