White House to launch probe into debunked claims of voter fraud

A spokesman says U.S. President Donald Trump will sign an executive action to commission an investigation into widespread voter fraud, raising the prospect of a federal government probe into a widely debunked claim and sparking alarm among experts and Democrats.

White House press secretary Sean Spicer said Thursday that Trump would sign the order in the Oval Office but did not provide more details as to what it might entail.

Trump reiterated his stance on Thursday at a Republican retreat in Philadelphia.

"We are going to protect the integrity of the ballot box and we are going to defend the votes of the American citizen," he said. "So important."

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Trump had announced in a pair of tweets early Wednesday that a "major investigation" will look at those registered to vote in more than one state, "those who are illegal and ... even, those registered to vote who are dead (and many for a long time)." Depending on results, the Republican tweeted on his sixth day in office, "we will strengthen up voting procedures!"

He went further later, claiming: "You have people registered in two states. They're registered in a New York and a New Jersey. They vote twice."

It is not illegal to be registered in two places and it often occurs as Americans move across state lines without notifying elections officials.  A 2012 Pew Center on the States study found 2.75 million U.S. voters are registered twice. It does not necessarily mean that people are voting more than once. 

Trump insiders registered twice 

In fact, since Trump's controversial tweets, U.S. media outlets have reported that a number of people in Trump's own inner circle are registered to vote in more than one state. 

Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law and soon-to-be Middle East peace broker, is registered in both New York and New Jersey, according to the Washington Post, which spoke with election officials and looked at registration records. 

The Post also reports White House chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon was registered to vote in both New York and Florida. The newspaper also cited a "person familiar with the situation," who said Bannon wrote a letter to election officials asking to be removed from the Florida polls.

CNN and Washington Post have both reported that Steven Mnuchin, Trump's pick to head the Treasury Department, is registered in both New York and California. 

The president's youngest daughter Tiffany Trump is registered in New York City and Philadelphia, according to records checked by Heat Street, NBC News, and the Washington Post. Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway told NBC's Today show the reports about Tiffany are "flatly false," but offered no evidence to counter them. NBC has posted images of Tiffany's registration records on their site. 

Committee won't investigate

House oversight committee chairman Jason Chaffetz on Thursday broke with Trump, saying he sees no evidence of voter fraud in the 2016 election and says his committee won't investigate it.

The Utah Republican says Trump is free to order the Justice Department to investigate the issue, but he's not interested in launching a congressional inquiry.

Chaffetz told reporters at the congressional Republican retreat in Philadelphia that voting happens at the local level, adding "I don't see any evidence" of widespread fraud.

All 50 states and the District of Columbia have finalized their election results with no reports of the kind of widespread fraud that Trump alleges.

Spicer would not say whether the investigation would be led by the FBI or some other agency. He said Wednesday that its only goal would be "to understand where the problem exists and how deep it goes" and that it would not be limited to the 2016 election.

Spicer suggested a task force could be commissioned to focus on dead people who remained on voter rolls and people registered in two or more states.

And he said it could centre on "bigger" states where Trump didn't compete during the campaign, singling out California and New York, two Democratic strongholds.

Voter rights

Trump's tweet alarmed Democrats who already believe that moves to tighten voter ID laws are a means to restrict access to the ballot box. Like the president, Trump's pick for attorney general, Republican Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama, who could oversee any federal probe, has shown sympathy toward claims of voting fraud.

There is no evidence of widespread voter fraud in last November's election, in which Trump won the Electoral College, but lost the popular vote by nearly 2.9 million votes to Democrat Hillary Clinton. That popular vote tally has fixated Trump, who worries that it has led to questions about the legitimacy of his victory, aides and associates say.

Speaking to congressional leaders Monday, Trump said, without any evidence, three to five million immigrants in the U.S. illegally voted in the election, denying him a popular vote majority.

If that claim were true, it would mark the most significant election fraud in U.S. history — and, ironically, would raise the same questions about Trump's legitimacy that he's trying to avoid. No details have been released about the possible probe.

'Absurd, even for him'

Trump's own attorneys dismissed claims of voter fraud in a legal filing responding to Green Party candidate Jill Stein's demand for a recount in Michigan, a state Trump won, late last year. Referring to that outcome, the attorneys wrote: "All available evidence suggests that the 2016 general election was not tainted by fraud or mistake."

Senator Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said any inquiry should instead be focused on Russian interference in the election, saying: "President Trump's call for an investigation into his latest conspiracy theory is absurd, even for him."