Giuliani in court; it does not go well.
A judge on Tuesday appeared skeptical of President Donald Trump’s request to block officials from certifying Presidentelect Joe Biden’s victory in Pennsylvania, underscoring the difficulties the Trump campaign has faced in challenging the outcome of the election.
During a hearing, U.S. District Judge Matthew Brann in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, said halting certification would effectively disenfranchise all voters in the state.
“At bottom, you are asking this court to invalidate 6.8 million votes, thereby disenfranchising every single voter in the Commonwealth,” Brann said. “Can you tell me how this result can possibly be justified?”
The judge indicated he would not immediately rule on the case, requesting written filings from the parties that are due in coming days.
Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani said during the hearing that there was “widespread, nationwide voter fraud” in the Nov. 3 election, as the Republican president also has claimed, but offered no evidence.
Mark Aronchick, a lawyer representing several Pennsylvania counties in the lawsuit, said the former New York mayor was “living in a fantasy world.”
“Dismiss this case so we can move on to the real business of this country,” Aronchick told
Brann. “Let’s end this.”
The lawsuit is one of many the Trump campaign has filed in key states where he lost, aimed at contesting Biden’s victory.
Judges have already tossed lawsuits in Michigan and Georgia.
As the hearing unfolded on Tuesday, Pennsylvania’s highest state court ruled in a separate lawsuit that the elections board in Philadelphia, the state’s largest city, acted reasonably in keeping Trump campaign observers behind barricades and 15 feet away from counting tables, rejecting an appeal from Trump’s campaign.
Giuliani salary
Rudy Giuliani, who has helped oversee the failed court challenges to Trump’s defeat in the election, asked the president’s campaign to pay him $20,000 a day for his legal work, multiple people briefed on the matter told The New York Times. The request stirred opposition from some of Trump’s advisers, who appear to have ruled out paying that much, and it is unclear how much Giuliani will ultimately be compensated.