2020 Election Lies Keep Unraveling as Courts Push for Evidence

More than three years after a swirl of conspiracy theories that the 2020 election was stolen culminated in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, the originators of many of the false allegations are now being forced to admit — some under oath — that there is no evidence to back up their outlandish claims.

On Wednesday, lawyers from the conservative group True the Vote admitted to a state judge in Georgia that they did not have evidence to back up their allegation about illegal “ballot trafficking” in the state during the 2020 election and the 2021 Senate runoffs.

And earlier this month, James O’Keefe, the former leader of Project Veritas, issued a statement after one of its sources recanted his story about fraud in Erie, Pa. “I am aware of no evidence or other allegation that election fraud occurred in the Erie Post Office during the 2020 Presidential Election,” Mr. O’Keefe said.

The admissions are familiar. The conspirators of many other false theories about the 2020 election, when forced to provide evidence that would hold up in court, similarly could not.

In the days immediately after the 2020 election, Rudolph W. Giuliani, then a lawyer for Mr. Trump, claimed that the election was “an absolute fraud.” Days later, under questioning by a Pennsylvania judge, he conceded, “This is not a fraud case.” Last year, Mr. Giuliani admitted that public comments he made saying that two Georgia election workers committed ballot fraud were false.

The falsehoods have come with consequences. Former President Donald J. Trump and 19 of his allies were indicted on multiple charges for their efforts to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia. Fox News agreed to pay $787.5 million to settle defamation claims over the network’s promotion of