Trump calls off planned ‘news conference’ to push election fraud claims

Former President Trump on Thursday canceled a planned news conference for next week in which he said he would share claims of election fraud in Georgia in the 2020 election, the same types of claims that led to his indictment in the state earlier this week.

Trump wrote on Truth Social that his lawyers indicated they would rather he compile his claims about election fraud in the state into “formal Legal Filings as we fight to dismiss this disgraceful Indictment.”

“Therefore, the News Conference is no longer necessary!” Trump wrote.

The former president posted Tuesday on Truth Social that he would hold an event at his Bedminster, N.J., golf club next Monday to present a report that he said would lay out claims of election fraud in Georgia.

Some of Trump’s legal advisers had reportedly raised concerns that the former president’s planned news conference could further complicate his case, however. Trump has in recent weeks grown more vocal in claiming the 2020 election was fraudulent, despite there being no evidence of widespread fraud.

Prosecutors in Fulton County, Ga., indicted Trump this week on 13 charges related to his attempts to pressure state and local officials to alter the 2020 election results in his favor. The indictment cited several instances of Trump alleging cases of voter fraud that did not occur.

In Georgia specifically, Trump’s campaign filed multiple post-election legal challenges seeking to throw out ballots or overturn the results. One of the charges Trump is facing in Fulton County pertains to a particular lawsuit that was filed on New Year’s Eve 2020 and falsely alleged mass fraud that was enough to change the outcome of the election in Georgia.

The suit demanded the court direct the Georgia governor and secretary of state to decertify the election results, making unfounded claims about dead people voting and other illegal votes. Trump had signed a document, which was filed with the court, verifying the facts contained within the Dec. 31 complaint as true to the best of his knowledge. 

Trump was also indicted earlier this month in Washington, D.C., on federal charges over his attempts to remain in power after losing the 2020 election.