Texas AG files desperate last-minute lawsuit to stop Trump's election loss

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Tuesday filed a lawsuit with the U.S. Supreme Court seeking to block four states in which Joe Biden beat Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election from certifying their election results.

The suit, State of Texas v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, State of Georgia, State of Michigan, and State of Wisconsin, also asks the court to require those states to hold entirely new elections — a move to try to buy time for Trump to come up with a way to steal the 2020 election that he lost in a “landslide.”

The lawsuit was filed on so-called safe harbor day, which is a deadline set by federal law for states to resolve election disputes and for Congress to count the electoral votes of states that have met the deadline before the Electoral College meets to formally vote on the winner of the presidential election six days later.

Legal experts say the lawsuit is destined to fail, with the Supreme Court unlikely to hear the challenge at all.

University of Texas School of Law professor Steve Vladeck tweeted, “It looks like we have a new leader in the ‘craziest lawsuit filed to purportedly challenge the election’ category. The State of Texas is suing Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan and Wisconsin *directly* in #SCOTUS. (Spoiler Alert: The Court is *never* going to hear this one.)”

“So chalk this up as mostly a stunt — a dangerous, offensive, and wasteful one, but a stunt nonetheless,” he added.

Paxton’s suit is the latest attempt by Republicans lawmakers across the country to stop the official count of the election won by President-elect Biden.

Like the other legal challenges that have failed one by one in both state and federal courts, Paxton’s lawsuit relies on lies about voter fraud that Trump and his allies have provided no evidence for and that have been debunked.

And with the safe harbor deadline here, the window to overturn Trump’s loss is likely closed.

Paxton has a history of questionable and allegedly fraudulent actions.

He was one of the parties in a lawsuit filed with the Supreme Court and recently heard that, if successful, would overturn the Affordable Care Act and deprive millions of Americans of health insurance in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic.

And Paxton has been under criminal indictment on charges of felony securities fraud since 2015. He is also currently under federal investigation for allegedly abusing the powers of his office to help a donor.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.