Trump lawyers withdraw from key case challenging vote count
PHILADELPHIA—The law firm leading President Donald Trump's legal effort to challenge the results of Pennsylvania' selection abruptly withdrew from his campaign's marquee case late Thursday.
Lawyers from Columbus, Ohio- based Porter Wright Morris & Arthur offered no explanation for their departure from a federal lawsuit filed Monday in Williamsport that asked a judge to block Pennsylvania from certifying its election results.
In a motion filed with the court, the lawyers said only that the Trump campaign “and Porter Wright have reached a mutual agreement that plaintiffs will be best served if Porter Wright withdraws.”
The firm did not immediately return calls for comment Friday morning.
And it was not clear whether Ronald Hicks and Carolyn McGee — the two Pittsburghbased Porter Wright attorneys who have been at the forefront of the Trump campaign' s Pennsylvania litigation since Election Day — would also withdraw from any of the myriad other cases they had filed on behalf of the campaign in state courts over similar issues to those raised in the Williamsport suit.
Despite the law firm' s departure, the campaign has shown no signs of waning interest in pursuing its court fights in the state, where, as of Friday morning, Trump trailed Joe Biden by more than 58,000 votes.
Just hours before the Porter Wright lawyers withdrew, Trump campaign lawyer Linda Kerns, a solo practitioner in Philadelphia, filed a brief with the court in advance of hearings in the case scheduled for next week alleging, without providing evidence, that“thousands of invalid ballots” had been included in Pennsylvania's count.
“There is no question that defendants have counted and continue to count thousands of invalid ballots,” she wrote. “The only question is how many.”
Porter Wright's representation of Trump has made it a target for criticism — both externally and from its own lawyers — in recent days.
The New York Times reported Monday that several attorneys at the firm had raised objections to its representation of a president who had frequently threatened the rule of law. One attorney, the paper said, quit over the firm's representation of the campaign.
On Tuesday, the firm took down its Twitter account amid a barrage of negative attention from users on the platform critical of the firm's work with the president.
In a statement the following day, a spokesperson noted Porter Wright's “long history of election law work” on behalf of Democratic, Republican and independent candidates.
“At times, this calls for us to take on controversial cases,” the statement said. “We expect criticism in such instances, and we affirm the right of al lindi vi duals to express concern and disagreement.”