President Donald Trump's last-ditch crusade to litigate his way to an electoral win continues to fail with judges, as the campaign and its Republican allies have now lost or withdrawn from more than 30 lawsuits challenging President-elect Joe Biden's victory.
Election officials in every state have said there is no evidence of voter fraud in the presidential election, which Biden won with a record-setting 80 million votes, or nearly six million more than Trump.
In one particularly cutting opinion, U.S. District Judge Matthew W. Brann in Pennsylvania wrote that the prosecution, led by erstwhile LifeLock spokesperson-turned-Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani, had stitched its evidence together like "Frankenstein's monster."
Giuliani alleged, in his first federal courtroom arguments in 28 years last week, that Republican voters in the state had their rights violated under the equal protection clause after counties allowed voters to correct errors on mail-in ballots. It was the campaign's only effort to challenge the state's results.
Brann blasted the campaign's case in a 37-page opinion, writing that not only did the campaign lack standing to bring the case in the first place but even if it did he would dismiss the effort based on its "strained legal arguments without merit and speculative accusations."
Giuliani's case, Brann wrote, would not rectify any votes but "simply deny more than 6.8 million people their right to vote."
"In the United States of America, this cannot justify the disenfranchisement of a single voter, let alone all the voters of its sixth most populated state," wrote Brann.
Giuliani and campaign lawyer Jenna Ellis responded that they did not get a fair shot, and they believed the Supreme Court would grant their appeal.
"We are disappointed we did not at least get the opportunity to present our evidence at a hearing," they said in a press statement.
The statement also pointed out that Brann was an "Obama-appointed judge," despite the fact that he is a registered Republican and former member of the ultra-conservative Federalist Society.
Sen. Patrick Toomey, R-Pa., defended Brann in a statement as "a longtime conservative Republican whom I know to be a fair and unbiased jurist." He said the campaign had "exhausted all plausible legal options, and along with court defeats in Michigan and Georgia, the rulings "confirm that Joe Biden won the 2020 election and will become the 46th President of the United States."
"I congratulate President-elect Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala D. Harris on their victory," Toomey said.
Biden holds an 81,000-vote lead over Trump in Pennsylvania, which certifies its election results on Monday. The state will by joined by Michigan and Nevada, which have also recently rejected lawsuits challenging the election.
Overall, the campaign and its allies have lost or withdrawn more than 30 lawsuits, many of which have been dismissed with prejudice. One of the plaintiffs in Giuliani's Pennsylvania suit was himself once fined for violating election laws, and other plaintiffs embrace fringe conspiracy theories.
Giuliani, a former U.S. attorney, took over that case on Wednesday, the same day which he made his arguments. Five other campaign attorneys withdrew in advance.
The next day, Giuliani led a 90-minute Trump campaign press conference at Republican National Committee headquarters, where he and Sidney Powell, the top lawyer for Michael Flynn's defense, promulgated outright lies and fringe conspiracy theories high-powered media lights until brown-tinged hair coloring sweated down Giuliani's cheeks.
During the conference, Powell — who had earlier pledged that she would "release the Kraken" in court — linked Dominion voting machines to long-dead former Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez and repeated a false conspiracy theory circulating in right-wing internet crawlspaces that the machines had somehow sent American votes to Germany which were in turn counted in Spain. In an interview with the far-right cable network Newsmax two days later, Powell accused Gov. Brian Kemp, R-Ga., of taking bribes from Dominion.
On Sunday, Giuliani and Ellis released a statement distancing themselves and Trump from Powell.
"Sidney Powell is practicing law on her own. She is not a member of the Trump legal team," the statement said. "She is also not a lawyer for the president in his personal capacity."
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