United States President Donald Trump has pardoned supporters and former aides suspected of working to reverse the 2020 election result as he continues to insist that his loss to former President Joe Biden was due to widespread fraud.

The pardons, announced late on Sunday, include Trump’s former personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani and his ex-chief of staff Mark Meadows as well as dozens of illegitimate electors who were selected to help keep him in power.

Lawyers John Eastman and Kenneth Chesebro, whom Democrats accused of pressuring then-Vice President Mike Pence to refuse to certify the election result, were also pardoned.

The move is largely preemptive because the pardoned individuals are not facing federal charges or convictions. Some have been indicted at the state level in Arizona and Georgia, where Trump’s pardons do not apply.

Department of Justice official Ed Martin shared Trump’s proclamation announcing the pardons, suggesting that the “alternate electors and their affiliates” were targeted for political motives.

“There are many more Americans who Biden targeted. And we’re working to help them,” Martin wrote in a social media post.

The pardon document said Trump’s action does not apply to the president himself.

In the US system, the electors, or members of the Electoral College, cast ballots to confirm the winning candidate in each state.

As part of the unsuccessful push to overturn the 2020 vote, Trump’s allies arranged alternative lists of electors to back the Republican candidate.

Several states have filed charges relating to the “fake electors” scheme.

Trump himself was indicted over his efforts to overturn Biden’s win. The federal charges against him were dropped after he was elected president again last year.

The US president continues to face election charges in Georgia, where he was recorded telling state officials to “find 11,780 votes” to help him win the state.

But the case has been paused for months after the lead prosecutor was disqualified for having a romantic relationship with one of her former top aides, and it is not clear whether it will resume while Trump is in office.

Trump has denied any wrongdoing relating to his actions after the 2020 elections, describing the charges as a “witch-hunt”.

The president had claimed victory while the results were still being counted that year and falsely asserted early on that the election was “rigged”.

His push to overturn the vote ended after his supporters ransacked the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, to prevent the certification of Biden’s victory.

Trump pardoned participants in the January 6 riots upon his return to the White House on January 20.