In the presidential debate on Tuesday night, Donald Trump inaccurately stated that all of his election lawsuits from 2020 failed solely due to “a technicality.”

This remark was made as ABC News moderator David Muir was fact-checking Trump’s false claims regarding the 2020 election, which he tried to contest.

“We need to clarify here — and you know this,” Muir began. “You and your team presented 60 cases before numerous judges, many of whom were Republicans, and determined there was no widespread fraud.”

Trump interrupted Muir as he concluded.

“No judge examined it,” Trump countered.

“They claimed we didn’t have standing,” he added, referring to a legal term that means the right to bring a lawsuit based on a personal stake in the matter.

“That’s another point,” he continued. “They stated we lacked standing. Just a technicality. Can you believe a system where the president of the United States doesn’t have standing in an election? That’s how we lost.”

However, Trump and his associates had multiple cases that were presented in court, including 30 that were heard based on their substance.

Out of all the cases, nearly all were dismissed. Judges ruled against them after hearings, and appellate judges also sided with Trump’s opponents. In one instance, a judge in Arizona dismissed the case directly during a hearing.

The reality of the situation

“Cases don’t dismiss themselves,” stated Justin Levitt, a law professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, during an interview with YSL News. “Judges are the ones who dismiss them.”

Not every lawsuit was dismissed, though.

In 2022, eight conservative legal scholars released a report titled “Lost, Not Stolen,” which analyzed the evidence from 64 separate cases in six key swing states — Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. Their findings indicated that Trump and his supporters did not present sufficient evidence of widespread election fraud.

Here’s how the cases concluded:

• Courts conducted hearings on the merits in 30 cases, and 29 were unsuccessful for Trump.
• Trump’s allies voluntarily dismissed 14 cases.
• 20 cases were dismissed by courts before any hearings took place.
• Trump won only one minor case in Pennsylvania.

According to the report, “These cases provided forums for Trump and his supporters to substantiate their claims.” It concluded that their efforts fell short due to a lack of evidence, not because of unfair legal rulings or biased judges.

The report further stated, “Judges, lawmakers, and electoral officials, including many from Trump’s own party, allowed ample opportunity for him to present his evidence. Audits and reviews post-election in each state also confirmed there were no irregularities or fraud that would change the outcomes of the election.”