Trump campaign drops lawsuit challenging Michigan voting results
Rudy Giuliani said the Trump campaign is 'withdrawing our lawsuit in Michigan'
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}President Trump's reelection campaign said Thursday that it is dropping a lawsuit challenging voting results in Michigan, which show Democrat Joe Biden narrowly carrying the battleground state.
“This morning we are withdrawing our lawsuit in Michigan," Rudy Giuliani, Trump's personal attorney, said in a statement.
Giuliani, the former mayor of New York City, said the decision to rescind the lawsuit is the "direct result of achieving the relief we sought: to stop the election in Wayne County from being prematurely certified before residents can be assured that every legal vote has been counted and every illegal vote has not been counted."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}WAYNE COUNTY GOP MEMBERS RESCIND VOTES TO CERTIFY ELECTION, CLAIM DEMS 'BULLIED' THEM
The Trump campaign's lawsuit had attempted to stop Wayne County, Michigan's most populous county and includes Detroit, from certifying its election results, alleging that thousands of invalid ballots were counted by election workers.
On Tuesday, the Wayne County Board of Canvassers -- in an abrupt about-face -- unanimously certified election results that showed Biden beating Trump, hours after two Republicans blocked formal approval of the votes cast.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The two Republicans, Monica Palmer and William Hartmann, later claimed in signed affidavits they only voted to certify the results after “hours of sustained pressure" and after getting promises that their concerns about the election would be investigated.
A person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press that Trump reached out to Palmer and Hartmann on Tuesday evening after the revised vote to express gratitude for their support.
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}“We deserve better — but more importantly, the American people deserve better — than to be forced to accept an outcome achieved through intimidation, deception, and threats of violence,” they said in a statement Wednesday night. “Wayne County voters need to have full confidence in this process."
State officials said the certification of the Detroit-area vote will stand.
Trump lost Michigan by about 155,000 votes, according to unofficial results still being certified by county boards of canvassers. There is no evidence or proof of widespread election fraud.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Federal and state officials from both parties have declared the 2020 election safe and secure. But Trump and his allies have spent two weeks raising false claims of fraud and refusing to concede to President-elect Joe Biden.
The Associated Press contributed to this report