The Department of Justice has more than 10,000 attorneys standing around looking for something legitimate to do now that the Trump Administration has shut down their liberal lawfare against conservatives. Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has cost-cutters in every federal agency except, apparently, the DOJ.
Some high-flying DOJ projects, including prosecuting candidate Trump and two of his loyal employees in Florida, have been properly canceled. This and other dismissals, including calling off the time-consuming DOJ prosecution of New York City Mayor Eric Adams, have left an army of DOJ attorneys with little to do.
So here’s an idea for something DOJ should investigate: the unexplained spike in 6.3 million votes that magically appeared out of nowhere to be counted for Joe Biden in 2020, which disappeared again in 2024.
Trump was credited 74.2 million votes in 2020, which increased to 77.3 million in 2024. That 4% vote growth reflects the overwhelming crowds and enormous enthusiasm he generated.
However, the Democrat nominee for president reportedly received 65.9 million votes in 2016, unexpectedly claimed 81.3 million in 2020 (an implausible 23% increase in four years), and yet only 75.0 million votes four years later in 2024. Trump has correctly pointed out that mail-in voting, which was its highest in 2020, is particularly vulnerable to election fraud.
“Anytime you have a mail-in ballot, there is going to be massive fraud,” Trump said to Dr. Phil McGraw during last year’s campaign. The Utah legislature recently enacted a bill to end the irresponsible practice of mailing a ballot to every registered voter, which large Democrat-controlled states exploit.
While the unexplained 2020 surge in Democrat votes may not by itself prove fraud, it is a big enough spike to be suspicious. 6.3 million unexplained votes exceed the total vote count for both sides in our largest city.
It is not as though the DOJ lacks the time or resources to investigate potential election fraud. Its overfunded $46 billion annual budget is being protected and replenished by Republicans’ Continuing Resolution this week.
Election integrity should be a priority in this spending. We need to invest merely one-tenth of 1% of DOJ’s annual budget in getting real answers about the bizarre spurt in Democratic votes in 2020.
Some attribute this sharp rise in Democrat ballots in 2020 to relaxed voting requirements due to COVID-19. However, only if that were combined with substantial fraud could a 6.3M surge for the Democrat side be attained, and that fraud needs to be uncovered and prosecuted.
Americans must be assured that 6.3 million unexplained votes won’t be counted for a future Democrat presidential candidate. Indeed, ensuring that such phantom votes do not magically reappear from nowhere in a future election should be first on the priority list of Trump's DOJ.
Yet here we are, nearly a half-year after the 2024 results have been counted and compared to the 2020 numbers, and no analysis explains this mystery. While the media insist that no specific evidence of fraud was proved in the 2020 election, Democrats blocked independent signature verification of mail-in ballots and instead are prosecuting citizens who challenged the reported results.
While campaigning in Pennsylvania last fall, Elon Musk was asked if he believed there was election fraud in 2020. He indicated yes by observing anomalies that remain unexplained.
An AI program could check for handwriting similarities on the flood of mail-in ballots included in the 2020 results, of which state officials refused to allow a transparent independent audit. It did not take long for Musk’s team to find Social Security recipients who are absurdly 160 years old, and just as quickly, Musk’s team could find fraudulent ballots counted for Dems in 2020.
Private citizens and Trump's presidential advisors in 2020 should not continue to face criminal trials by Democrat prosecutors while the DOJ looks the other way and does nothing about this.
Some say the overvotes mainly occurred in blue states like California and New York, which does not matter to the Electoral College outcome. But central to the goal of election integrity is to stamp out fraud everywhere, including fraud that falsely tilts the popular vote.
DOJ sits on its hands while Republicans continue to be prosecuted in Georgia, Arizona, Wisconsin, and Michigan for questioning the 2020 election. Only DOJ has the authority to supersede the Democrat prosecutors in those swing states to get the evidence that defendants need.
Even the weak Georgia Senate is stronger than the DOJ on this issue today. That body recently passed a bill allowing defendants to recover attorneys’ fees when wrongly prosecuted, as Republican objectors to Georgia’s 2020 election results have been, including Trump himself.
John and Andy Schlafly are sons of Phyllis Schlafly (1924-2016) and lead the continuing Phyllis Schlafly Eagles organizations with writing and policy work.