19:24
News Story
Trump will appeal Pa. federal court decision dismissing attempt to block Pa. vote certification
U.S. President Donald Trump stands in the colonnade as he is introduced to speak at the White House on Jan. 19, 2018. Photo by Mark Wilson | Getty Images
(*This story was updated at 8:12 p.m. on 11/21/20 with additional comment)
A federal judge in Williamsport on Saturday delivered what could be a fatal blow to President Donald Trump’s legal efforts to reverse President-elect Joe Biden’s victory on Election Day, according to a published report.
Trump said in a tweet later Saturday night that he intends to appeal the decision. But in a statement, U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., said he believed the president had “exhausted all plausible legal options” to challenge the result in Pennsylvania.
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1330374263581368320?s=20
Read my statement on today’s Pennsylvania federal court decision, and congratulating President-Elect Biden: https://t.co/tCCXWxIUoR pic.twitter.com/MaxfHCtK1x
— Senator Pat Toomey (@SenToomey) November 22, 2020
In a 37-page ruling, U.S. District Judge Matthew Brann dismissed Trump’s effort to block the certification of election results, calling the litigation a “Frankenstein’s Monster” of legal claims, that sought an “unhinged” remedy that would, if successful, have resulted in the disenfranchisement of voters statewide, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported on Saturday evening.
This ruling against Rudy and Co. is pretty tough. Calls the Trunp campaign's central argument a
"Frankenstein’s Monster" that "has been haphazardly stitched together" in a bid to evade precedents that would blow it up.— Chris Potter (@CPotterPgh) November 21, 2020
“One might expect that when seeking such a startling outcome, a plaintiff would come formidably armed with compelling legal arguments and factual proof of rampant corruption,” Brann wrote, according to the Inquirer. “Instead, this court has been presented with strained legal arguments without merit and speculative accusations … unsupported by the evidence.”
Bran continued: “This cannot justify the disenfranchisement of a single voter, let alone all the voters in its sixth most populated state. Our people, laws and institutions demand more,” the Inquirer reported.
"Simply not how the Constitution works." pic.twitter.com/dCTyDzzmGQ
— Chris Potter (@CPotterPgh) November 22, 2020
Trump’s campaign brought the suit against Pennsylvania Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar and seven Pennsylvania counties, seeking to block certification because some counties contacted and permitted voters to fix mistakes with their mail ballot declarations while others did not. County election boards in Philadelphia, Allegheny, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery, Northampton, and Centre counties also were named as defendants.
More From the Inquirer:
The federal case had been the one legal challenge on which the campaign had pinned its remaining hopes of stopping the state from approving its final vote tally before the Monday deadline for counties to report their results to state election administrators.
The case’s dismissal leaves only one other lawsuit that the campaign is still actively pursuing in Pennsylvania — a fight before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court over roughly 8,300 challenged mail ballots from Philadelphia.
Trump’s campaign also has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to take up a challenge to the state’s extended deadline for accepting mail-in ballots. But the high court has not yet indicated if it intends to do so. And on Saturday night, a group of Republican lawmakers, led by U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly, R-16th District, filed suit in Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court, arguing that the state’s mail-in ballot system was unconstitutional.
Congressman Mike Kelly, Rep. Daryl Metcalf, Rep. Kathy Rapp, Sean Parnell, Luke Negron and others seek to join our fight to ensure a free, fair and equal election in Pennsylvania! #Trump2020 pic.twitter.com/qATdTvFScJ
— Marc A. Scaringi (@MarcScaringi) November 21, 2020
The federal lawsuit case made nationwide headlines when Trump’s lawyer, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, took the lead in oral arguments. Giuliani’s first appearance in a courtroom in nearly 30 years was so disjoined that an attorney representing the counties named as defendants in the case described it as a “disgraceful,” CNBC reported last week.
Trump and his surrogates have continued to claim, without evidence, that widespread fraud led to Biden’s victory two weeks ago.
*A coalition of good government groups that intervened in the case hailed the ruling on Saturday night as a victory for the democratic process.
All voters deserve to have their voices heard and their ballots counted,” Suzanne Almeida, elections advisor for Common Cause Pennsylvania, said in a statement. “This lawsuit was a blatant attempt to change the rules after the election was over and silence the voices of the people. Voters in Pennsylvania and around the country have made a clear decision. It’s time for the results of this election to be accepted and the will of the people honored.”
The ruling “should put the nail in the coffin on any further attempts by President Trump to use the federal courts to rewrite the outcome of the 2020 election,” Kristen Clarke, president and executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, said in a statement. “The court could not be any clearer in underscoring the baseless and meritless nature of the claims presented in this case. Voters across the commonwealth overcame tremendous obstacles to register their voice, and this suit sought to disenfranchise them without a scintilla of evidence.”
Capital-Star Staff Reporter Stephen Caruso contributed to this story
Our stories may be republished online or in print under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. We ask that you edit only for style or to shorten, provide proper attribution and link to our web site. Please see our republishing guidelines for use of photos and graphics.
