Simon Ateba covers the White House, the U.S. government, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and other financial and international institutions for Today News Africa in Washington D.C. Simon can be reached on simonateba@todaynewsafrica.com
President Donald Trump’s legal team on Sunday filed an appeal to a federal judge’s ruling that dismissed his campaign’s effort to block the certification of votes in Pennsylvania.
A federal judge on Saturday called the Trump campaign lawsuit challenging President-elect Joseph R. Biden’s win in Pennsylvania “Frankenstein’s Monster” before dismissing it.
“This claim, like Frankenstein’s Monster, has been haphazardly stitched together,” U.S. District Judge Matthew Brann wrote.
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The lawsuit, which had attempted to invalidate millions of mail-in ballots in Pennsylvania, dealt another blow to the President’s narrowing legal options.
The dismissal of the lawsuit, which accused Pennsylvania officials of enabling voter fraud, has now opened the way for the state to certify President-elect Joseph R. Biden’s victory.
In rejecting the arguments made by President Trump’s lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, Judge Matthew Brann said the Trump campaign used the lawsuit to attempt to disenfranchise legally cast votes.
Giuliani had argued that Pennsylvania’s mail-in ballots procedures presented the opportunity for widespread fraud.
Judge Brann said in his ruling that the lawsuit was marred by “strained legal arguments without merit and speculative accusations unsupported by evidence.”
“Plaintiffs ask this Court to disenfranchise almost seven million voters,” Brann said Saturday. “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,” Judge Brann said.
“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,” he added.
About 34 legal claims filed by the Trump administration have now been thrown out by various judges.
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