Wayne County Board of Canvassers Chair Monica Palmer, left, talks with Vice Chair Jonathan Kinloch before the board’s Tuesday, Nov. 17, 2020 meeting in Detroit.
Robin Buckson | Detroit News | AP
President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign is dropping an election-related lawsuit in Michigan, the latest development in the multi-state effort to challenge President-elect Joe Biden’s projected electoral victory.
In a court filing Thursday morning, a lawyer for the Trump campaign said the lawsuit, which had sought to stop the certification of ballots in Wayne County, Michigan, was being withdrawn because the county’s board of canvassers “met and declined to certify the results of the presidential election.”
But that statement is false: The board voted to certify the results, after an outcry over Republican members who initially voted not to certify.
Those two GOP members are now asking to have their votes rescinded. But state officials say that is not possible, and that the certification is official.
In a statement from the Trump campaign, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani said, “This morning we are withdrawing our lawsuit in Michigan.”
Giuliani said the withdrawal came “as a 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.”
The Trump campaign’s federal lawsuit had attempted to stop Wayne County, which contains the city of Detroit, from certifying its election results until swaths of ballots were cut from the final tally.
Wayne County is the most populous area in Michigan, and voted overwhelmingly for Biden over Trump — 68% to 31%, respectively.
The county’s board of canvassers has become a major focus ahead of the national certification of election results next month. Two Republican members of the board initially refused to certify Wayne County’s vote, before reversing themselves earlier this week following widespread criticism.
Shortly thereafter, both members reversed themselves again. As of Wednesday, the canvassers were calling to rescind their votes, and signed affidavits that were included in the Trump campaign’s notice of withdrawal Thursday.
Media outlets reported that the canvassers had been contacted by Trump directly on Tuesday evening.
Lawyers for the defendants and intervenors in the case had no immediate comment
One of the canvassers, William Hartman, in his affidavit wrote that he was “enticed to agree to certify based on the promise that a full and independent audit would take place.”
“I would not have agreed to the certification but for the promise of an audit,” Hartman wrote.
The other GOP canvasser, Monica Palmer, wrote in her own affidavit, “I fully believe the Wayne County vote should not be certified.”
A spokeswoman for Michigan’s secretary of state Jocelyn Benson, however, said the fight is over.
“There is no legal mechanism for them to rescind their vote. Their job is done and the next step in the process is for the Board of State Canvassers to meet and certify,” press secretary Aneta Kiersnowski told NBC News.
This is developing news. Please check back for updates.
