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Tag: election litigation
President Donald Trump

Latest Trump Lawsuit Demands Court Cancel Georgia Vote

Reprinted with permission from American Independent

Donald Trump filed a lawsuit on New Year's Eve demanding that a federal judge decertify the results of the 2020 presidential election in Georgia, alleging without any evidence that "illegal voting" occurred and therefore the results were invalid.

The suit, filed with the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia against Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in their official capacities, claims the existence of violations of election law that "have resulted in more than 11,779 'illegal' votes to be counted in the State of Georgia which is sufficient to change the outcome of the election or place the outcome in doubt."

President-elect Joe Biden won the state by exactly 11,779 votes.

The lawsuit is similar to dozens of other lawsuits the Trump campaign and Trump's GOP allies have filed since the election. They have lost 60 of those lawsuits, with judges tossing many of them due to a lack of any proof.

Multiple federal fudges have chastised Trump's lawyers and his GOP defenders for filing the lawsuits, accusing them of trying to subvert the will of the voters by getting judges to overturn a free and fair election.

"Voters, not lawyers, choose the president," wrote U.S. Circuit Judge Stephanos Bibas, a Trump appointee, in a decision in November tossing out a Trump campaign lawsuit seeking to overturn election results in Pennsylvania. "Ballots, not briefs, decide elections."

Ballots in Georgia have been counted three times, each time with the same conclusion: Biden defeated Trump in the state.

Nevertheless, Trump is still trying to overturn the state's result, even though if Georgia's 16 Electoral College votes were removed from Biden's column, Biden would still have 290, more than the 270 needed to win.

Trump is continuing to go to extraordinary lengths to overturn the will of the voters in Georgia.

He called Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger on Saturday to demand that Raffensperger "find" just enough votes to make Trump the winner in the state.

The phone call could lead to criminal charges against Trump, as experts say it's a violation of both state and federal election law to engage in a conspiracy to commit election fraud.

Georgia has already certified its election results; the electors in the state cast their ballots on Dec. 14; and the election is over. What's more, the so-called safe harbor deadline to resolve disputes about the election results in the courts passed on Dec. 8.

The last step in the process is for Congress to certify the results of the Electoral College vote, which it is scheduled to do on Wednesday. More than 140 Republican lawmakers plan to object to the certification, but their stunt will fail, as the Democratic-controlled House will not vote to overturn Biden's win.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.

Donald Trump, Rudy Guiliani, Eric Trump

Giuliani Announces New Challenge To Wisconsin Election Results

Reprinted with permission from Alternet

Although Joe Biden's inauguration is only three weeks away, President Donald Trump and many of his loyalists have yet to acknowledge the president-elect's victory. And that includes the president's personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, who has announced yet another election-related lawsuit challenging Biden's win in Wisconsin.

Making debunked and totally baseless claims of widespread voter fraud, Trump and his allies have filed one lawsuit after another in the hope of overturning the 2020 presidential election results — and most have already been dismissed or rejected in the federal courts. That includes the U.S. Supreme Court's refusal to even consider a lawsuit filed by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who asked the High Court to throw out the election results in four states that Biden won: Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Georgia.

Giuliani, according to Independent reporter Justin Vallejo, is challenging a December 14 ruling by the Wisconsin Supreme Court — which rejected the Trump campaign's efforts to get more than 50,000 ballots thrown out in Wisconsin. The former New York City mayor is hoping that the U.S. Supreme Court will invalidate the Wisconsin Supreme Court's decision.

Vallejo notes that Trump's campaign "says its petition will present claims that ballots were counted by voters without identification, incomplete absentee ballots were counted, and ballots were collected by hand at events held before the election."

Previously, a lawsuit from the Trump campaign asked the U.S. Supreme Court to throw out the election results in Pennsylvania, but it refused to consider that case. And the justices later rejected Paxton's widely condemned lawsuit out of Texas.

When the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled against the Trump campaign on December 14, it was a 4-3 decision — and Justice Brian Hagedorn wrote, "Our laws allow the challenge flag to be thrown regarding various aspects of election administration. The challenges raised by the campaign in this case, however, come long after the last play or even the last game; the campaign is challenging the rulebook adopted before the season began."

During a recent appearance on the podcast of former White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon — who is facing criminal fraud charges for allegedly defrauding donors to the We Build the Wall campaign — Trump campaign adviser Boris Epshteyn insisted that the campaign will continue to fight the election results in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania and claimed that there will be "action out of Georgia" as well.

The House of Representatives and the Senate are scheduled to officially count the Electoral College results during a joint session of Congress on January 6. Some far-right Republicans, including Rep. Mo Brooks of Alabama and Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri, have vowed to challenge the election results that day. But Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has acknowledged Biden as president-elect and Sen. Kamala Harris of California as vice president-elect and is urging other Senate Republicans to do the same. Since Democrats still control the House of Representatives, and a majority of the Senate acknowledges Biden's win, Trump has no path to overturn the election in Congress, despite his hopes.

'MAGA' Election Protest

Wisconsin’s Chief Justice Slams Threats, Violence By Trump Supporters

Reprinted with permission from Alternet

Wisconsin Supreme Court Chief Justice Patience Roggensack on Christmas Day opted to publicly speak out about her growing concerns regarding the reckless remarks being levied against members of the court over their disapproval of President Donald Trump's push to invalidate the results of the presidential election.

In the rare holiday statement released on Friday, Dec. 25, Roggensack spoke about the threats made against members of the court based on their decisions and religious beliefs as she publicly denounced "threats of actual or proposed violence," according to Law & Crime.

"I am concerned about recent comments aimed at members of the Wisconsin Supreme Court, Roggensack said. "I acknowledge that all members of the public have the constitutional right to speak in criticism of public servants, which certainly includes all justices on the Wisconsin Supreme Court. However, no justice should be threatened or intimidated based on his or her religious beliefs. Wisconsin has a long history of protecting the right to freely worship, as well as the right to freely speak."

She added, "Also, threats of actual or proposed violence have no place in public discourse in a democratic society"

Roggensack also urged the American public to recenter its focus on what lies ahead as she noted the importance of being able to agree to disagree without discourse.

"As we are about to begin a new year, let us all refocus on coming together where possible and treating those with whom we disagree with the respect that each of us would like to receive," she concluded.

Roggensack's remarks follow the Wisconsin Supreme Court's ruling against the Trump campaign's post-election lawsuit. During an interview with The New York Times, Justice Brian Hagedorn, who authored the ruling, also spoke publicly about the backlash he has faced as he revealed details about the death threats he has faced as a result of his stance. Not only has he been verbally lambasted, he has also been a public target of Trump's ire.

"I've been called a traitor. I've been called a liar. I've been called a fraud," Hagedorn told the Times. "I've been asked if I'm being paid off by the Chinese Communist Party. I've been told I might be tried for treason by a military tribunal. Sure, I've gotten lots of interesting and sometimes dark messages."

President Trump in Oval Office

Trump Suffers Another Humiliating Legal Defeat — On Christmas Eve

Reprinted with permission from Alternet

President Donald Trump's 2020 campaign has suffered yet another humiliating post-election defeat — this time, on Christmas Eve, which found a three-judge panel for the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals throwing out a lawsuit challenging the election results in Wisconsin.

Wisconsin was among the five states that Trump won in 2016 but lost to President-elect Joe Biden in 2020; the others were Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Arizona. Trump's legal team has been claiming, without evidence, that he was the victim of widespread voter fraud in all of those states.

One judge after another, however, has disagreed, and the 7th Circuit panel saw no reason to believe that Biden didn't win Wisconsin fairly.

"In essence, the judges unanimously ruled that Wisconsin's election was conducted correctly and that Trump waited too long to complain about the procedures employed," according to Law & Crime reporter Aaron Keller.


The 7th Circuit panel consisted of three judges who were appointed by Republican presidents. While the 84-year-old Judge Joel Flaum was appointed by President Ronald Reagan in 1983, Judge Ilana Rovner was an appointee of President George H.W. Bush. And Judge Michael Y. Scudder was appointed by Trump himself.

Flaum, Rovner and Scudder, in their Donald J. Trump v. Wisconsin Elections Commission ruling, wrote, "We agree that Wisconsin lawfully appointed its electors in the manner directed by its legislature and add that the president's claim also fails because of the unreasonable delay that accompanied the challenges the president now wishes to advance against Wisconsin's election procedures."

According to Keller, "Trump's complaint was rooted in the Electors Clause of the U.S. Constitution. That clause allows each state's legislature to choose how to appoint presidential electors. The 7th Circuit rubbished Trump's moaning and groaning about how the legislature delegated the specifics to various state officials. Trump's lawyers argued those officials overstepped the authority granted to them and conducted an out-of-control election."