Lindsey Graham and Mike Lee investigated Trump's election fraud claims -- and found they 'added up to nothing': New book

Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Mike Lee (R-UT) personally examined Donald Trump's claims of election fraud but found the evidence lacking.

A new book from Washington Post journalists Bob Woodward and Robert Costa reveals the two senators, both of whom ultimately voted to certify Joe Biden's election win, gave serious consideration to the fraud claims and even called state officials to discuss the results, but Graham privately dismissed Trump's arguments as more suitable for "third grade."

Graham agreed to meet Jan. 2 with Rudy Giuliani and his legal team to hear a theory that Biden's support in some states was mathematically suspect, but the South Carolina Republican wanted more specific evidence.

"Give me some names," Graham said. "You need to put it in writing. You need to show me the evidence."

Giuliani offered additional memos Jan. 4 claiming that Pennsylvania had processed 682,777 mail-in ballots without proper observation -- which a federal judge had already rejected two months earlier -- and showing hundreds of dead people had voted in Georgia, but Graham's top lawyer on the Judiciary Committee, Lee Holmes, was not impressed by the evidence.

Holmes determined that Giuliani's evidence most likely showed some voters had cast ballots and then died, and he was unconvinced by evidence suggesting some people had voted twice or cast fraudulent ballots.

Some records contradicted Giuliani's conclusions, and Holmes found the whole presentation lacking.

"Holmes found the sloppiness, the overbearing tone of certainty, and the inconsistencies disqualifying," the authors wrote, and the attorney found that Giuliani's claims "added up to nothing."