Trump says he joins Texas lawsuit asking Supreme Court to block four states’ 62 Biden voters

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump tweeted on Wednesday to join Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s long-term legal efforts and calls on the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse the election results in four states that helped Democrat Joe Biden hold the presidency.

Officials in Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin called the lawsuit an unfounded stunt.

Texas’s request means it is asking the Supreme Court to reject the votes of 10.4 million people who elected Biden over Trump.

While Trump’s legal team lost three dozen cases in federal and state courts about ballot forgery and fraud, the Supreme Court raised hope in a Texas case filed Monday, ordering the four accused states to respond in writing by Thursday as a prelude. make a decision on whether to discuss the matter.

“We are intervening in the Texas (plus many other states) case. This is great. Hungary needs a victory! ”Trump tweeted and called it a“ case for everyone ”…. Very strong, ALL CRITERIA MEET. How can a presidency when the overwhelming majority thinks the election is RIGGED?

In disputes between state governments, only the Supreme Court has jurisdiction. Nevertheless, the court showed little interest in inventing state election procedures retrospectively.

Paxton’s lawsuit accuses the other four states of making illegal changes to their electoral policies during the COVID-19 epidemic, which “offers a huge opportunity for fraud”.

Texas is asking the judiciary to prevent 62 voters from these four states from voting on Monday when the Electoral College meets to formalize Biden’s 306-232 victory, and asks the court to place 10.4 million Biden ballots .

Paxton Trump has served as co-chair of attorneys on the president’s re-election team.

Democratic critics have speculated that they will sue Trump for preventive grace. The FBI is investigating allegations by former senior officials that Paxton used the attorney general’s office for the benefit of a campaign donor.

Paxton has been prosecuted for more than five years for state prosecutions involving securities fraud, although the presidential pardon power includes only federal crimes.

“Instead of focusing on his own problems, the completely unfounded” Trump actually won! “a narrative that has captured the Republican Party. Texans deserve MPs who are rooted in reality and not in conspiracy theories,” reads the fundraising email from the House Democratic Campaign Committee, which supports Texas Democrats in legislative contests.

Trump insists the election was falsified or stolen. But dozens of courts have thrown out allegations that are factually unfounded. U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr said last week that the Department of Justice has no evidence of widespread voter fraud.

In Georgia, Paxton’s colleague Chris Carr, president of the Association of Republican Prosecutors, which includes Paxton, called Paxton’s allegations “constitutional, legal and factual wrong”. The office of the also Republican Secretary of State, after three recountings, confirmed Biden’s victory and called Texas’s allegations of illegal proceedings “false and irresponsible”.

Dana Nessel, Michigan Attorney General, Democrat, Paxton petition a “Advertising, not a legal submission.”

Texas’s submission refers eight times to the “plaintiff states.” But Texas alone is pursuing the case at this time, suggesting that Paxton’s office was trying to get other states not to join the effort.

Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall suggested on Tuesday that if the Supreme Court agrees to hear the case, his state may be willing to join Texas in the ‘fight to ensure the integrity of elections’.

Five judges are needed to agree to hear such disputes. Legal experts consider this unlikely for many reasons, including reluctance for states to interfere in each other’s affairs.

“If Texas can sue these states for conducting their elections, what can stop Vermont from suing Texas over oil industry regulation or other permutations?” tweeted Steve Vladeck, a law professor at the University of Texas, a frequent critic of Trump, who called the Paxton lawsuit “crazy” and “dangerous, offensive and wasteful … stunt”.

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court summed up a Pennsylvania challenge filed by a congressman and other Republican allies of Trump who claimed the state had violated its own election laws by counting ballots after Election Night. None of the nine judges, including the three appointed by Trump, disagreed. The court did not provide an explanation for the rejection of the application, which often reflects the consensus that there is no merit in a case.

Senator Ted Cruz, who served as Texas lawyer prior to his election in 2012, agreed to sue the plaintiffs.

Paxton’s court submission alleges that the four states it targeted illegally extended the missing votes through an executive or court order instead of legislating, and therefore all such votes are invalid.

“If the rule of law is not upheld, a dark shadow of doubt casts over the outcome of the full election,” said Paxton, co-chair of Trump’s attorneys.

The petition calls on the Supreme Court to postpone the state’s December 14 deadline to certify electors and suggests that state-controlled legislators in the states elect electors. This would mean denying the election of democratic majorities and virtually ignoring the 10.4 million votes.

At the White House summit on the introduction of the COVID-19 vaccine, Governor Greg Abbott defended the lawsuit on Tuesday, calling it a way to “accelerate the provision of security and clarity about the entire election process. The United States needs that. “

In Congress, only a few Allied Trumps accepted the claim that the election was stolen. But only a few dozen GOP lawmakers admitted that Biden also won, including only three from Texas.

Legal experts see little merit in Texas ’efforts to challenge election procedures in other states.

Rick Hasen, chief electoral law expert and Irvine professor at the University of California, erred in the Electoral Law Blog that Paxton’s lawsuit was “full-eyed. Dangerous eyes, but eyes. “