PA Judge Tosses Trump’s Election Lawsuit; Trump’s Lawyers Say Dismissal Moves Them Closer To Supreme Court
A Pennsylvania judge dismissed a lawsuit seeking to stop the state from certifying its election results in another seat back for the Trump campaign seeking to clear reports of massive election irregularities in swing states across the country.
US Middle District Judge Matthew Brann in Williamsport, Pennsylvania junked the request for injunction from the camp of President Donald Trump — paving the way for Democratic challenger, Joe Biden, to be certified as the winner in the state by a mere 80,000 votes.
“Plaintiffs ask this Court to disenfranchise almost seven million voters,” Judge Brann said. “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.”
“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,” he added.
The Pennsylvania lawsuit cited that the legal guarantee of “equal protection under the law” was violated in the state after counties where voters were primarily Democrats took different approaches than counties where voters were primarily Republicans to help voters with problems with their mail-in ballots.
But the federal judge said “among the grounds that could justify a denial of leave to amend are undue delay, bad faith, dilatory motive, prejudice, and futility.”
“Given that: (1) Plaintiffs have already amended once as of right; (2) Plaintiffs seek to amend simply in order to effectively reinstate their initial complaint and claims; and (3) the deadline for counties in Pennsylvania to certify their election results to Secretary Boockvar is November 23, 2020, amendment would unduly delay resolution of the issues,” the ruling made by Judge Brann added.
Giuliani: Lawsuit Dismissal Moves Us Closer to Supreme Court
Meanwhile, following the decision from Judge Brann regarding the Trump team’s Pennsylvania lawsuit, the legal team of the incumbent Republican President said they would file an appeal to the Third Circuit court to challenge the results of the election in the state.
“Today’s decision turns out to help us in our strategy to get expeditiously to the US Supreme Court. Although we fully disagree with this opinion, we’re thankful to the Obama-appointed judge for making this anticipated decision quickly, rather than simply trying to run out the clock,” Trump 2020 attorneys former Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Jenna Ellis said in a statement.
“We will be seeking an expedited appeal to the Third Circuit. There is so much evidence that in Pennsylvania, Democrats eliminated our opportunity to present 50 witnesses and other evidence that election officials blatantly ignored Pennsylvania’s law denying independent review,” it added.
“This resulted in 682,777 ballots being cast illegally, wittingly or unwittingly. This is just an extension of the Big Tech, Big Media, Corrupt Democrat censorship of damning facts the American public needs to know,” they wrote.
Statement for @TeamTrump on Pennsylvania ruling. pic.twitter.com/Oedzlav8aW
— Rudy W. Giuliani (@RudyGiuliani) November 22, 2020
“We are disappointed we did not at least get the opportunity to present our evidence at a hearing. Unfortunately, the censorship continues … This is another case that appears to be moving quickly to the United States Supreme Court,” the statement added.
The United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit serves the areas of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, and the Virgin Islands. The circuit courts are intermediate appellate courts — they do not handle jury trials but handle cases where a party argues that a district court judge made an error in handling their case.