(WWJ) Protesters are descending on downtown Detroit for a big rally outside the TCF Center.
WWJ's Charlie Langton reports backers of President Donald Trump, unhappy with the election results in Michigan, are expected to come from all over the U.S. to join the protest -- including some armed "militia groups."
"We are gonna expose the truth!" a man was heard shouting on a megaphone to a crowd outside the conference center on Friday, where ballots were counted earlier in the week.
"Some say, from the Trump people, that the election was stolen," Langton reported. "That's kinda their theme. They wanted to get their message across. They believe that fraud exists in the country; especially in the counting of the ballots."
Langton said people in the crowd -- many of them dressed in Trump gear or waving Trump flags -- are loud, but he has seen no signs of violence.
There was at least a couple of hundred people on site by around 10 a.m., as they chanted, "Stop the steal!"
Signs read, "Count legal votes," "Stop the count," and "Biden got beat," to name a few.
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Victoria Lewis drove overnight from Syracuse, New York. Part of a national group called "Walk Away," she arrived early to find Detroit police on the scene.
"It's interesting," Lewis said. "I got here at 8 o'clock in the morning, because I made go time, and I'm like uh huh! They're starting to put up the barricades! So I parked about three blocks away and I just hoofed it."
Langton said it looked like police were gearing up to handle what might be quite a large protest, as it is expected to grow throughout the day.
Drivers on Friday were not able to access M-10 the Lodge southbound ramp from I-75 in both directions. Police have the exit ramps from I-75 blocked off. That means drivers cannot make right turn toward he TCF Center if you're coming off the Lodge.
To be clear, officials have thus far found no evidence of fraud in the counting of ballots in Detroit, or any widespread election fraud in general throughout the U.S.
A Michigan Court of Claims judge on Wednesday tossed out a lawsuit filed by the Trump campaign that sought to stop the count. The suit alleged that someone was told that someone else instructed a poll worker to change the date on at least one ballot, which Judge Cynthia Stephens called "hearsay." And Stephens said Trump's people failed to provide evidence that Republican poll watchers were not granted sufficient access to observe the counting process.
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In another legal setback for the Trump camp on Friday, Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Tim Kenney ruled there is no evidence to support assertions made by attorneys for the Election Integrity Fund, which claimed ballots were counted without oversight from election inspector.
After ballot counting was completed Wednesday evening, Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson said it was done properly. She dismissed unsupported rumors of an illegal late night ballot dump, and called the Trump campaign's lawsuit "frivolous."
"In Michigan, the process worked," Benson said, adding that she is confident the vote counting process was "secure" and "accurate. Anyone who says otherwise, Benson asserted, is "attacking our democracy, or unhappy with the results."
While Joe Biden was declared to have won Michigan -- taking the state's 16 electoral votes -- President Trump has not accepted that outcome.
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