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US President Donald Trump lost a federal lawsuit as part of his continued attempts to overturn the election.
Trump-appointed District Judge Brett Ludwig dismissed Trump’s request that the court order the Republican-controlled legislature in Wisconsin to name him the winner and not his Democratic challenger Joe Biden.
The judge said Trump’s arguments “fail in fact and in law.”
The ruling came when Trump’s attorney, Jim Troupis, was faced with an avalanche of questions about his claims from liberal and conservative judges at the Wisconsin Supreme Court in another lawsuit.
Liberal judges had said the legal action “reeks of racism.”
Troupis had asked the court to reject more than 221,000 absentee ballots, including his own, saying they were fraudulently cast based on incorrect interpretations of the law by election officials.
“What you want is for us to revoke these elections so that your king can remain in power,” said liberal judge Jill Karofsky. “That is so un-American.”
Conservative judges appeared to be sympathetic to some issues raised by Trump, but also questioned how they could fairly disqualify ballots only in the two counties where Trump sought a recount and not in other counties where the same procedures were followed.
Biden’s attorney, John Devaney, said that rejecting any vote in just those two counties would be a violation of the equal protection clause in the US constitution.
Trump is contesting ballots only in Milwaukee and Dane counties, the most liberal counties in the state with the largest non-white populations.
He is not challenging any votes in the more conservative counties where he won.
“This lawsuit, Mr. Troupis, smells of racism,” Judge Karofsky said. “I don’t know how you can come forward in this court and possibly ask for a remedy that has not been heard in American history. It is not normal “.
Judge Rebecca Dallet, another liberal magistrate, questioned why Trump did not voice his same concerns about the absentee voting process in the 2016 election that he won in Wisconsin. Troupis said Trump was not one of the aggrieved parties that year.
Chief Justice Patience Roggensack, a conservative, expressed concern with the ballots the city of Madison collected over two weekends in the parks, saying it appeared to be the same as early voting, which had not yet begun.
President @realDonaldTrump flies over Freedom Plaza on Marine One, before heading north to West Point to #ArmyNavyGame.
THANK YOU PATRIOTS❤️🇺🇸🦅 pic.twitter.com/cczbTXBSN4
– Dan Scavino🇺🇸🦅 (@DanScavino) December 12, 2020
Conservative Judge Rebecca Bradley also hinted that the court should not allow ballots to be counted if they were cast against the law.
But he questioned how the court could justly disqualify more than 28,000 votes cast by people who said they were indefinitely confined, given that some were.
In March, the court said it was up to individual voters to determine whether they were “indefinitely confined,” a designation that allowed voters to cast absentee ballots without showing valid photo identification.
During arguments Saturday, other conservative judges expressed concern about allowing election officials to fill in missing information in envelopes containing absentee ballots. And Mr Troupis, who voted that way, said he believes his vote was cast illegally and should be discarded.
My first 100 days will not end with COVID-19, but we can slow the spread, save lives, and return to our lives with our loved ones. pic.twitter.com/nz2YkjhQZa
– Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) December 12, 2020
Biden won Wisconsin by about 20,600 votes, a 0.6% margin that withstood a recount requested by Trump in Milwaukee and Dane counties.
The president-elect’s attorney asked the court to rule before Monday, when Biden’s 10 Wisconsin Electoral College votes are scheduled to be cast.
Trump called for a ruling before January 6, the day the United States Congress counts electoral college votes.
The president and his allies have suffered dozens of defeats in Wisconsin and across the country in trials that are based on unsubstantiated allegations of widespread fraud and election abuse.
On Friday night, the United States Supreme Court rejected a Texas lawsuit that sought to invalidate Biden’s victory by casting millions of votes in four battling states, including Wisconsin.
Also Saturday, former Trump campaign attorney Sidney Powell asked the US Supreme Court to hear a federal case she lost in Wisconsin that sought to order the Republican-controlled legislature to declare Trump the winner. Powell has lost similar cases in Georgia and Arizona.
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