Trump criticizes Supreme Court and Barr as electoral challenges fail

FILE PHOTO: United States President Donald Trump and United States Attorney General William Barr attend the 38th National Peace Officers Memorial Service on Capitol Hill in Washington, United States, on April 15. May 2019. REUTERS / Carlos Barria / Archives

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump lashed out at the Supreme Court Saturday for refusing to take a case that he hoped would overturn President-elect Joe Biden’s election victory, calling Attorney General William Barr a “disappointment.”

The nation’s highest court on Friday night rejected an unprecedented lawsuit from Texas that sought to throw out the voting results of four states.

The decision comes before a meeting of the US Electoral College on Monday to formalize Biden’s victory.

Trump, a Republican, has refused to budge despite losing to Biden. The former Democratic vice president won 306 votes to Trump’s 232 in the state-by-state Electoral College, which allocates votes to all 50 states and the District of Columbia based on population.

“The Supreme Court had ZERO interest in the merits of the largest electoral fraud ever perpetrated in the United States of America,” Trump wrote on Twitter Saturday morning, calling the decision a “shameful judicial error.”

Trump has alleged widespread election fraud without evidence, while Biden has proceeded to plan his administration, appointing top advisers and choosing the cabinet despite the president’s efforts to undermine his legitimacy.

Trump had touted the Texas case as a potential game changer in his efforts to overturn the election result and openly asked the Supreme Court and state lawmakers to help him. More than 100 Republicans in Congress and 17 states signed the lawsuit.

But in a short order, the court said Texas had no legal capacity to present the case. All three Trump-nominated judges, Amy Coney Barrett, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, signed the order without comment.

The Trump campaign and its allies have filed dozens of lawsuits challenging the vote count in numerous states, but state and federal judges have rejected nearly all of them. Trump has shown little interest in giving up despite repeated court defeats, writing on Twitter Saturday: “WE JUST BEGAN FIGHTING !!!”

WISCONSIN SUIT PULLED

In Wisconsin alone on Saturday, Trump lost a federal lawsuit even as skeptical state Supreme Court justices questioned one of his attorneys in another case.

Trump-appointed US District Judge Brett Ludwig dismissed what he described as the president’s “extraordinary” effort to overturn the state’s results in his favor.

“The plaintiff asks that ‘the rule of law be followed,’” the judge wrote. “Has been.”

Meanwhile, a Trump campaign attorney, Jim Troupis, faced tough questions from members of the state’s superior court about a separate effort to invalidate the results in two Wisconsin counties, Dane and Milwaukee.

“This lawsuit, Mr. Troupis, smells of racism,” Judge Jill Karofsky said during the hearing, noting that both counties are highly urban, ethnically diverse and Democratic.

The president also lashed out at his attorney general on Twitter after the Wall Street Journal reported that Barr learned earlier this year about a tax investigation into Biden’s son Hunter.

In a statement released by the president-elect’s transition team, Hunter Biden said Wednesday that the US Attorney’s Office in Delaware was investigating his tax matters, which he said he had handled “legally and properly.”

Trump retweeted a comment from radio host Todd Starnes saying Barr should be fired. “A big disappointment!” Trump said in his tweet.

Barr’s fate in the last days of the Trump administration has been in question since he said last week that a Justice Department investigation had found no signs of major fraud in the November election, contradicting Trump’s false claims. .

Conservative groups that support Trump demonstrated in Washington and other parts of the country on Saturday to press the issue.

After spending the morning tweeting, Trump left for West Point, New York, to attend the Army-Navy soccer game, hovering over cheering protesters in the Marine One helicopter en route to Joint Base Andrews.

Biden was spending the day in Delaware, his home state, where he has been planning his transition. He attended church in the afternoon, wearing a protective boot on his foot that was recently broken while playing with one of his dogs.

In a Twitter post, the president-elect announced Saturday’s anniversary of the adoption of the Paris climate agreement. Trump withdrew the United States from the deal, but Biden has vowed to reverse that move.

“Today five years ago, the world came together to adopt the Paris Agreement on climate change. And in 39 days, America will come together again, ”Biden wrote on Twitter. “We are going to unite the world to drive our progress faster and faster and tackle the climate crisis head-on.”

Biden has identified recovering from the coronavirus pandemic, reviving the economy and fighting climate change as key priorities once he takes office.

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