Trump makes savage claim on using FBI to secure Ron DeSantis victory in 2018

Donald Trump raised eyebrows on Thursday when he claimed he “sent the FBI and US prosecutors” to Florida in 2018 on behalf of then-gubernatorial candidate Ron DeSantis, supposedly securing his victory in a close race.

The former president did not provide evidence for the alarming allegation, which was embedded in his lengthy screed Truth Social against DeSantis, now a potential challenger in the 2024 presidential election.

Trump has yet to announce his intention to seek re-election. DeSantis also didn’t announce his presidential ambitions, but Trump still accused him of disloyalty for not appearing more respectful to Trump.

He likened his endorsement of DeSantis to “a nuclear weapon” and said he “fixed his campaign, which had completely crumbled.”

Then came the shock: “[A]After the race, when votes were stolen by the corrupt electoral process in Broward County, and Ron was losing ten thousand votes a day, with the current senator. Rick Scott, I dispatched the FBI and US prosecutors, and the theft of ballots ended immediately, just before they ran out of the votes needed to win.

Sarah Isgur, spokeswoman for the Justice Department at the time of the 2018 election, rejected Trump’s suggestion.

“It never happened”, she tweeted.

DeSantis narrowly defeated Democratic candidate for Florida governor Andrew Gillum in 2018. The margin between the two was about 32,000 votes out of 8.2 million votes, or about 0.4%.

The Washington Post pointed out that the timeline of events around this election does not appear to support Trump’s claim that he was responsible for all of DeSantis’ political success.

The Associated Press called the 2018 Florida gubernatorial election for DeSantis at 11:27 p.m. ET on the night of Election Day, November 6, 2018. The Republicans’ suggestion that Democrats were perpetuating voter fraud was first made at a press conference two days later, The Post reported. And Scott brought the accusation; his run was not called until later in the month.

The known extent of the FBI’s involvement in Florida’s 2018 gubernatorial race was tied to corruption allegations during Gillum’s time as mayor of Tallahassee.

The Republicans’ voter fraud charges were also investigated at the time. An audit of how elections were handled in Broward County – which faced numerous failures during midterms that year – found that none of the problems were serious enough to affect the results, the Miami Herald reported.

The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Although debatable, Trump’s claim has led to calls for an investigation into whether he abused his power.

Daniel Uhlfelder, a Democrat who unsuccessfully ran for the Florida attorney general’s office earlier this year, said he would file a complaint with the Florida Elections Integrity Office.

“This appears to be a case Florida Election Police should immediately investigate,” Uhlfelder tweeted.

As Rep. Ted Lieu (D-California) said:

“Donald Trump makes stuff up all the time. But what if Trump says in his post is true then @TheJusticeDept needs to investigate if the former president used federal agents to interfere in an election.