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WASHINGTON (REUTERS) – US President Donald Trump suffered another setback in his desperate bid to overturn the US election when a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit brought by his campaign that sought to eliminate millions of votes by mail in Pennsylvania.
United States District Court Judge Matthew Brann last Saturday (November 21) ruled that the Trump campaign had failed to demonstrate widespread voter fraud in the November 3 election, which Trump lost to the Democrat Joe Biden.
“This Court has been presented with tense legal arguments without merit and speculative indictments,” wrote Judge Brann.
He added that “it does not have the authority to take away the right to vote from even a single person, much less millions of citizens.”
The lawsuit, led by Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, sought to prevent officials from certifying Biden’s victory in the state, arguing that some counties mistakenly allowed voters to correct errors on their mail-in ballots.
Giuliani, who made his first court appearance in 30 years for a hearing in the case on Tuesday, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Biden and Trump campaigns also did not immediately respond to inquiries.
Giuliani and other Trump attorneys raised a variety of conspiracy theories at a press conference last Thursday, as they alleged the election was marred by widespread election fraud.
But they have had little success in court.
Trump and his allies won two election-related cases and lost 34, according to Democratic election attorney Marc Elias.
Democrats said Saturday’s scathing verdict was further proof that those charges are false.
Giuliani has signaled in legal filings that he will file an appeal, but has little time to do so before the state formalizes Biden’s victory on Monday.
“When it comes to litigation, I think this is the end of the line for them,” said Mr. Benjamin Geffen of the Public Interest Law Center, who was also involved in the case.
Trump seeks to invalidate or change the election results through recount and direct pressure on lawmakers in various states. It would have to prevail in at least three states to prevent Biden from being sworn in as president on Jan.20, an unprecedented move.
In Michigan, Republicans wrote to state officials last Saturday asking them to wait 14 days to certify Biden’s victory and allow an audit of the ballots in Wayne County, which includes the black-majority city of Detroit.
The letter cited allegations of “wrongdoing” that have not been substantiated. Biden won 154,000 more votes than Trump in Michigan.
That effort faces great obstacles. A spokesman for Michigan’s highest electoral authority said state law does not allow audits before the vote is certified, which will take place on Monday. The widespread fraud allegations have been found to be unfounded, the spokesman said.
Two top Michigan Republican lawmakers who came to Washington at Trump’s urging said after meeting with him last Friday that they had no information that would change the outcome of the state’s elections.
In Wisconsin, an official said poorly trained Trump campaign watchers were slowing down a partial recount by challenging each ballot and raising other objections.
“The watchers are disruptive. They’re asking question after question, telling tabulators to stop, stop what they’re doing and that’s out of line, that’s not acceptable,” Milwaukee County Clerk told reporters, George Christianson.
A manual recount and audit in Georgia confirmed Biden last Friday as the winner in the southern state, the first Democratic presidential candidate to win Georgia in nearly three decades.
The Trump campaign has two business days to request a recount in Georgia. Trump’s legal team has also said it plans a lawsuit in the state, but has not provided details.
Trump’s accusations have continued to ignite his hard-core Republican base.
Hundreds of supporters rallied in the Atlanta House of Representatives last Saturday, with a video posted online showing speakers denouncing the media for calling Biden the winner of the election, as well as state Republican leaders. for certifying the results.
Policemen in riot gear were deployed to separate them from counter-protesters who gathered nearby.
The General Services Administration, led by a Trump appointee, has failed to acknowledge Biden’s victory, preventing his team from gaining access to government office space and funds normally provided to an incoming administration before the Inauguration Day on January 20.
Critics say Trump’s delay and refusal to concede have serious implications for national security and the fight against the coronavirus, which has killed nearly 255,000 Americans.
Biden, who has denounced Trump’s attempt to reverse the election results as “totally irresponsible,” spent Saturday meeting with transition advisers and attending church.
Trump participated in a virtual summit of the 20 largest economies in the world and then went golfing at his club in Sterling, Virginia.
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