Pa. Attorney General Shapiro files memorandum in Trump impeachment

State Attorney General Josh Shapiro does not have a role in the ongoing impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump, but he wanted to ensure U.S. senators sitting as jurors understand Pennsylvania’s role in the Nov. 3 election.

Shapiro, a Democrat, who repeatedly defended the state’s election as free and fair, outlined what he termed unfounded allegations by Trump about Pennsylvania’s election in a memorandum submitted to the U.S. Senate Wednesday.

Shapiro suggested those allegations, including the Trump campaign’s unsuccessful court challenge to election results in Allegheny, Philadelphia and several other counties, may have had a role in fueling the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol by an angry mob.

“On the day of the insurrection, former President Trump told supporters several untrue claims in his speech, promoting his false narrative about stolen elections that he had made since Election Day,” Shapiro wrote.

In his memo to the Senate, Shapiro listed several allegations Trump made that day about Pennsylvania, including:

• He falsely claimed that there were “205,000 more ballots than you had voters” in Pennsylvania.

• He falsely claimed that “thousands” of dead people voted in Pennsylvania.

• He falsely claimed that “over 14,000 ballots were cast by out-of-state voters.”

• He falsely claimed that “the number of absentee ballots that had been sent out … was suddenly and drastically increased by 400,000 people.”

“For months, President Trump attacked the integrity of the Commonwealth’s election, repeating lie after lie at every opportunity,” Shapiro wrote. “In state and federal court, his attorneys laundered his lies as legal claims brought in increasingly frivolous lawsuits. One after another, they failed. The courts resoundingly confirmed what Pennsylvania already knew: The 2020 election in Pennsylvania was free and fair; it was conducted in accordance with the laws of the Commonwealth and the United States; and the results of that election were accurate.”

Although the U.S. Senate on Tuesday voted 56-44 to hear the trial, analysts are predicting Democrats will not be able to muster the 17 Republican votes necessary to convict the former president and bar him from holding federal office in the future.

Shapiro urged senators to weigh the impact of Trump’s conduct on future elections.

“The events of Jan. 6 were shocking and unprecedented. But they were not wholly unexpected — at least not to election officials in Pennsylvania and elsewhere who had lived with President Trump’s lies on a nonstop basis for the previous two months,” Shapiro wrote.

He said he hopes his memorandum will clarify the record with regard to Pennsylvania’s 2020 election.