President Donald Trump‘s legal team headed by Rudy Giuliani has filed a new legal brief in federal court in Pennsylvania – seeking to have 1.5 mail-in ballots taken out of the count.
The suit, the third amended version filed in federal court, asserts that ‘a substantial portion of the approximately 1.5 million absentee and mail votes’ in certain counties ‘should not have been counted’ and that the ‘vast majority of them’ favored Biden, ‘thus resulting in returns indicating Biden won Pennsylvania.’
The suit even proposes some remedies: Among them, that the court should enter an injunction ‘that the results of the 2020 presidential general election are defective and providing for the Pennsylvania General Assembly to choose Pennsylvania’s electors.’
Donald Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani is overseeing a federal suit in Pennsylvania where the Trump campaign is asking the court to declare the vote ‘defective’ provide for the state General Assembly to disregard the vote and choose Pennsylvania’s electors
It codified a plan first reported weeks before the election amid pre-election statements by President Trump predicting fraud: that the state legislature, controlled by Republicans, might seek to send its own slate of pro-Trump electors despite the popular vote.
Alternatively the suit suggestions the court should enter an order injunction that prohibits county election boards and the state from certifying the results of the election – which would also create a deadlock that the legislature could seek to solve.
The suit does not provide evidence of the massive fraud it suggests, but claims observers were not in a position to verify the counting of absentee ballots.
Yet another filing clarifies what the Trump campaign is seeking: ‘Ultimately, Plaintiffs will seek the remedy of Trump being declared the winner of the legal votes cast in Pennsylvania in the 2020 General Election, and, thus, the recipient of Pennsylvania’s electors,’ lawyers write in a motion for leave to file their second amended complaint.
The filings state information and belief that ‘a substantial portion of the approximately 1.5 million absentee and mail votes in Defendant Counties should not have been counted, and the vast majority favored Biden, thus resulting in returns indicating Biden won Pennsylvania.’
The amended complaint comes a day after Giuliani appeared in federal court on Trump’s behalf, in an appearance an array of publications termed ‘rusty.’
President Donald Trump is seeking to have a federal judge toss out 1.5 million votes in Pennsylvania and declare him the winner of the state he lost to President-elect Joe Biden by more than 80,000 votes
Lawyers amended it after dropping off portions of their complaint, then reinserting them.
It also updated the filing to blast a 5-2 ruling by the state Supreme Court against the Trump campaign’s suit on election observers.
The court ‘declared that meaningful observers are not part of verification and votes may be counted without any review by political campaigns and parties,’ in the terminology of the filing.
‘Incredibly the Pennsylvania Supreme Court1 ruled, in a five to two November 17, 2020 Opinion that the Commonwealth’s current definition of “observer” under the state election code is hereby re-defined as “present in the same building,’ according to the amended complaint.
It claims the Trump campaign ‘has been injured in a way that concretely impacted its rights under the Fourteenth Amendment Due Process Clause; the Fourteenth Amendment Equal Protection Clause; the Elections Clause of Article I, § 4; and the Electors Clause of Article II, § 1 of the Constitution of the United States.’
It is not at all clear how a court would declare an election operated by state and county officials invalid and trigger another branch of state government, the legislature, to intervene.
The move comes as President Trump repeated claims Wednesday that he ‘won’ the election, in an event he called ‘rigged’ without providing evidence of massive fraud. His campaign is also seeking a recount in two Democratic counties in Wisconsin, while suing in other states Joe Biden got more votes than Trump.
The suit claims Pennsylvania Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar and county election officials violated the Constitution and state election laws.
The filing was the campaign’s second amended complaint.
Another filing, in opposition to dismiss the first complaint, cites ‘confusion’ among Trump’s new legal team as the reason it left out key allegations.
‘Due to confusion caused by the withdrawal of Plaintiffs’ lead counsel on Friday, November 13, the Amended Complaint filed on November 15 inadvertently withdrew numerous allegations contained in the original Complaint regarding the preclusion of observers at the canvassing of mail votes and the subsequent improper counting of mail votes in the seven Defendant County Boards of Election,’ according to the separate new filing.
‘Moreover, with the appearance of new counsel, former Mayor Rudy Giuliani and the Scaringi Firm, and new factual developments, the Campaign intends to file a second amended complaint to make clear that there was intentional misconduct by the Defendant Boards of Election, which deliberately excluded Republican/Trump observers from the canvassing in order to facilitate counting mail ballots which did not comport with the signature, date, and other requirements of Pennsylvania law,’ according to the filing.
A footnote cites apparent threats against one of the campaign lawyers, who on Wednesday withdrew from the case.
‘As reported in the media, former counsel suffered threats of violence as well as economic reprisal for representing President Trump. Other counsel remaining in this case also received threats and is under the protection of U.S. Marshalls. Needless to say, this proved disruptive.
Another passage in Trump camp filings pleads a lack of ‘clear communication’ between lawyers.
‘Because of the lack of clear communication over the weekend of Case, certain counts were improperly withdrawn from the Amended Complaint. A reasonable period of time was needed for the newly constituted legal team to cohere, which occurred under great time pressure,’ it says.
The filings come as former White House acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney said he was a ‘little concerned’ with Giuliani, saying ‘this is not a television program.’
IN one bizarre proposal, plaintiffs seek to personal examine a ‘significant random sample’ of ballots to determine if they were illegal – and have the results be used for the judge to deduct an appropriate number of votes from Biden.
According to a footnote in the filing: ‘For example, if 10% of the 1.5 million mail ballots were improperly counted because they lacked signatures, dates, or inside security envelopes, 75% x 150,000 votes should be deducted from Biden, and 25% x 150,000 votes should be deducted from Trump, a margin of 75,000 votes for Biden which would be sufficient to overturn reported results.’
