A former Republican-appointed top federal prosecutor says that President Donald Trump s wild and unsubstantiated claims of mass voter fraud are a fantasy that make clear hes lashing out while in a state of despair over Vice President Joe Biden s impending victory.

As somebody who has been a registered Republican for virtually his entire adult life, I can tell you it smells of desperation, former U.S. Attorney David Iglesias told HuffPost. It appears to me hes grasping at straws, and straws will not resuscitate this.

Iglesias is a self-described former true believer in the idea that voter fraud is a problem in the United States. As the top federal prosecutor in New Mexico, he formed a task force to examine allegations of voter fraud but was then pushed out of the Justice Department in 2006 as part of a politically motivated effort targeting federal prosecutors who didnt bring the voter fraud cases the George W. Bush administration wanted to see.

Iglesias agrees with experts and others who have fruitlessly searched for widespread problems: There is no systemic voter fraud in the United States, he said.

Trump has long claimed voter fraud cost him a popular vote win in 2016. This year, as mail-in voting ballooned due to the COVID-19 pandemic, he began to insist the process was ripe for fraud. And now, as Trumps Democratic opponent Joe Biden nears a projected Electoral College victory, Trump and his allies are going to the courts and the public to claim that legitimate ballots should not be counted due to the potential for fraud.

Iglesias said it was important for Republicans to speak out as Trump who is on the verge of defeat in the Electoral College tries to undermine the election process.

Id like to see them stand up and be counted, and not buy into fantasy, Iglesias said. There is no voter fraud problem in this country. Time to move on.