A Democracy Drive Thread
A claim that courts, recounts, and audits rejected — repeated for years, then turned into the machinery of government.
The assertion that the 2020 election was stolen has been examined and dismissed by dozens of courts, Republican election officials, and audits. This thread does not re-argue it. It records, in order, what was said and done after the loss — from the phone calls of late 2020 to the federal investigations, pardons, and personnel of 2025 and 2026 — and lets the chronology speak. Each entry links to a source so you can verify it yourself.
December 7, 2020
A leaked recording from December 7, 2020, reveals Donald Trump attempting to persuade Georgia House Speaker David Ralston to call a special session to nullify his loss in the state by claiming the election was fraudulent. During the call, Trump cited false conspiracies and fabricated numbers to justify the session, asking Ralston, "Who's gonna stop you for that?"
“Who's gonna stop you for that?”
January 2, 2021
In a recorded phone call, President Donald Trump told Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to "find" 11,780 votes to overturn Joe Biden's victory in the state, while threatening the official with legal consequences.
“find 11,780 votes”
February 13, 2025
During a joint appearance with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, President Donald Trump stated that the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) "could have had a role" in election interference during the 2020 U.S. election, claiming that "bad things happened in 2020."
“bad things happened in 2020”
May 5, 2025
President Donald Trump used a Truth Social post to direct the Department of Justice to take all necessary action to secure the release of Tina Peters, a former Colorado county clerk who was convicted of felony charges related to a voting system data breach. Peters was sentenced to nine years in prison in October 2024 after attempting to find evidence of voter fraud based on 2020 election conspiracy theories.
May 19, 2025
During a dinner at the White House with the Kennedy Center Board, President Donald Trump stated that he decided to run for president again because the 2020 election was rigged, saying, "I'll run again, and I'll shove it up their a**," and claimed that if the election had not been cheated, he would have been retired.
“I'll run again, and I'll shove it up their a**”
June 20, 2025
President Donald Trump called for the appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate the 2020 election, claiming the contest was marred by widespread fraud despite previous court rulings and government findings that no such fraud existed.
August 15, 2025
Newsmax agreed to pay $67 million to settle a defamation lawsuit brought by Dominion Voting Systems, which alleged the network aired false claims that the company's voting technology was manipulated to rig the 2020 election. The settlement was disclosed in an SEC filing dated August 15, 2025, and will be paid in three installments.
August 18, 2025
President Donald Trump announced on Monday, August 18, 2025, that he plans to lead a movement to eliminate mail-in ballots and voting machines in the United States. He stated that he intends to sign an executive order to bar states from using these methods, claiming without evidence that voting machines are inaccurate and that mail-in ballots are corrupt. He further claimed that states are merely agents of the federal government and that must follow presidential directives on election conduct.
August 21, 2025
President Donald Trump used social media to demand the release of Tina Peters, a former Colorado county clerk who was sentenced to nine years in prison for tampering with election machines and allowing unauthorized access to voting systems. Trump threatened 'very harsh measures' if she is not released, while repeating baseless claims that the 2020 election was rigged.
August 26, 2025
Heather Honey, a conservative election researcher known for promoting false claims about the 2020 election in Pennsylvania and Arizona, was appointed to a senior role in the Department of Homeland Security's Office of Strategy, Policy and Plans. The position, which did not exist under the previous administration, focuses on election integrity.
September 9, 2025
District Court Judge Kristen D. Simmons dismissed criminal charges of forgery and conspiracy to commit election forgery against 15 Republicans who attempted to falsely certify Donald Trump as the winner of the 2020 election in Michigan.
September 16, 2025
The Department of Justice filed two separate complaints in Maine and Oregon on September 16, 2025, seeking to compel the states to provide unredacted electronic copies of their statewide voter registration lists and information on voter list maintenance procedures. The DOJ argued that this was necessary to prevent fraudulent votes and ensure the integrity of the electoral process, while state officials in Maine and Oregon described the move as an attempt to intimidate state election officials and undermine elections.
November 9, 2025
President Donald Trump issued a full and unconditional pardon for several allies, including Rudy Giuliani, Mark Meadows, Sidney Powell, John Eastman, and Jeffrey Clark, as well as Republicans who acted as fake electors. The pardons apply to federal crimes, although none of the people named were charged with federal crimes related to the 2020 election.
November 21, 2025
Federal investigators, including the US attorney for the district of Puerto Rico and a federal taskforce in Tampa, have been interviewing individuals promoting the theory that Venezuela helped rig the 2020 US election. These claims have been previously debunked by courts and have resulted in significant defamation own lawsuits against media outlets.
November 26, 2025
A Georgia prosecutor, Peter Skandalakis, moved to drop the racketeering (RICO) case against President Donald Trump and 18 co-defendants for their alleged attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election results in Georgia. A judge approved the motion to dismiss the case on Wednesday, November 26, 2025, citing the complexity of legal issues and the impracticality of bringing the case to trial before 2029.
December 9, 2025
President Donald Trump sought to pardon Tina Peters, a former Mesa County clerk convicted of state crimes related to an election fraud scheme in Colorado. Despite Trump's efforts and pressure on the state to release her, a Colorado appeals court ruled that the presidential pardon power does not extend to state offenses, rejecting the attempt to use a federal pardon to overturn a state conviction.
December 14, 2025
During a White House Christmas reception, President Donald Trump stated that his administration has "truckloads" of evidence that Democrats rigged the 2020 election and that this evidence will be revealed soon.
“truckloads of evidence ... will be revealed soon”
January 28, 2026
The FBI served a search warrant at the Fulton County elections office in Georgia on January 28, 2026, seizing 2020 election materials including ballots and signature envelopes. The seizure occurred 23 days after a criminal probe was launched based on a referral from a White House official, Kurt Olsen, who is described as a 2020 election denier.
Attorney General Pam Bondi granted US Attorney Thomas Albus of the Eastern District of Missouri a special appointment under 28 U.S. Code § 515, allowing him to conduct voter fraud probes and coordinate civil and criminal cases across all 94 US attorney districts. Albus also oversaw the FBI search warrant executed on the Fulton County election office in Georgia to seize 2020 election records.
March 10, 2026
The Department of Justice restored the federal gun rights of 22 individuals, including Arizona state senator Jake Hoffman, who was indicted in 2024 for his role in a fake elector scheme to overturn the 2020 election. The restoration is part of a broader effort to revive a program that had been dormant since 1992, bypassing a congressional budget rider that prohibited the ATF from using funds for such reviews.
March 14, 2026
David Harvilicz, the Department of Homeland Security's assistant secretary for cyber, infrastructure, risk and resilience policy, has called for the federal government to ban voting machines in all federal elections, claiming they are vulnerable to exploitation. Harvilicz is a co-founder of a company with James Penrose, who was involved in attempts to seize voting machines following the 2020 election.
March 23, 2026
On March 23, 2026, Steve Bannon stated on his 'War Room' podcast that President Donald Trump's deployment of ICE agents to major U.S. airports to assist the TSA should be viewed as a 'test run' or 'test case' for deploying ICE agents to polling places during the 2026 midterm elections to prevent noncitizens from voting.
March 25, 2026
President Donald Trump signed an executive order directing the U.S. Postal Service to refuse to deliver mail-in or absentee ballots to any voter not included on a federal list of verified U.S. citizens. The order also requires the Department of Homeland Security and the Social Security Administration to assemble this list and empowers the Attorney General to investigate states and localities that provide ballots to ineligible voters.
April 2, 2026
A Colorado appeals court ruled that former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters, who was convicted of several felonies and misdemeanors for allowing unauthorized access to voting equipment in 2021, must be resentenced. The court found that the trial judge's comments regarding Peters' beliefs about the 2020 election were improper and tainted the sentence of nine years in prison.
April 19, 2026
FBI Director Kash Patel stated in a Fox News interview on April 19, 2026, that the FBI has gathered information supporting claims that the 2020 election was rigged and that arrests related to alleged election fraud are coming soon.
May 15, 2026
Colorado Governor Jared Polis commuted the prison sentence of former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters, reducing her sentence from eight and a half years to approximately four and a half years. Peters had been convicted of four felonies and three misdemeanors related to a 2021 breach of voting systems in Mesa County, where she allowed unauthorized individuals to access sensitive election equipment and data.
This thread is assembled from records in The Zone, the site’s full searchable archive. Spot an error or a missing entry? Each record links to its source for verification.