US judge dismisses Trump campaign's lawsuit seeking to invalidate Pennsylvania mail-in votes
Nov 22, 2020
Washington [US], November 22 : A District Court judge on Saturday dismissed a lawsuit by US President Donald Trump's campaign seeking to invalidate the mail-in votes in Pennsylvania, a significant loss for the campaign.
Trump's backers and legal team, and particularly his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, had pinned their hopes on the federal judge in Pennsylvania giving some credibility to their suspicions of fraud and entertaining the President's attempt to overturn the popular vote for President-elect Joe Biden, reported CNN.
However, US District Court Judge Matthew Brann, a longtime and well-known Republican in Pennsylvania, refused.
"Plaintiffs ask this court to disenfranchise almost seven million voters. This court has been unable to find any case in which a plaintiff has sought such a drastic remedy in the contest of an election, in terms of the sheer volume of votes asked to be invalidated," Brann wrote Saturday.
CNN reported that Brann went on to reprimand the Trump's campaign lawyers for not presenting factual proof for seeking to invalidate so many votes in the key battleground state.
"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, such that this court would have no option but to regrettably grant the proposed injunctive relief despite the impact it would have on such a large group of citizens. That has not happened. Instead, this court has been presented with strained legal arguments without merit and speculative accusations, unpled in the operative complaint and unsupported by evidence," he said.
The judge further said any further consideration of this issue "would unduly delay resolution of the issues" regarding certification.
According to CNN, this was essentially the last major case seeking to throw out enough votes that could swing a key state in Trump's favour, and Brann's decision on Saturday is the 30th loss or withdrawal of a case from Trump's campaign since Election Day.
Since Biden was projected the winner of the presidential elections, Trump has made debunked allegations that the election was rigged and has refused to concede defeat to Biden, while his campaign has filed several lawsuits in battleground states.
Earlier, Biden had said that Trump was showing 'incredible irresponsibility' by contesting the results of the presidential election and impeding the beginning of a transition process.
