Giuliani's raving press conference spread a conspiracy theory he's not even attempting to argue in court

In court, Rudy Giuliani is making a far-fetched argument in an attempt to overturn the 2020 election. But the case he made in a ranting, raving Thursday press conference was even more absurd.

Giuliani, the former New York City mayor turned lawyer for President Trump, is among the loudest voices alleging widespread voter fraud won the presidency for Joe Biden — something every top election official in the country has shot down. He repeated those claims in a very sweaty press conference Thursday, claiming there was "not a singular voter fraud in one state," but a "pattern" of it across the U.S.

Among other provably false claims, Giuliani alleged many American votes are actually being counted overseas, and that voting machines are rigged by companies allied with Venezuela's socialist leaders. Giuliani said he had "hundreds" of affidavits from witnesses making his case, but only waved one of them from his lectern far away from reporters, and said he couldn't actually show them the rest. Another Trump lawyer, Jenna Ellis, meanwhile told reporters that asking for evidence was a "fundamentally flawed" request, as Trump's legal team hadn't had a chance to prove its case in court yet.

Article continues below

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

But as Reuters' Brad Heath notes, Giuliani's claims of rigged voting machines and overseas vote counting don't even appear in the court cases the Trump campaign has levied. In fact, as Giuliani appeared in a Pennsylvania court on Tuesday to claim Trump's legal observers didn't get to watch enough of the vote count there, he admitted "this is not a fraud case."

Explore More

Kathryn is a graduate of Syracuse University, with degrees in magazine journalism and information technology, along with hours to earn another degree after working at SU's independent paper The Daily Orange. She's currently recovering from a horse addiction while living in New York City, and likes to share her extremely dry sense of humor on Twitter.