Things did not go well Tuesday for the Trump campaign’s effort to stop certification of the Pennsylvania vote count — which has Joe Biden ahead by more than 73,000 votes.
At almost the same time the president’s lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, was in federal court in Williamsport, Pa., complaining that Republican observers were illegally denied access to vote counting in Philadelphia and other Democratic areas, the state Supreme Court in Harrisburg concluded otherwise. By a 5-2 vote, it ruled that Philadelphia election officials had acted properly in their handling of the observation process.
The Trump campaign had argued that GOP representatives were kept too far away to see whether there were any irregularities, but the court said they were able to view election workers “performing their duties,” as required.
It was a major loss for the president and his campaign’s flailing effort to overturn the election results. Republicans have filed suits in several states seeking to invalidate thousands of votes, but have lost almost every case so far….
The president’s lawyer also alleged, without providing any evidence, that voting in Pennsylvania was riddled with fraud. He said it was “not an isolated case” either, but part of “widespread national voter fraud” involving other jurisdictions, including Detroit and Milwaukee. However, Giuliani later admitted to the judge that the Pennsylvania lawsuit was “not a fraud case.”
The judge gave the parties several days to file additional briefs and motions before he makes a decision on whether to dismiss the case.