The established record
By January 6, the National Archives held the states' certified electoral votes. It also kept the claimed Trump certificates on file, marked “unofficial.”12 Pence said the Constitution did not let him decide on his own which votes counted.3 The January 6 report shows that Trump and Eastman pushed him to reject certified electors or delay the count anyway.4
Questioning an election was legal
Candidates had every right to ask for recounts. They could show evidence. They could ask courts to enforce election law. Members of Congress also had a legal way to object. The key question comes next. What happened after none of that gave a lawful reason to change enough votes?
A group of Republican and conservative lawyers did a public review. They counted 64 court cases about the presidential result or how the election was run. These were in six battleground states. Their list includes some cases filed before Election Day. It also groups related appeals together, by a method they explain. The report says 30 cases got a hearing on the facts. 29 of those were lost. One case was won. It was about 270 provisional ballots in Pennsylvania, in a state-senate race. That is far too few to change the presidency. Twenty cases ended on technical grounds. Plaintiffs dropped 14 on their own.5 The report also describes two other Pennsylvania orders about provisional ballots. One set aside Election-Day provisional ballots until their validity was decided. One set aside ballots tied to a disputed voter-ID deadline. Our ledger lists those rulings. It still follows the report's count of one winning case. None of them proved fraud in the presidential race. None changed the result.8
Not “63 judicial losses”
The report's short count is 49 losses, 14 dropped cases, and one win that did not affect the presidency. A dropped case is not a court ruling. A case tossed on technical grounds is not a hearing on the facts. Neither one shows the claim was true.
Who appointed the judges?
The January 6 report says more than 60 state and federal cases were heard. At least 86 judges heard them. That includes 22 federal judges named by Republican presidents.6 Our own list looks at the 64-case review. It finds nine judges named by Trump. Eight of them ruled against the election claims. One only closed a case that was dropped. This list does not count every federal judge.7
Some judges ruled on the facts. Others ruled on things like standing, timing, or which court had power. No federal judge from either party gave the Trump side a win in this ledger. The one win came from a Pennsylvania state court. It was about 270 provisional ballots in a state-senate race.57 Who named a judge does not prove the judge was fair or unfair. But Republican-named judges used the same rules and still ruled against these cases. That defeats the simple claim that only Democratic judges blocked them.
Official and unofficial were not two equal slates
NARA posts the states' 2020 certificates and results. That is the official Electoral College record.1 It also posts papers sent by Trump supporters from seven states. Those are marked “unofficial certificates.”2 Keeping a document on file does not make it official.
The committee report says no court had overturned the certified results. No state legislature had picked the Trump groups. It also says some people did not know exactly what they were asked to do.4 That matters. The papers were not valid. But that does not prove every signer knew the plan or meant to break the law.
The power fails the simplest test
Pence was not a neutral referee. He was on the losing ticket, running for Vice President. Say a Vice President could reject certified votes. Say he could pause the count until allies got the result they wanted. Then Kamala Harris could have claimed that same power in 2025. And every future Vice President could try to pick the winner.
Pence's January 6 letter reached the same limit. He wrote that giving the Vice President that one-person power would be “antithetical” to the system's design. He still left House members and senators free to object under the law.3
The demand did not depend on winning a case
The committee report describes Eastman's two plans. One: reject certified electors outright. Two: delay the joint session and send votes back to state legislatures. The report says Eastman admitted in the Oval Office that both plans broke the Electoral Count Act. He later agreed there was no past case to support them. He also agreed the Supreme Court would not back a one-person rejection.4
That is the point. Asking more questions was legal. But this was different. Trump asked one candidate on the ticket to take power to block or throw out the certified votes. That was not ordinary election review.
Certified Biden electors existed. Unofficial Trump certificates were sent in. No legislature backed those Trump groups. Pence turned down one-person power. Trump and Eastman pushed him to reject or delay the certified votes.
Not established by this pageThat every election lawsuit got a hearing on the facts. That every unofficial elector knew the full plan. That every claim was made in bad faith. Or that signing a certificate alone proves a crime.
Records and analyses 001 to 008
The record before the rhetoric
Claim map
What each record carries
- Receipt 001
- The official electoral result and certificates from the states.
- Receipt 002
- The unofficial Trump papers NARA received. Getting them does not make them legal.
- Receipt 003
- Pence's public explanation of his role at the time.
- Receipt 004
- The committee's evidence on the elector plan, what different people knew, and the pressure on Pence.
- Analysis 005
- The 64-case review, its method, how cases ended, the one winning case, two other Pennsylvania provisional orders, and state add-ons.
- Receipt 006
- The committee's wider count of judges named by Republican presidents.
- Analysis 007
- A source-linked partial list of federal judges, their roles, who named them, and clear limits on what it covers.
- Analysis 008
- The report's published tally, and how it tells two provisional orders apart from the one winning case.
- Not established
- The same intent for every signer, guilt from the certificates alone, or which party named every state judge.
Last updated: August 23, 2026.