‘There Was No Victory’ for Biden, Trump Says in Wake of Arizona Election Audit Hearing

‘There Was No Victory’ for Biden, Trump Says in Wake of Arizona Election Audit Hearing
Maricopa County ballots cast in the 2020 general election are examined and recounted by contractors working for Florida-based company, Cyber Ninjas at Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Phoenix, Arizona, on May 6, 2021. AP Photo/Matt York, Pool
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Former President Donald Trump issued a statement weighing in on the Thursday Arizona Senate hearing over preliminary results of the 2020 election audit underway in Maricopa County, saying “[t]here was no victory” for then-presidential candidate Joe Biden in the Grand Canyon state.

The hearing was announced by the state’s Senate President Karen Fann on short notice as an update on the progress of the ongoing election audit in Maricopa County. The hearing covered preliminary audit findings as well as current unresolved issues, including discrepancies in some documentation and paperwork.
“Arizona Senate hearings on the Maricopa County election audit is devastating news to the radical left Democrats and the Biden administration,” the former president said in his statement.
The hearing included updates from Cyber Ninjas CEO Doug Logan and CyFIR CEO Ben Cotton, the heads of the companies conducting the audit. At the hearing they said they’re seeking more records to complete their review, which is taking months longer than the 60 days they initially had in mind.

President Joe Biden won Arizona by a narrow margin of 10,457 votes, or 0.31 percentage points.

Then-President Donald Trump speaks to media before departing on Marine One en route to Ohio and Texas, from the White House South Lawn in Washington on Aug. 7, 2019. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times)
Then-President Donald Trump speaks to media before departing on Marine One en route to Ohio and Texas, from the White House South Lawn in Washington on Aug. 7, 2019. Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times

Trump in his statement highlighted some points raised in the hearing that he found significant, including how Cyber Ninjas’ Logan had told senators at the hearing that there was 74,243 mail-in ballots “where there is no clear record of them being sent.” The data received was via a FOIA request from the county.

Logan said at the hearing, “Just to be clear ... there should be more [mail-in ballots] sent out than there are that are received. ... we have 74,000 [mail-in ballots] that came back from individuals where we don’t have a clear indication that they were ever sent out to them.”

Trump also pointed out that, according to Logan, auditors found 18,000 people who had voted but whose names were removed from the voter rolls “soon after the election.”

Logan also revealed other discrepancies at the hearing, such as how 11,326 people did not appear to have been registered to vote as of Nov. 7, 2020—four days after election day—but their names appeared on the voter rolls on Dec. 4, 2020. There were also 3,981 people who voted after registering after Oct. 15, 2020—the Arizona voter registration deadline for the general election.

The former president said in his statement, “They [auditors] also revealed that the voting system was breached or hacked (by who?). Very big printer and ballot problems with different paper used, etc., and MUCH MORE.”

Trump denounced what he said were early calls of victory for Biden in the presidential election.

“The irregularities revealed at the hearing today amount to hundreds of thousands of votes or, many times what is necessary for us to have won,” he said. “Despite these massive numbers, this is the state that Fox News called early for a Biden victory. There was no victory here, or in any other of the swing states either.”

He continued, “Maricopa County refuses to work together with the Senate and others who are merely looking for honesty, integrity, and transparency. Why do the commissioners not want to look into this corrupted election? What are they trying to hide?”

A county spokesperson earlier in the day told The Epoch Times via email it was unclear which data sets the auditors were referring to for some of their allegations. The approximately 74,000 ballots probably refers to voters who went in person to vote centers before Election Day, he said.

“Even though they are voting in person, their ballots are treated the same as those mailed in—sealed in an envelope and signed by the voter,” the spokesman said.

Maricopa County Board of Supervisors Chairman Jack Sellers, a Republican, said in a statement, issued after the hearing, that the auditors were incompetent. He also accused the auditors, whom he called “uncertified contractors,” as having “dropped bombshell numbers that are simply not accurate.”

“To Senate leaders I say, stop accusing us of not cooperating when we have given you everything qualified auditors would need to do this job. Finish your audit, release the report, and be prepared to defend it in court,” he said.

The Epoch Times has contacted the White House for comment.

Zachary Stieber contributed to this report.