Just "stoking his base" and pilfering their pockets
This morning from the Associated Press;In response to:
Few legal wins so far as Trump team hunts for proof of fraud
MARYCLAIRE DALE and ALANNA DURKIN RICHER
Thu, November 12, 2020, 12:16 AM EST
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — During a Pennsylvania court hearing this week on one of the many election lawsuits brought by President Donald Trump, a judge asked a campaign lawyer whether he had found any signs of fraud from among the 592 ballots challenged.
The answer was no.
“Accusing people of fraud is a pretty big step,” said the lawyer, Jonathan Goldstein. “We’re all just trying to get an election done.”
Trump has not been so cautious, insisting without evidence that the election was stolen from him even when election officials nationwide from both parties say there has been no conspiracy.
On Wednesday, Trump took aim at Philadelphia, the Democratic stronghold that helped push President-elect Joe Biden over the 270 Electoral College votes needed to win the race. The president accused a local Republican election official, Al Schmidt, of ignoring "a mountain of corruption & dishonesty.” Twitter added a label that said the election fraud claim is disputed.
Trump loyalists have filed at least 15 legal challenges in Pennsylvania alone in an effort to reclaim the state’s 20 electoral votes. There is action, too, in Georgia, Arizona, Nevada and Michigan.
In court, his lawyers must walk a precarious line between advocating for their client and upholding their professional oath.
Legal ethicists and pro-democracy activists have questioned the participation of lawyers in this quest, as Trump clings to power and President-elect Joe Biden rolls out his agenda.
“This may be an attempt to appease the ego in chief, but there are real world consequences for real people that come out of that,” said Loyola Law School professor Justin Levitt, a former Justice Department elections official. “The attempt to soothe the president’s ego is not a victimless crime.”
Schmidt told CBS' “60 Minutes” that his office has received death threats simply for counting votes.
“From the inside looking out, it feels all very deranged,” Schmidt said in an interview that aired Sunday. “Counting votes cast on or before Election Day by eligible voters is not corruption. It is not cheating. It is democracy.”
Untold voters, however, are accepting Trump’s claim about a rigged election and are donating to his legal fund.
A law firm involved in the election suits, Ohio-based Porter Wright Morris & Arthur, appeared to take down its Twitter feed Tuesday after it was inundated with attacks. The firm declined to address questions from The Associated Press about the feed in a statement issued Wednesday that said it had a long history of election work.
A second firm, Jones Day, said it was representing not the Trump campaign but the Pennsylvania GOP, in litigation before the U.S. Supreme Court over the three-day extension to accept mail-in ballots.
Nationally, the strategy is being run by Trump allies such as Rudy Giuliani, the president’s personal attorney; political operative David Bossie, who is not an attorney; and Jay Sekulow, a lead lawyer during the president’s impeachment trial this year. Bossie recently tested positive for COVID-19.
Election law expert Rick Hasen said he would expect to see top-drawer Supreme Court litigators involved, such as two former solicitors general, Paul Clement or Theodore Olson, if Trump had a strong case.
“There are certain names of elite lawyers that signal to the Supreme Court that something is serious,” said Hasen, a professor at the University of California, Irvine. Instead, “the campaign announced that it was putting Rudy Giuliani and David Bossie in charge.” ....
Few legal wins so far as Trump team hunts for proof of fraud
MARYCLAIRE DALE and ALANNA DURKIN RICHER
Thu, November 12, 2020, 12:16 AM EST
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — During a Pennsylvania court hearing this week on one of the many election lawsuits brought by President Donald Trump, a judge asked a campaign lawyer whether he had found any signs of fraud from among the 592 ballots challenged.
The answer was no.
“Accusing people of fraud is a pretty big step,” said the lawyer, Jonathan Goldstein. “We’re all just trying to get an election done.”
Trump has not been so cautious, insisting without evidence that the election was stolen from him even when election officials nationwide from both parties say there has been no conspiracy.
On Wednesday, Trump took aim at Philadelphia, the Democratic stronghold that helped push President-elect Joe Biden over the 270 Electoral College votes needed to win the race. The president accused a local Republican election official, Al Schmidt, of ignoring "a mountain of corruption & dishonesty.” Twitter added a label that said the election fraud claim is disputed.
Trump loyalists have filed at least 15 legal challenges in Pennsylvania alone in an effort to reclaim the state’s 20 electoral votes. There is action, too, in Georgia, Arizona, Nevada and Michigan.
In court, his lawyers must walk a precarious line between advocating for their client and upholding their professional oath.
Legal ethicists and pro-democracy activists have questioned the participation of lawyers in this quest, as Trump clings to power and President-elect Joe Biden rolls out his agenda.
“This may be an attempt to appease the ego in chief, but there are real world consequences for real people that come out of that,” said Loyola Law School professor Justin Levitt, a former Justice Department elections official. “The attempt to soothe the president’s ego is not a victimless crime.”
Schmidt told CBS' “60 Minutes” that his office has received death threats simply for counting votes.
“From the inside looking out, it feels all very deranged,” Schmidt said in an interview that aired Sunday. “Counting votes cast on or before Election Day by eligible voters is not corruption. It is not cheating. It is democracy.”
Untold voters, however, are accepting Trump’s claim about a rigged election and are donating to his legal fund.
A law firm involved in the election suits, Ohio-based Porter Wright Morris & Arthur, appeared to take down its Twitter feed Tuesday after it was inundated with attacks. The firm declined to address questions from The Associated Press about the feed in a statement issued Wednesday that said it had a long history of election work.
A second firm, Jones Day, said it was representing not the Trump campaign but the Pennsylvania GOP, in litigation before the U.S. Supreme Court over the three-day extension to accept mail-in ballots.
Nationally, the strategy is being run by Trump allies such as Rudy Giuliani, the president’s personal attorney; political operative David Bossie, who is not an attorney; and Jay Sekulow, a lead lawyer during the president’s impeachment trial this year. Bossie recently tested positive for COVID-19.
Election law expert Rick Hasen said he would expect to see top-drawer Supreme Court litigators involved, such as two former solicitors general, Paul Clement or Theodore Olson, if Trump had a strong case.
“There are certain names of elite lawyers that signal to the Supreme Court that something is serious,” said Hasen, a professor at the University of California, Irvine. Instead, “the campaign announced that it was putting Rudy Giuliani and David Bossie in charge.” ....
(continued in my first comment below)
Comments (14)
Pennsylvania court: Secretary of state lacked authority to change deadline 2 days before Election Day
Judge ruled ballots that were previously set aside should not be counted
Georgia’s legacy of voter suppression is driving historic Black turnout
Changing demographics in the Atlanta suburbs and an explosion of civic engagement among first-time voters could turn the state blue for the first time in decades.
10/26/2020
By MAYA KING
ATLANTA — Almost every Black Georgia voter queuing up at the polls has a story about 2018.
Most waited for hours in lines that wrapped around their voting locations. Some were removed from the voter rolls arbitrarily, forcing them to fill out confusing provisional ballots on Election Day. Others stayed home altogether and — after watching Democrat Stacey Abrams lose the gubernatorial race by fewer than 60,000 votes — regretted that decision.
Now, voter enthusiasm among all races is at an all-time high in one of the most consequential battleground states in the country. So is voter anxiety.
In the shadows of billboards along I-85 and I-20 encouraging Atlantans to “VOTE EARLY,” barriers to that act loom large. There were reminders of this again during June’s egregious primary election: In populous, rapidly diversifying metro Atlanta counties like Fulton and Cobb, wait times extended up to six hours after polling locations were consolidated during the pandemic. The state’s new electronic voting machines also frequently malfunctioned, further slowing the ballot casting process.
Voters interviewed by POLITICO said anger over perceived voter suppression tactics is fueling their eagerness to cast early ballots. And indeed, Georgians are voting in numbers never seen before in the state’s history. Since Oct. 12, the first day of early voting, a staggering 2.7 million voters have cast a ballot — a nearly 110 percent increase from 2016. Beyond that, Democrats are organizing caravans, volunteering as election workers and serving as poll watchers. This level of enthusiasm is also a reflection of apprehension about the election: Voters here are turning out in waves.
Georgia “has been a solid red state,” said LaTosha Brown, a Georgia native and co-founder of Black Voters Matter, which has mobilized African American voters across the South. But now, she said, “It's a purple state. You're seeing a rapid shift in the demographics. So this isn't about just partisanship. This is about power.”
Do you ever check your sources, Soon?
#2. Where is the evidence ??