Judge orders Trump campaign to produce evidence of voter fraud in Pennsylvania

By Katelyn Polantz, CNN
Updated 1902 GMT (0302 HKT) August 13, 2020

(CNN) — A federal judge in Pennsylvania told the Trump campaign and the Republican Party that they must produce evidence they have of vote-by-mail fraud in the state by Friday.

The judge's order, in a high-profile case about vote-by-mail in the battleground state, essentially forces the Trump campaign to try to back up President Donald Trump's false claims about massive voter fraud in postal voting.

"The Court finds that instances of voter fraud are relevant to the claims and defenses in this case," District Judge J. Nicholas Ranjan wrote on Thursday, telling Republicans that they need to provide evidence of fraud to the Democratic Party and the Sierra Club, which are part of the lawsuit.

The Democrats had asked for information and documents that would show steps the Republicans took to study the possibility of fraud, especially related to the use of dropboxes, ballot collection and mailed-in ballots in the primary elections.

The Trump campaign and Republicans had refused to do so. But with Thursday's court order, they must answer questions from the Democratic groups and turn over records of communications -- or say they have none. The Trump campaign has until Friday to respond, the judge said.

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