Trump allies say election fraud push was sabotaged from within, ”DJT has no idea

Trump backers met secretly last year to lay the groundwork for a major push to combat election fraud — but they feel they’re being stymied by people in the president’s orbit.

“Seen, Heard & Whispered” is told that the group, which met off-hours and away from government buildings, included Ed Martin, who serves as President Trump’s pardon attorney; Kurt Olsen, one of Mr. Trump’s former election attorneys who now works in the White House; and former West Virginia Secretary of State Mac Warner, who is serving at the Justice Department and was described as the effort’s coordinator.

They were working to uncover how election fraud occurs.

Things went south after a December meeting. A day later, Mr. Martin was booted from his post as head of the Justice Department’s task force looking into lawfare against Mr. Trump, and Mr. Warner was demoted from his post, according to a source familiar with the meetings.

“DJT has no idea how badly he is being undermined from within,” the source said. “He needs Warner to be the election czar, but I’m not sure if he even knows him. Almost no one else in the Trump [administration] cares about elections; they are self-serving frauds.”

Mr. Trump’s focus on election fraud has been clear from the days after the 2016 election, when he suggested his popular election loss to Hillary Clinton was due to widespread voting by noncitizens.

That message ramped up after his 2020 loss, when he blamed fraudulent votes and pandemic-induced voting procedures for costing him the election. His evidence has been widely challenged by independent arbiters, from federal courts to state officials to academic studies.

Undeterred, Mr. Trump repeated his claims about fraud during his State of the Union address this week.

“The cheating is rampant in our elections,” he said.

• Alex Swoyer can be reached at [email protected].