Khaleej Times

FEW LEGAL WINS SO FAR AS TRUMP TEAM HUNTS FOR PROOF OF FRAUD

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This may be an attempt to appease the ego in chief, but there are real world consequenc­es for real people that come out of that.

— Justin Levitt, Loyola Law School professor

During a Pennsylvan­ia court hearing this week on one of the many election lawsuits brought by President Donald Trump, a judge asked a campaign lawyer whether he had found any signs of fraud from among the 592 ballots challenged. The answer was no. “Accusing people of fraud is a pretty big step,” said the lawyer, Jonathan Goldstein. “We’re all just trying to get an election done.”

Trump has not been so cautious, insisting without evidence that the election was stolen from him even when election officials nationwide from both parties say there has been no conspiracy.

On Wednesday, Trump took aim at Philadelph­ia, the Democratic stronghold that helped push President-elect Joe Biden over the 270 Electoral College votes needed to win the race. The president accused a local Republican election official, Al Schmidt, of ignoring “a mountain of corruption & dishonesty.” Twitter added a label that said the election fraud claim is disputed.

Trump loyalists have filed at least 15 legal challenges in Pennsylvan­ia alone in an effort to reclaim the state’s 20 electoral votes. There is action, too, in Georgia, Arizona, Nevada and Michigan.

In court, his lawyers must walk a precarious line between advocating for their client and upholding their profession­al oath.

Legal ethicists and pro-democracy activists

have questioned the participat­ion of lawyers in this quest, as Trump clings to power and President-elect Joe Biden rolls out his agenda.

“This may be an attempt to appease the ego in chief, but there are real world consequenc­es for real people that come out of that,” said Loyola Law School professor Justin Levitt, a former Justice Department elections official. “The attempt to soothe the president’s ego is not a victimless crime.”

Schmidt told CBS’ “60 Minutes” that his office has received death threats simply for counting votes.

“From the inside looking out, it feels all very deranged,” Schmidt said in an interview that aired on Sunday. “Counting votes cast on or before Election Day by eligible voters is not corruption. It is not cheating. It is democracy.”

Untold voters, however, are accepting Trump’s claim about a rigged election and are donating to his legal fund.

A law firm involved in the election suits, Ohiobased Porter Wright Morris & Arthur, appeared to take down its Twitter feed on Tuesday after it was inundated with attacks. The firm declined to address questions about the feed in a statement issued on Wednesday that said it had a long history of election work.

A second firm, Jones Day, said it was representi­ng not the Trump campaign but the Pennsylvan­ia GOP, in litigation before the USSupreme Court over the three-day extension to accept mail-in ballots.

Nationally, the strategy is being run by Trump allies such as Rudy Giuliani, the president’s personal attorney; political operative David Bossie, who is not an attorney; and Jay Sekulow, a lead lawyer during the president’s impeachmen­t trial this year. Bossie recently tested positive for Covid-19.

Election law expert Rick Hasen said he would expect to see top-drawer Supreme Court litigators involved, such as two former solicitors general, Paul Clement or Theodore Olson, if Trump had a strong case.

“There are certain names of elite lawyers that signal to the Supreme Court that something is serious,” said Hasen, a professor at the University of California, Irvine. Instead, “the campaign announced that it was putting Rudy Giuliani and David Bossie in charge.”

The low point of the effort undoubtedl­y came on Saturday, when Giuliani held a news conference outside Four Seasons Total Landscapin­g in Philadelph­ia just after the race was called for Biden. Standing in the shadow of a sex shop and a crematoriu­m, just down the road from a state prison, Giuliani called a disgruntle­d poll watcher to the microphone to discuss the “shenanigan­s” in the city. Political observers tuning in from nearby Trenton, New Jersey, immediatel­y recognized the man as a convicted sex offender and perennial candidate for office.

In another head-scratching moment, as the campaign tried to stop the vote count in Philadelph­ia last week, a judge tried to get to the bottom of a Republican complaint over observer access in the room where election workers were processing mail-in ballots.

“I am asking you as a member of the bar of this court, are people representi­ng the Donald J. Trump for president (campaign) . in that room?” U.S. District Judge Paul S. Diamond asked.

“There’s a nonzero number of people in the room,” campaign lawyer Jerome Marcus replied.

Diamond made the two sides forge an agreement and threatened to charge them with contempt if they didn’t keep the peace.

Some of the suits filed on Trump’s behalf appear to be hastily thrown together, with spelling errors (‘ballet’ for ‘ballot’), procedural mistakes and little to back up their claims. Judges have been sceptical.

In Michigan, Judge Cynthia Stephens dismissed one filing as “inadmissib­le hearsay within hearsay.” When Trump’s lawyers appealed, the next court kicked the filing back as ‘defective.’ —

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 ??  ?? (Left) President-elect Joe Biden with wife Jill; and (right) President Donald Trump with first lady Melania Trump observe Veterans Day in Philadelph­ia and Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, respective­ly, on Wednesday. — Reuters, AP
(Left) President-elect Joe Biden with wife Jill; and (right) President Donald Trump with first lady Melania Trump observe Veterans Day in Philadelph­ia and Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, respective­ly, on Wednesday. — Reuters, AP

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