Conservative group decides not to bother suing over 'voter fraud' after all

A conservative group on Monday moved to dismiss voter fraud lawsuits it had filed in four states days after the group’s leader made baseless allegations questioning the integrity of the election.

Lawyers for True the Vote filed notices to dismiss cases in Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania less than a week after suing in all four states. Jim Bopp Jr., an attorney for the group, declined to say why they were ending their lawsuits, but confirmed there were no other cases pending from the group.

The action highlighted the dwindling legal options that Donald Trump has as he continues to insist — against overwhelming evidence to the contrary — that fraud cost him an election he claims to have won.

Based in Houston, True the Vote is one of several conservative groups that have tried to sow doubts about President-elect Joe Biden’s victory. Following Trump’s lead, True the Vote founder Catherine Engelbrecht accused states that Biden won of counting illegal votes, without presenting evidence.

“All we want are the facts — regardless of the final outcome — so that we can determine where vulnerabilities in the election system exist and take steps to fix them,” Engelbrecht said in a statement Friday announcing the group’s Wisconsin lawsuit.

Instead, Engelbrecht’s group ended that case and others before the lawsuits could proceed further. Engelbrecht did not return messages seeking comment.

Several other lawsuits filed by the Trump campaign and its supporters have been rejected by judges, dismissed voluntarily, or settled. Others are still pending.

Also Monday, lawyers suing on behalf of the Trump campaign in Pennsylvania moved to withdraw from the case. They were replaced by Marc Scaringi, a Harrisburg-area lawyer who volunteered on Trump’s 2016 campaign, is a conservative activist who hosts a radio talk show, and ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate in 2012.

Trump has won at least two victories in court. A Pennsylvania judge ordered authorities in Philadelphia to let observers be physically closer to the tallying of mail-in ballots. Another judge in the state ordered counties not to count mail-in or absentee ballots for which the voter didn’t submit valid identification within six days after the election, but that ruling is expected to affect no more than a few thousand ballots.

Biden leads Trump in Pennsylvania by 67,000 votes.