A lawyer for former President Donald Trump released new proof of 2020 election fraud.
New evidence of fraud in Biden-Trump election? No, that debunked claim is from a 2020 video
If your time is short
- The video footage featured in this claim is not new. It’s from 2020 and has been previously debunked.
A Facebook post misleadingly suggested that one of former President Donald Trump’s lawyers has just unveiled new proof of fraud in the 2020 presidential election.
“HUGE Sidney Powell Drops HARD EVIDENCE – Pictures of Check Stubs Paid to People to Ballot Harvest,” the June 20 post said.
The post was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.)
The claim is not new. It’s from 2020, and was debunked.
The footage in the claim is from Next News Network, and it’s the latest example of posts we have debunked that misleadingly share older videos from that network as current events. Next News Network is a site the Chicago Tribune reported promotes conspiracies and it was recently demonetized by YouTube.
The footage is from a December 2020 report about Powell, who joined in unsuccessful legal efforts to overturn Joe Biden’s defeat of Trump in the November 2020 presidential election.
The 2020 footage in the claim used audio from a Powell radio interview in which she said she had photographs of stubs of checks “paid to people to ballot harvest and do fraudulent voting.” Powell claimed that Biden received at least 10 million fraudulent votes.
Trump lost to Biden, and allegations of a rigged election have been rebutted by audits, judges and officials in Trump’s administration.
Ballot collection or “ballot harvesting,” involves gathering absentee ballots from voters, sometimes by paid operatives, and delivering them to drop boxes or voting locations.
In many states, it is legal to drop off a ballot on another voter’s behalf, which is especially helpful for the elderly or voters with disabilities. Critics call the practice “ballot harvesting,” while election administrators typically use other terms, such as “ballot collection.”
Federal officials in Trump’s administration said the election was secure, and dozens of judges, including GOP appointees, rejected claims by Trump and his allies that there was widespread fraud.
We’ve debunked other Powell election claims.
We rate a Facebook post that claimed Powell released new proof of voter fraud False.
Our Sources
Facebook, post (archived), June 20, 2023
YouTube, Next News Network "HUGE: Sidney Powell Drops HARD EVIDENCE - Pictures of Check Stubs Paid to People to Ballot Harvest" post, Dec. 2, 2020
PolitiFact, "Claims that the 2020 election was stolen are still false," May 4, 2022
PolitiFact, "The faulty premise of the ‘2,000 mules’ trailer about voting by mail in the 2020 election," May 4, 2022
PolitiFact, "The facts of a fair US election have only gotten stronger since Capitol attack," Jan. 6, 2022
