A North Carolina money manager is suing a $ 2.5 million lawsuit against a pro-Trump group after the group failed to present evidence of voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election or provide information about its efforts.
Fred Eshelman donated the money to Houston-based True Vote Inc., which has promised to “investigate, prosecute and expose suspicions of illegal voting and fraud in the 2020 general election,” Bloomberg writes.
Eshelman, the founder of Eshelman Ventures LLC, now wants his money back because True the Vote has not provided information on their progress and believes they can’t achieve what they claimed.
True the Vote filed four lawsuits after the November 3 election, but later dismissed all of them.
“While standing by the testimony of the electorate, obstacles to advancing our arguments, coupled with time constraints, have made it necessary for us to follow a different path,” the group announced on its website on November 17th.
Their attempt to challenge the election results was called Validation of Voting and they had to sue in seven litigating states. They also planned to gather evidence, lobby Republican legislatures, and “use sophisticated data modeling and statistical analysis to identify possible illegal or fraudulent voting.”
Eshelman spent $ 2 million on the group on November 5 and then sent them an additional $ 500,000 the following week, but True the Vote did not give him up-to-date information about their activities. He claims to have asked for information on a regular basis, but “they have come across vague answers, commonplaces and empty promises.”
As the deadline for verifying the votes approached, Eshelman reportedly realized that the group could not achieve what was claimed, so he asked for his donation back.
It is true that the Vote offered him one million dollars if he agreed not to sue, according to his complaint. His lawsuit against them has now been filed in the Southern District District Court of Texas.
At this early stage, it is unclear whether Eshelman’s case will succeed, but the veteran businessman appears to have the necessary funds to file his complaint. In 2014, he donated $ 100 million to the University of North Carolina School of Pharmacy-Chapel Hill, where he was a student.
Several conservative groups have raised fundraising in the presidential election based on unfounded allegations of voter fraud, including President Donald Trump’s campaign.
Despite the ongoing and largely unsuccessful litigation efforts of the Trump campaign, there is no evidence of widespread voter fraud or irregularities in the 2020 elections.
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