Former President Trump. Win McNamee/Getty Images
After Biden's win, Trump retracted his praises of a group "highly respected" GOP auditors from Arizona.
He falsely claimed that the Cyber Ninjas' audit had found "significant and undisputed evidence of fraud!"
Trump's claims were later refuted by a spokesperson from the auditors, who said, "Was there massive Fraud or anything?" It doesn't seem like it."
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After their "audit", which confirmed Joe Biden's victory in the general election, former President Donald Trump backed down. A misleading statement was also issued Friday morning by Trump falsely claiming that the audit had found "significant and undisputed evidence of fraud!"
A spokesperson for Cyber Ninjas refuted the statement, saying that there was no fraud. It doesn't seem like it."
According to a draft of the findings, Cyber Ninjas' partisan audit found that Biden won by slightly more margin than previously believed. Media outlets were able to obtain a draft. At 1 p.m. on Friday, the Arizona state Senate will receive the official report.
Cyber Ninjas was widely criticized for conducting a "sham audit" to support right-wing conspiracy theories that Trump won the state and that he was robbed of the election. The audit's draft found that Trump lost by hundreds of votes to Biden in Arizona's largest County.
Trump stated in his original statement that "Interesting" the Unselect Committee was "dropping" their subpoena requests the night before Arizona is expected announce its findings from Forensic Audit regarding voter fraud in the 2020 Presidential Election Scam. ET on Thursday
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"This is their work, this is their talent - but everyone will be watching Arizona tomorrow to find out what highly respected auditors and the Arizona State Senate discovered about the so-called Election!" The statement went on.
The former president was unaware that details of an audit were already available at the time that his statement was posted. It found that Trump had lost more than 300 votes to Biden in Maricopa County.
Shortly after 10:10 a.m. ET, Trump released a new statement calling attention to the "huge findings in Arizona". ET, Trump issued a new statement Friday calling attention to the "huge results in Arizona".
"However, Fake News Media is already trying 'call' it again for Biden before actually considering the facts-just as they did in November!" The statement continued by stating that the fake audit had "uncovered significant evidence of fraud!"
Cyber Ninjas reviewed the results and concluded that the group's recounting of Maricopa County ballots in the 2020 election did not have "substantial differences" to the county's official certified tallies which were done in November.
Jack Sellers, Chairman of Maricopa County Board, stated that the draft was "tabulated as it was designed to count the ballots and that the results reflect the will the voters."
He said, "That should be it," and he went on. "All else is just noise."
Trump maintained in his second statement, however, that "until and where we know why this happened, our Elections won't be secure."
Cybersecurity and election efforts found that the 2020 election was secure and reliable despite the large influx of mail-in ballots during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Maricopa County election officials also criticized the Cyber Ninjas audit on Friday, stating in a tweet thread that it "didn't build trust".
Trust was built through good audits. "Good election audits are performed by professionals who use proven, well-defined processes that produce reproducible results. They provide quantifiable evidence that the reported results match the canvass," reads a tweet from the official county account. "Board members support good audits. Regardless of the final report, Cyber Ninjas & co. performed a poor audit.
Note: A first version of this story incorrectly stated that Trump had allegedly deleted his original statement. This was citing ABC News reporting.
Business Insider has the original article.
