A former US lawyer has accused Republicans of having engaged in a “vile plot” to file weak election lawsuits, “setting the stage for Donald Trump only to later claim that the elections were rigged against him.

Barbara McQuade, who served as U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan after being appointed by the President Barack Obamamade the comment on the #SistersEnLaw podcast, which discusses the legal controversy.

Trump has insisted that the 2020 presidential election was rigged against him, even though his claims have been repeatedly rejected in courts and by authorities. independent election experts. In the September presidential debate against Vice President Kamala Harristhe Democratic candidate, raised concerns about the 2024 elections, saying: “Our elections are bad, and a lot of these illegal immigrants that are coming in are trying to get them to vote. »

It is illegal for non-citizens to vote in presidential elections, and a 2016 report study by the Brennan Center for Justice, which defends voting rights, found 30 suspicious cases of non-citizens voting out of the 23.5 million votes analyzed.

According to data compiled by Democracy Docket, founded by a partisan lawyer Democratic Partybetween 2023 and the end of September 2024, the Republican The National Committee or local GOP parties have been involved in at least 72 legal disputes related to the 2024 presidential election.

Earlier this month, the Republican-controlled states of Texas, Florida and Ohio all launched legal action against the Department of Homeland Securityarguing that the agency’s measures to verify the citizenship of voters registered on the national rolls were insufficient.

In Saturday’s episode of #SistersEnLaw podcast, Boston Globe columnist Kimberly Atkins Stohr explained why Republicans are launching so many legal challenges.

“It’s a fealty to Donald Trump – using every lever these people have, you know, throwing out as much disinformation and false claims of fraud…so that it can pave the way, frankly, for when Donald Trump says invariably, if he loses, that the election was rigged. It gives people a little more “there,” she said.

Joyce Vance, a former U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Alabama, agrees, calling some prosecutions “borderline frivolous.”

She said on the podcast: “I expect that what we will hear if Donald Trump loses is this narrative that he only lost because the courts allowed people who were not not eligible citizens to vote, and I think it’s worth reiterating that that’s not true no evidence of that. That’s the big lie of this election cycle. »

McQuade commented, “I heard someone say, and I think it’s so true, that all of these lawsuits challenging the eligibility of voters to vote in the upcoming election are press releases disguised as lawsuits .

“This is simply an effort to raise awareness that there are many shady rules and to set the stage for Donald Trump to later claim that the election was rigged against him. It is a truly despicable plot if you think about it, because it is consistent with Russia’s agenda to undermine public confidence in free and fair elections and democracy in general.”

News week contacted representatives of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and the Republican National Committee for comment Saturday via email outside of normal business hours.

In April, the RNC launched what it described as “the largest and most monumental election integrity program in the nation’s history,” saying it would have “100,000 dedicated volunteers and advocates deployed in every battleground state” in November to ensure the election is fair.

Trump said at the launch: “Having the right people to count the ballots is just as important as voting on Election Day. Republicans are now working together to protect the vote and ensure a big victory on November 5!

Friday, the election website 538 survey analyzes published that gave Harris a 1.4-point national lead over Trump, although it gave the Republican nominee a 53 percent chance of victory overall.

On Friday, Harris also joined the campaign trail by megastar Beyoncéwhile Trump appeared in the comedy Joe Rogan‘s popular podcast.