--- title: Gregg Phillips: What We Know About Man Who Cried Voter Fraud description: Here's what we know about Gregg Phillips, the man who claimed 3 million people voted illegally in the 2016 election. canonical: https://time.com/4651634/gregg-phillips-voter-fraud-donald-trump/ author: Melissa Chan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-01-27T16:54:38.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-31T10:39:36.382Z article:section: Politics og:title: Meet the Man Who May Have Convinced Trump Voter Fraud Exists og:description: He said he won't release evidence to support his claim for "another few months." og:url: https://time.com/4651634/gregg-phillips-voter-fraud-donald-trump/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8b946dbdc4bf35d4/6988b78a97cdff081f6af46d/greg-phillips-trump-votes.jpg?branch=production&width=1120&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1120 og:image:height: 630 og:image:alt: greg-phillips-trump-votes og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Meet the Man Who May Have Convinced Trump Voter Fraud Exists twitter:description: He said he won't release evidence to support his claim for "another few months." twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8b946dbdc4bf35d4/6988b78a97cdff081f6af46d/greg-phillips-trump-votes.jpg?branch=production&width=1120&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Meet the Man Who May Have Convinced President Trump Voter Fraud Exists > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Melissa Chan](https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/)  ## Melissa Chan Jan 27, 2017 4:54 PM UTC  CNN  by [Melissa Chan](https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/)  ## Melissa Chan Jan 27, 2017 4:54 PM UTC President Trump has repeatedly claimed, without proof, that millions of people voted illegally in the 2016 election. Now he’s identified one potential source for the claim, and he has no proof either. On Friday morning, Trump [tweeted](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/824968416486387713) a note of encouragement Friday to Gregg Phillips, a Texas man who has repeatedly [claimed](https://twitter.com/JumpVote/status/797843232436748288) that he and a team of people have “verified” that 3 million votes were cast by “non-citizens.” > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/824968416486387713) Phillips has yet to offer any concrete evidence to support his accusation, which has been [debunked by multiple independent experts](http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2017/jan/25/sean-spicer/sean-spicer-wrongly-uses-pew-study-bolster-claim-n/) and [election officials from both parties](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2017/01/24/state-election-officials-we-dont-know-of-any-evidence-backing-trumps-voter-fraud-claims/?utm%5Fterm=.2278f3f8151a). Still, Trump, who [lost the popular vote by nearly 3 million votes](http://time.com/4608555/hillary-clinton-popular-vote-final/), has continued to make the claim and [asked aides to prepare an executive order](http://time.com/4649348/donald-trump-voter-fraud-executive-action/) to launch a voter fraud probe. Here’s what we know. **There’s little evidence that voter fraud is a serious problem.** The Washington _Post_ found only [four documented cases](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/12/01/0-000002-percent-of-all-the-ballots-cast-in-the-2016-election-were-fraudulent/?utm%5Fterm=.633a848ab336) of voter fraud in the 2016 elections. The [primary author of one study cited by the White House](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2017/01/24/recidivism-watch-spicer-uses-repeatedly-debunked-citations-for-trumps-voter-fraud-claims/?utm%5Fterm=.6c16f341c951) said it did not show any evidence of voter fraud. And Trump’s own attorneys [argued in a legal filing](http://time.com/4648581/donald-trump-election-investigation/) about a recount effort that there was no evidence of voter fraud. **Phillips works on voter fraud.** He used to serve as Texas Deputy Health and Human Services Commissioner and [once headed](http://www.nytimes.com/1994/06/26/us/governor-and-legislature-spar-over-mississippi-welfare-agency.html) Mississippi’s Human Services Department, according to the Jackson [_Clarion-Ledger_](http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2017/01/26/voter-fraud-probe-traced-back-ex-miss-welfare-head/97117384/). Phillips is now behind a mobile app called [VoteStand](http://www.votestand.com/), which allows Americans to report and read about suspected incidents of voter fraud at nearby and national polls. He is also a board member of True the Vote, a nonpartisan group that [grew out of a Tea Party effort in Texas](http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/17/us/politics/groups-like-true-the-vote-are-looking-very-closely-for-voter-fraud.html), according to the New York _Times_. **He won’t release evidence anytime soon.** Phillips told CNN’s [_New Day_](https://www.facebook.com/NewDay/videos/1222146467850534/) on Friday morning that he won’t release any information about his claim about widespread voter fraud but claimed the number of illegal votes is larger than 3 million. “We believe that it will probably take another few months to get this done,” Phillips said. “We know we have the answer. The number’s actually bigger.” He did not disclose how he reached the massive number but hinted that early voting returns partially played a role. “We’re doing it as fast as we can,” Phillips said. “You can reach a conclusion and still verify.” About 30 minutes after the interview, Trump tweeted that he is looking “forward to seeing final results of VoteStand.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4651634/gregg-phillips-voter-fraud-donald-trump/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4651634/gregg-phillips-voter-fraud-donald-trump/"},"headline":"Meet the Man Who May Have Convinced President Trump Voter Fraud Exists","datePublished":"2017-01-27T16:54:38.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-31T10:39:36.382Z","description":"He said he won't release evidence to support his claim for \"another few months\"","url":"https://time.com/4651634/gregg-phillips-voter-fraud-donald-trump/","keywords":["Donald Trump","White House","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8b946dbdc4bf35d4/6988b78a97cdff081f6af46d/greg-phillips-trump-votes.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Melissa Chan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8b946dbdc4bf35d4/6988b78a97cdff081f6af46d/greg-phillips-trump-votes.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"greg-phillips-trump-votes","caption":"","creditText":"CNN","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/donald-trump/","name":"Donald Trump"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4651634/gregg-phillips-voter-fraud-donald-trump/","name":"Meet the Man Who May Have Convinced President Trump Voter Fraud Exists"}}]}] ```