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Following Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s announcement that a ballot signature match audit found no evidence of electoral fraud absent in Cobb County, Georgia, Trump tweeted a conspiracy theory linking Raffensperger to the Chinese government.
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tweeted that Raffensperger has a brother who “works for China,” insinuating a nefarious, pro-China plot to make Trump lose the race in Georgia.
“Now it turns out Brad R’s brother works for China, and they sure don’t want ‘Trump’. So disgusting!” The president tweeted after attacking Republican Georgia Governor Brian Kemp.
The facts first: It’s wrong. A Raffensperger spokesperson told CNN that the secretary of state does not have siblings working for China, as Trump has alleged without merit.
“There are no parents who work for China or are affiliated with China,” said Georgian Deputy Secretary of State Jordan Fuchs.
While it is not clear exactly where Trump got the idea of Raffensperger’s brother working for China, it is possible that he is picking up on a false conspiracy theory spread by former political consultant Dick Morris, who did this allegation during an interview on Newsmax Tuesday night and on his personal website.
In the interview, Morris made several false or misleading accusations against Raffensberger, including that Raffensperger is linked to Ron Raffensperger, the chief technology officer of Chinese company Huawei Enterprise Storage Solutions. Fuchs said the secretary of state does not have a brother named Ron.
Georgia Public Broadcasting reported Wednesday “Public documents and recordings [show] that Raffensperger has four siblings, including a brother, but none of them named Ron, none of them work for Chinese tech companies. “
Morris also wrongly accused Raffensperger of opposing recounts and refusing to verify signatures. Georgia conducted a statewide audit, hand-counting about 5 million ballots, and Raffensperger oversaw an additional recount. And in addition to the state’s existing signature verification process that occurs twice in the case of mail-in requested postal votes, Raffensberger announced that his office will help conduct a statewide signature match audit. to further verify signatures on mail ballots.
In a statement, Newsmax told CNN:
Newsmax has never made any claims of impropriety by Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger or a member of his family. As of Tuesday evening, as he appeared on the network, commentator Dick Morris claimed he was reporting on Dickmorris.com an allegation that Raffensperger had a brother who worked in a Chinese company. This claim was apparently incorrect. During the segment, the Newsmax host was very skeptical of Mr. Morris’s claims and suggested that he ‘there was no evidence behind Mr. Morris’s claim, and specifically asked Mr. to provide proof of his claim. “
CNN attempted to contact Morris for comment, but has yet to receive a response.
CNN’s Jason Morris contributed to this article.
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