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By Daniel Villarreal
NW - Writer
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One year after losing the 2020 presidential election to current Democratic President Joe Biden, former Republican President Donald Trump is still asking Arizona and other states to "decertify" Biden's win.
In a statement released Monday, Trump wrote, "The great Patriots of Arizona are anxiously awaiting the Attorney General's review of the large-scale Election Fraud that took place during the 2020 Presidential Election."
"The Arizona Legislature (and other States!) should, at a minimum, decertify the Election," Trump's statement continued. "The American people deserve an answer, now!"
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Trump's Monday statement refers to Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich's recent launch of an investigation into the state's 2020 presidential election. Brnovich himself certified the state's election results in November 2020.
Former Maricopa County Recorder Adrian Fontes said that Brnovich questioned him last week, according to Arizona NPR station KNAU. Fontes called Brnovich's investigation, "A sad and dangerous situation meant to advance conspiracy theories."
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Trump's Monday statement continued by declaring, "The findings of the Forensic Audit Report were clear and conclusive." The line referenced the September 24 report from the state's Republican-led Senate after an audit of the election results in Maricopa County.
Liz Harrington, a Trump spokesperson, said "the audit results clearly show the election in Arizona as counted should never have been certified," USA Today reported. However, the audit found that Biden won more votes than previously expected. The report found no evidence that voter fraud affected the election's outcome.
Nearly $5.7 million in audit expenses were paid by five groups headed by Trump supporters seeking to delegitimize the election's results. The state Senate hired a group called Cyber Ninjas to conduct the audit even though the company had never conducted such an audit. Its CEO had previously spread conspiracy theories about election fraud.
The report suggested there were problems with Maricopa County's voter rolls. However, Jack Sellers, the Republican chairman of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, said that the Cyber Ninja's "opinions" about the voter rolls came "from a misuse and misunderstanding of the data provided by the county and are twisted to fit the narrative that something went wrong."
Trump's Monday statement also said, "The results from the Congressional Election Integrity hearing that just took place in Washington, D.C., upon cross-examination, were devastating to the other side." It's unclear what hearing Trump was referring to, however.
Newsweek contacted Trump's office for comment.
After losing the 2020 election by an Electoral College tally of 306 for Biden and 232 for Trump, the former president claimed that he had only lost due to an unprecedented nationwide conspiracy of voter fraud.
Trump's former attorney general, his former head of U.S. cybersecurity infrastructure, over 60 court cases filed by Republicans, as well as numerous statewide audits have all concluded that there's no real evidence that the 2020 election was stolen.
In early October, Stephen Richer, a Republican who serves as the Maricopa County recorder, said that the majority of Republican Arizona lawmakers he speaks to actually know Trump's and their own election fraud claims are "all BS."
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