Trump lawyer suggests Pennsylvania win for Biden could be tossed

An attorney for President Donald Trump’s campaign revealed Wednesday that the campaign could be based on a complex – and possibly unprecedented – legal and legislative move to win President-Elect Joe Biden in Pennsylvania and possibly in other states Was shot for the win.

That distant strategy would require a federal court to certify Pennsylvania’s own election results, and then the state’s General Assembly would have to agree to send Trump voters to Electoral College.

The idea is buried in a footnote in a three-page letter that campaign attorney Mark Scarringi wrote to the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.

The Trump campaign is asking the court to appeal its bid to block the effect of Tuesday’s certification of a win for Biden in Pennsylvania.

The Electoral College holds 20 votes for that state. Prohibiting any court or legislative interference, Biden would get the votes that, along with many other states, would have given him more than 36 electoral votes he would need to win the presidency. The Electoral College is set to vote on 14 December.

Scarringi’s letter stated that US courts could revoke the certification of Pennsylvania’s election, and thereby invalidate an investigation into the results he allegedly issued by the government on Tuesday by “Tom Wolf” Had gone.

Nothing has been said about Wolf’s confirmation of certified election results, which the governor announced in a tweet that day.

Scarringi’s footnote stated, “In addition, the Pennsylvania General Assembly has the power to appoint presidential elections to the Commonwealth.”

The lawyer wrote, “By a District Court ruling, President Trump gave the legal votes a significant impact on the General Assembly.”

Scarringi’s letter clearly details the strategy that the Trump campaign has hinted at for weeks, ever since Biden was projected as the winner of the national election.

The strategy is for Biden’s victory in enough states to face enough successful legal challenges to win or, if necessary, enough Republican-controlled state legislatures for Biden to win a popular vote. Receive and send Trump electors to Electoral College.

As part of that strategy, Trump campaign lawyers have repeatedly made allegations of widespread voting fraud. But he has not provided any evidence of such fraud.

And the campaign and its allies have repeatedly lost or withdrawn court cases that would achieve that goal through lawsuits.

Last week, after a meeting at the White House with Trump, GOP leaders of Michigan’s legislature explicitly stated they would not overturn their state’s certification of their vote results.

Later, Michigan testified that Biden won the state that held 16 electoral votes.

Despite this, the Trump campaign has said that it expects the US Supreme Court, which has three judges appointed by Trump, to finally hear his claims.

Even as it follows that course, Trump approved the release of $ 7 million in federal funds to Biden earlier this week to facilitate his transition to the General Services Administration in office.

The appeal in Pennsylvania was filed after Trump’s campaign caused a major loss in US District Court in the state.

Federal Judge Matthew Bran on Saturday rejected the campaign’s efforts to block the certification of millions of Pennsylvania voters.

Bryan, in a dispassionate opinion, called the campaign claims “without merit,” and said Trump’s legal team led by former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani called the state’s “legal pleas and factual evidence of massive corruption.” Failed to present. In postal ballots.

In its appeal, the Trump campaign did not request that Bran’s rule be overturned.

Rather, the campaign asked the Third Circuit to allow the campaign to file a revised version of its legal complaint, “to restore claims that were inadvertently removed from previous claims”.

Bran’s ruling effectively denied the request to add back to several claims that the Trump campaign had already been cut from his lawsuit.

Those included claims that Pennsylvania’s election officials had blocked Trump’s supporters from seeing the count of mail-in ballots.

“More than 70 million Americans voted for President Donald J. Trump,” Scarringi’s letter said. “Campaign claims should be heard on the merits, and not dismissed for alleged procedural irregularities.”

Scarringi’s letter on Wednesday allowed Giuliani to give oral arguments in an appeal to the Third Circuit.

“Gilliani is not currently accepted to argue in that court,” Scarringi wrote, and “has not been able to obtain the necessary certifications due to Kovid-19 complications with governmental entities in New York.” “

The Democratic National Committee’s attorney, one of several parties involved in the appeals case in opposition to the Trump campaign, did not immediately respond to CNBC’s requests for comment on Scarpi’s letter.

But on Tuesday, Biden’s campaign denied Trump’s campaign that the president lost.

“This is clearly evident to everyone but Donald Trump, Rudy Giuliani, and [campaign senior legal advisor] Jenna Ellis said that this election was over and Joe Biden won a resounding victory, ”said Bob Baird, who is the senior legal adviser to the campaign.

“Trump did everything to dissuade voters and prevent him from getting certified in Pennsylvania, including filing more than 15 failed lawsuits – most recently creating one of the more embarrassing courtroom demonstrations of all time, the judge in the case With the ruling that his argument was “without merit” and ‘unsupported by the evidence, “Bauer said.

“Trump did not succeed in Pennsylvania and will not succeed anywhere else. Trump’s lawsuits will continue to fail, because in more than 30 cases from election day, states will continue to certify their results, and Joe Biden is sworn in as president. On 20 January 2021. “

Rafi Melkonian, a Houston-based appellate attorney, told CNBC in a phone call that the argument appears in the footnote that “remains.”

Melkonian disputed that a case cited by Scarringi in that footnote actually states that once a governor has signed it “the federal court can order the outcome of the election”.

But the appellate attorney said that the Trump campaign has some other legal avenues to pursue at this point: “I mean, everything else is loot.”

Melkonian said that the letter itself is “strange”.

“You’re not going to lay off arguments you didn’t make in your brief,” he said.

It is unclear whether the appeal will allow arguments, as Scarringi is requesting. Melkonian said he does not know whether Circuit Court would “be interested in hearing Rudy Giuliani.”

“If they do, I think they will give him a very hard time,” Melkonian said.