President Donald Trump was able to post another legal defeat on Friday when a federal appellate court panel refused to block proof of the Pennsylvania vote after finding he had no evidence to support his allegations that the 2020 presidential election was unfair.
“The allegations of injustice are serious. But calling the election unfair doesn’t do that yet, ”Judge Stephanos Bibas wrote in a U.S. Court of Appeals opinion on Round 3. “The awards require specific claims and then proof. He’s not here either.
The district court’s decision marks the most recent of the Trump campaign’s appeals to state and federal courts, which proved a futile effort to prevent Joe Biden from being declared a Democratic-elected president.
Trump’s lawyers have made overwhelming but unfounded allegations of falsification of pro-democracy ballots.
The appeal that was the subject of Bibas’ opinion was much narrower. District court judges concluded that U.S. Central Judge Matthew W. Brann, who dismissed Trump’s appeal to block the voting certificate this week, correctly allowed the president’s attorneys to file a second amended complaint on the matter.
Brann declined after Trump’s personal attorney and former Mayor of New York City Rudy Giuliani appeared at the Williamsport federal court to personally start the case.
“In fact, the (Trump) campaign has already sued and lost many of these cases in state courts,” Bibas wrote.
Like Brann, Bibas saw no legal reason to subvert Pennsylvania’s election results based on accusations of a “vague” Trump campaign. He called the handling of Brann’s case “fair, fast and patient.”
“The campaign claims have no merit. The number of ballots he specifically handed out is far less than the roughly 81,000 vote difference (or Biden in Pennsylvania). And he never claims fraud or that voters cast their votes, ”Bibas wrote. “Plus, throwing away millions of mail would be drastic and unprecedented if they separated a huge constituency of voters and overturned all the ballot papers as well. This remedy would be severely disproportionate to the procedural challenges raised. “
He refused to issue an order temporarily banning government officials from certifying the vote. State officials did so on Tuesday despite Trump’s ongoing legal attack.
“The public interest strongly supports finality, counting the votes of all legitimate voters, and does not detract from the disenfranchisement of millions of Pennsylvania voters who voted in a letter,” Bibas wrote.
