Judges toss 2 attempts to swing election for Trump in 24 hours

Federal judges in Michigan and Georgia on Monday threw out lawsuits filed by Sidney Powell, a lawyer associated with Donald Trump, that sought decertification of the results of the 2020 presidential election that showed Joe Biden had won, marking two defeats in the efforts to overturn the election in less than 24 hours.

The first loss came early Monday morning, when a federal judge in Michigan tossed out a lawsuit filed by Powell and Lin Wood calling for decertification of Biden’s victory by a margin of 3% in the state.

“Plaintiffs ask this court to ignore the orderly statutory scheme established to challenge elections and to ignore the will of millions of voters. This, the Court cannot, and will not, do,” U.S. District Judge Linda Parker wrote in her opinion, adding, “The people have spoken.”

Later Monday morning, U.S. District Judge Timothy Batten tossed a nearly identical lawsuit in Georgia, issuing his ruling from the bench — a rare occurrence that suggests the judge saw no merit in the lawsuit, according to elections expert Marc Elias.

“The relief that the plaintiffs seek, this court cannot grant,” Batten wrote in his decision, the website Law & Crime reports.

Batten called Powell’s lawsuit “the most extraordinary relief ever sought” for an election.

Back on Nov. 14, Trump announced that Powell was a member of his legal team.

But after Powell began spreading conspiracy theories that were too far out of bounds even for a team that was spreading lies about voter fraud with abandon, campaign lawyers Rudy Giuliani and Jenna Ellis said in a statement, “Sidney Powell is practicing law on her own. She is not a member of the Trump Legal Team. She is also not a lawyer for the President in his personal capacity.”

The false conspiracy theories Powell has spread include the claim that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who died in 2013, was behind the development of the software used to count votes in some states.

Ultimately, the states that have certified their results have enough electoral votes for Biden to win him the Electoral College vote on Dec. 14.

Even Trump himself seems to understand this: He is reportedly planning an attempt to steal the spotlight during Biden’s inauguration on Jan. 20, with options including announcing a 2024 bid to try to reclaim the White House and holding a campaign rally in Florida at the same time as the swearing-in of the new president.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.