Former gubernatorial candidate Loren Culp drops election lawsuit

Former gubernatorial candidate Loren Culp announced that his campaign’s lawsuit against Secretary of State Kim Wyman alleging voter fraud is being dropped, “under a threat from the attorney general.”

“Not just from a threat from the attorney general, Dori,” Culp said on The Dori Monson Show. “We had several people that were lined up, people that were in the United States from foreign countries, they were ready, according to them, signed affidavits that they got ballots even though they’re not residents of the United States.”

“At the last minute, they were backing out,” Culp added. “My attorney was still working with them, negotiating, trying to get them to overcome their fears of being deported once they were outed. But that wasn’t successful.”

Culp says his attorney, Dr. Stephen Pidgeon, told him that with the witnesses not being willing to come forward, this lawsuit could drag on for years.

His attorney, in a pre-recorded video, said the battle is being brought instead to “the court of public opinion.”

The campaign made the official announcement in a “Lunch with Loren” video posted to YouTube on Friday afternoon.

“I had a long conversation with Dr. Pidgeon last night and he strongly urged, as he said in that video, that we drop this lawsuit,” Culp said in the video. “He said that the Attorney General’s Office would probably string this out years, costing us millions of dollars. I’m not willing to ask you for that money just to end up having a judge throw it out for standing and then having the state, through that judge, require us to pay back to the state the costs incurred. And I guarantee you they would.”

The “Culp for Governor” campaign filed a lawsuit in King County Superior Court against the Washington Secretary of State asking for injunctive relief and demand for an audit of paper ballots, vote counting machines, and voting results in King, Clark, Thurston, Pierce, Kitsap, and Skagit counties.

In the weeks following the November election, Culp has been insistent about his refusal to concede to incumbent Governor Jay Inslee, adding that his campaign would take legal action over allegations of voter fraud.

Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson tweeted about the announcement Friday, referring to Culp’s lawsuit as “baseless.”

Like President Trump, Culp used a baseless lawsuit to undermine confidence in our elections. This past week shows how dangerous these false and irresponsible attacks on our democracy can be. After we threatened sanctions,
Culp backed down and withdrew his lawsuit. https://t.co/Xl6rP3IcCl

— Bob Ferguson (@BobFergusonAG) January 15, 2021