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U.S. NEWS Dialuna 23 november 2020

Trump's legal team cried vote fraud, but courts found none

(AP) — As they franti-
cally searched for ways to
salvage President Donald
Trump's failed reelection
bid, his campaign pursued
a dizzying game of legal
hopscotch across six states
that centered on the big-
gest prize of all: Pennsyl-
vania.

The strategy may have played
well in front of television
cameras and on talk radio to
Trump's supporters. But it
has proved a disaster in court,
where judges uniformly re-
jected their claims of vote
fraud and found the cam-
paign's legal work amateur-
ish. In a scathing ruling late
Saturday, U.S. District Judge
Matthew Brann — a Repub-
lican and Federalist Society
member in central Pennsyl-
vania — compared the cam-
paign's legal arguments to
“Frankenstein's Monster,”
concluding that Trump's
team offered only “specula-
tive accusations," not proof
of rampant corruption.

Now, as the legal doors close
on Trump's attempts to have as being run by a “decrepit observe the vote count. They way (news conference). ...
courts do what voters would Democratic machine.” said Democratic counties un- “There’s a nonzero number When you go to court, you
not do on Election Day and fairly let voters fix mistakes of people in the room,” law- can't,” said lawyer Mark
deliver him a second term, “Those mail-in ballots could on their ballot envelopes. Ev- yer Jerome Marcus replied. Aronchick, who represented
his efforts in Pennsylvania have been written the day be- erywhere they turned, they The count continued in Phil- election officials in Phila-
show how far he is willing fore, by the Democratic Party said, they sniffed fraud. adelphia. The Trump loss- delphia, Pittsburgh and else-
to push baseless theories of hacks that were all over the es kept coming. By Friday, where in several of the Penn-
widespread voter fraud. convention center,” Giuliani “I felt insidious fraud going Nov. 6, when a state appeals sylvania suits. “I don’t really
said. He promised to file a on,” Philadelphia poll watch- court rejected a Republican pay attention to the chatter
It was led by Rudy Giuliani, new round of lawsuits. He er Lisette Tarragano said complaint over provisional until I see a legal brief.”
Trump's personal lawyer, rambled. when Giuliani called her to ballots and a Philadelphia
who descended on the state the microphone at the land- judge refused to throw out Brann, in his ruling, said he
the Saturday after the Nov. 3 “This is a very, very strong scaping company. 8,300 mail-in ballots they expected the campaign to
election as the count dragged case,” he asserted. In fact, a Republican runs challenged, Biden was up by present formidable evidence
on and the president played Justin Levitt, a Loyola Law the city's election board, and about 27,000 votes. of rampant corruption as it
golf. Summoning reporters School professor who spe- has said his office got death sought to nullify millions of
to a scruffy, far-flung corner cializes in election law, called threats as Trump’s rants Nationally, the race had not votes. Instead, he said, the
of Philadelphia on Nov. 7, he the Trump lawsuits danger- about the election intensi- yet been called. But it was campaign presented “strained
held forth at a site that would ous. “It is a sideshow, but it’s fied. No judges ever found becoming clear that a Biden legal arguments without
soon become legendary: Four a harmful sideshow," Levitt any evidence of election win in Pennsylvania, with its merit and speculative accusa-
Seasons Total Landscaping. said. “It’s a toxic sideshow. fraud in Pennsylvania or any 20 electoral votes, was immi- tions.”
The 11:30 a.m. news confer- The continuing baseless, other state where the cam- nent.
ence was doomed from the evidence-free claims of alter- paign sued — not in Michi- When it came, Trump quick- Trump could appeal the rul-
start. native facts are actually hav- gan, Wisconsin, Arizona, Ne- ly pivoted to litigation. It did ing to the 3rd U.S. Circuit
ing an effect on a substantial vada or Georgia. not go well. Court of Appeals in Philadel-
Only minutes earlier, news number of Americans. They A U.S. appeals court found phia, but that court may have
outlets had started calling the are creating the conditions Instead, Trump lawyers Pennsylvania's three-day ex- tipped its hand. In its Nov. 13
presidential contest for Dem- for elections not to work in found themselves backped- tension for mail-in ballots ruling, the court called it "in-
ocrat Joe Biden. The race was the future.” aling when pressed in court laudatory, given the disrup- disputable in our democratic
over. for admissible evidence, or tion and mail delays cause process: that the lawfully cast
Just heating up was Trump’s Not a single court has found dropping out when they were by the pandemic. Judges in vote of every citizen must
plan to subvert the election merit in the core legal claims, accused of helping derail the Michigan and Arizona, find- count.”
through litigation and howls but that did not stop Trump's democratic process. ing no evidence of fraud,
of fraud — the same tactic he team from firing off nearly “I am asking you as a mem- refused to block the certifi- Biden's lead in the state
had used to stave off losses two dozen legal challenges to ber of the bar of this court, cation of county vote tallies. has expanded to more than
in the business world. And Biden’s victory in Pennsylva- are people representing the Law firms representing the 80,000 votes.
it would soon spread far be- nia, including an early morn- Donald J. Trump for presi- campaign started to come “Our system depends on the
yond Pennsylvania. ing suit on Election Day filed dent (campaign) … in that under fire and withdrew. possibility that you might
by a once-imprisoned lawyer. room?” U.S. District Judge That left Giuliani, who had lose a fair contest. If that
“Some of the ballots looked Paul Diamond asked at an not argued a case in court possibility doesn't exist, you
suspicious,” Giuliani, 76, said The president's lawyers after-hours hearing on Nov. for three decades, in charge don't have a democracy,” said
of the vote count in Phila- fought the three-day grace 5, when Republicans asked of the effort to overturn the Levitt, the law school profes-
delphia as he stood behind a period for mail-in ballots him to stop the vote count election. sor. “There are countries that
chain link fence, next to a sex to arrive. They complained in Philadelphia over their al- run like that. It just doesn't
shop. He maligned the city they weren't being let in to leged banishment. “You can say a lot at a drive- describe America.”