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On Tuesday, a judge appeared skeptical of President Donald Trump’s request to prevent officials from certifying the victory of President-elect Joe Biden in Pennsylvania on Tuesday, underscoring the difficulties Trump’s campaign has faced in challenging the US election result. .
Trump’s personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, told the judge that there was widespread electoral fraud nationwide, but offered no evidence in the long-term challenge to Trump’s electoral defeat.
During the hearing, US District Judge Matthew Brann said stopping certification would effectively disenfranchise all voters in the state.
“At its core, you are asking this court to invalidate 6.8 million votes, thereby depriving all Commonwealth voters,” Brann said. “Can you tell me how this result can be justified?”
Reuters reported that Giuliani said there was “widespread election fraud nationwide” in the Nov. 3 election, as Trump has also claimed, but offered no evidence.
Pennsylvania attorneys rejected Giuliani’s fraud allegations and asked Brann to dismiss Trump’s lawsuit.
A loss in the case would likely doom Trump’s already remote prospects of altering the election outcome.
As the hearing unfolded, Pennsylvania’s highest state court ruled against the Trump campaign in a separate lawsuit that could hamper his case before Brann.
Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, personal attorney to the President of the United States, Donald Trump, speaking in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania [Eduardo Munoz/Reuters]
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that the electoral board of Philadelphia, the largest city in the state, acted reasonably to keep observers of the Trump campaign behind barricades and 15 feet (4.5 meters) from counting tables, rejecting an appeal from the Trump campaign.
Daniel Donovan, a lawyer for Pennsylvania’s top election official, said Trump’s campaign does not allege wrongdoing that would change the outcome in the state. Donovan called the state’s handling of elections during a pandemic a success. Donovan argued that the Trump campaign was asking a federal court to “micromanage” routine differences in county practices.
Giuliani said there was a history of voter fraud in large U.S. cities, adding, without offering evidence, that the expansion of voting by mail in 2020 allowed officials to take advantage of a public health crisis, the coronavirus pandemic. .
Donovan said the alleged injuries from the Trump campaign are “speculative” and “cannot give them a place in federal court.”
The Trump campaign on Sunday narrowed the case to focus on a claim that voters in the state were improperly allowed to fix ballots that had been rejected due to technical errors such as missing a “secret envelope.”
Pennsylvania officials have said a small number of ballots were fixed, but the Trump campaign said Democratic-leaning counties illegally identified mail-in ballots before Election Day that had defects so voters could fix or “cure them. “.
Pennsylvania officials said all counties in the state were allowed to tell residents if their mail-in ballots were deficient, even if they weren’t required to do so.
US President Donald Trump speaks during an event in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, DC, USA. [Carlos Barria/Reuters]
Pennsylvania Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar will certify the election results next Monday, which means Brann is expected to rule quickly.
Brann scheduled the hearing to discuss the campaign’s request for a temporary restraining order, as well as the defendants’ request that the case be dismissed.
The Associated Press has declared Biden the winner of the presidential race, but Trump has refused to budge and is blocking Biden’s efforts toward a smoother transition of power, citing “widespread fraud” in the elections.
There is no evidence of election fraud. The Trump campaign has launched a series of legal challenges alleging fraud, and many have been dismissed by the judges within hours of their presentation. None of the complaints showed evidence that the election result was affected.
With Georgia as the only unnamed state, Biden has garnered at least 290 electoral votes, enough that overturning Pennsylvania’s result does not open the way for a second term for Trump.
Biden’s margin in the state is now nearly 70,000 votes.
People gathered as they celebrate as the media announces that US Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden won the 2020 US presidential election, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. [Rachel Wisniewski/Reuters]
In a court filing last week, a group represented by the ACLU of Pennsylvania argued that giving the Trump campaign what it seeks would create its own constitutional problems.
“That would mean not only that Pennsylvania will not participate in the Electoral College, but Pennsylvania would not send Representatives to the United States House in January and, as of December 1, the Commonwealth would only have 25 state senators and zero state representatives.” . they told Brann.
Brann indicated that he will not comment immediately on the case, requesting written submissions from the parties that expire in the next few days.
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