Federal Judge In Williamsport Dismisses Trump Lawsuit Seeking To Block Certification Of Election Results, Report

the Pennsylvania Capital-Star:

By John L. Micek

November 21, 2020

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.

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.

“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.

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.

The 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 several 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.

Capital-Star Staff Reporter Stephen Caruso contributed to this story

This story was originally published by the Pennsylvania Capital-Star. For more stories from the Pennsylvania Capital-Star, visit PennCapital-Star.com.