President Trump's lawyers claimed in federal court last week that Wayne County, Mich. actually *didn't* certify its election results (it did). And that because it didn't, Trump's request for a court order preventing the county from certifying is now "moot."
This was in response to a motion from the City of Detroit to strike part of Trump's notice that he was dismissing the case, because it falsely claimed that he had already won. courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…
This isn't remotely how mootness works. If Wayne Co. hadn't certified its results yet, as Trump's lawyers claim, it would still be possible to get an injunction preventing it from doing so (with a meritorious claim).
Trump's lawyers say they have already prevented Wayne Co. from certifying the election, which is false.
But really they want to make it very clear that his Michigan lawsuit is done, an ex-case; and that the judge can't opine on any of this because it the case has ceased to be.
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Anyway, after Georgia voting official @GabrielSterling basically implored people to tone down the rhetoric that's leading to violent threats, Trump ally L. Lin Wood says "You listen up, Gabriel. You're not going to sell our votes to China." Trumps ex-lawyer is in the background.
And now they crowd has moved on to a "lock him up" chant for Georgia's Republican governor.
This is insane. There's no other word for it. This isn't planet Earth.
The witnesses statements that are attached to Powell's Wisconsin election-fraud opus are just .... well, hard to describe.
Exhibit 1 is a recycled declaration from an anonymous Venezuelan who is "of sound mine," but didn't witness anything related to the U.S. election.
Exhibit 17 is a person who thinks it's suspicious that Democrats did better this year in counties where the Republican vote share increased in 2012 and 2016, because obviously that can only go in one direction.
One of the plaintiffs in Sidney Powell's latest election lawsuit says he did not consent to participating in the case. "I learned through social media today that my name was included in a lawsuit without my permission," he said.
Here's Powell's lawsuit describing Derrick Van Orden as one of the plaintiffs. He's also on the caption.
And here's Van Orden saying he was included without permission and that he is "not involved in the lawsuit seeking to overturn the election in Wisconsin."
Gabriel Sterling, Georgia's voting systems manager, is just exasperated. "It has all gone too far." A technician in Gwinnett County was told he should be hung for treason. The Secretary of State's wife is getting "sexualized threats."
"It has to stop."
Sterling, a Georgia election official and a Republican: "Mr. President. It looks like you likely lost the state of Georgia. ... Stop inspiring people to commit potential acts of violence. Someone's going to get hurt, someone's going to get shot, someone's going to get killed."
"These are elections. One of our goals was to make elections boring again. Well guess what, that didn't happen. This is all wrong."
The Third Cir. has rejected Trump's appeal. Decisively.
"Free, fair elections are the lifeblood of our democracy. Charges of unfairness are serious. But calling an election unfair does not make it so. Charges require specific allegations and then proof. We have neither here."
The court rejects Trump's arguments pretty categorically. He loses on everything. And there's no point in letting him file a new complaint, because he'd lose on that too.
The court also says Trump can't get an injunction to overturn Pennsylvania's election results. "The campaign's claims have no merit," it says. "Tossing out millions of mail-in votes would be drastic and unprecedented, disenfranchising a huge swath of the electorate."
I read the "Kraken." It's an encyclopedia of every half-baked election-fraud theory that's circulated online (with extra typos), including a few that have already been rejected in court.
The only thing at all about it that surprised me was that actual GOP officials signed on.
The lawsuit quotes extensively from witnesses in another case that had been filed in Michigan state court.
What it doesn't say: The state judge didn't buy this *at all.* He found that witnesses didn't know what they were talking about; they were "incorrect and not credible."
It quotes the expert who mixed up Michigan and Minnesota in his analysis that got included as the infamous "Exhibit Q" in a case in Georgia.