A federal judge on Monday quickly dismissed a lawsuit filed by conservative attorney Sidney Powell that sought to overturn President Donald Trump’s election loss to Joe Biden in Georgia.
The dismissal, and a rejection earlier Monday in a similar case by Powell in Michigan, are serious blows to Trump’s long-shot effort to deny Biden a victory next week in the Electoral College.
The ruling in Georgia by Judge Timothy Batten Sr. came less than 90 minutes into a hearing in Atlanta federal court, where Powell had claimed that Trump was the victim of massive ballot fraud related to Georgia’s use of Dominion voting machines.
“The relief that the plaintiffs seek this court cannot grant,” Batten said.
“They ask the court to order the secretary of state to decertify the election results as if such a mechanism even exists, and I find that it does not.”
Batten did not rule on the merits of Powell’s claim, which were made on behalf of a slate of would-be Trump electors in the Electoral College.
Instead, the judge granted motions to dismiss the lawsuit on the grounds that the suit did not belong in federal court.
Batten repeatedly suggested that Powell could have filed her lawsuit in state court, and he cited an federal appeals court ruling that “federal courts don’t entertain post-election conduct, excuse me, contests about vote-counting misconduct.”
Batten also said he found that the plaintiffs in the case did not have legal standing to bring the lawsuit.
“In their complaint, the plaintiffs essentially ask the court for perhaps the most extraordinary relief ever sought in any federal court in connection with an election,” the judge said.
“They want this court to substitute its judgment for that of 2.5 million Georgia voters who voted for Joe Biden, and this I am unwilling to do.”
Batten had opened the hearing by noting a highly unusual aspect of Powell’s lawsuit: It alleged that a state run by a Republican governor and an election overseen by a Republican secretary of state — both of whom are Trump supporters — had effectively allowed systemic voting fraud to benefit the president’s Democratic opponent, Biden.
In the Michigan case, federal Judge Linda Parker rejected Powell’s request for an injunction against the vote tally showing a Biden victory in that state, saying that the lawyer’s allegations of fraud were based on “nothing but speculation and conjecture.”
Sidney Powell is no stranger to fighting against the odds.
Her most recent example?
The case with General Flynn.
Our opinion?
Don’t bet against Sidney Powell!
REPORT: Sidney Powell says American Elections are Just as Rigged as in Third World Countries…
JUST IN: Sidney Powell says there should be "at least three states before the Supreme Court with enough electoral votes to change the outcome before the end of the week.”
U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., ordered Pennsylvania officials to respond to Rep. Mike Kelly’s election challenge a day earlier than previously scheduled, which will be on the same day known as the safe harbor deadline.
Kelly, a Republican, is seeking to have the court toss all the state’s mail-in ballots on the grounds that universal, no-excuses mail-in voting is unconstitutional and needs a constitutional amendment to authorize its provisions.
Alito, who was appointed by President George W. Bush, had previously ordered that the state’s lawyers respond to Kelly’s suit by Dec. 9, a day after the safe harbor date, which would mean that Congress cannot challenge any electors already named in accordance with state law. The law frees up states from challenges as long as it settles legal issues and certifies results prior to the Electoral College meeting.
Alito moved Kelly’s case up 24 hours and wants state officials to respond by 9 a.m. on Tuesday, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The report pointed out that the updated hearing on Dec. 8 “would give the court a few hours” to act on the information received.
The paper pointed out that Richard L. Hasen, an election law professor at the University of California-Irvine, posted on his personal blog that he is not reading too much into Alito’s move. He said that he believes that the “chances the court grants any relief on this particular petition are virtually zero.”
Kelly, a Republican from Butler, Pa., wants the courts to rule that more than 2.5 million mail-in ballots are tossed, which would all but secure a victory for President Trump in the Keystone State because a vote would be taken in the state’s Republican-controlled Legislature.
Alito is the justice who is assigned to these kinds of emergency requests from the state. Both Rudy Giuliani and Jenna Ellis, two lawyers on Trump’s legal team, retweeted a post from Fox News contributor Tammy Bruce that linked to an article in LegalInsurrection.com. She quoted the author of the article, “So what is this about? More mind-reading: It takes the “safe harbor” issue off the table if that were an impediment to SCOTUS issuing a substantive ruling.
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