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It is the latest, and possibly the last, in a desperate effort by President Donald Trump and his allies to cling to power amid the victory of President-elect Joe Biden. In his lawsuit, Gohmert says he expects more than 140 House members to join the challenge to Biden’s victory on January 6. He also noted that House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy and GOP Whip Steve Scalise disagreed with the House’s legal arguments against Gohmert’s trial.
While Gohmert’s long-term effort would throw the democratic election results away, his lawyers argue that overturning the 130-year-old law that governs how Congress counts electoral votes – and put all the power between the Hands of Pence – is the best way to heal a deeply divided population. nation.
“By reaffirming the constitutional conditions and processes necessary to decide the presidential election and grant the relief sought, this Court can pave the way for a calm and permanent resolution of all objections and help facilitate the path to a reliable and peaceful conclusion. of the presidential election. electoral process, ”Gohmert’s lawyers wrote.
Gohmert’s latest submission argues that Pence, through his lawyers, downplays and even trivializes his role – relegating himself to a position of ‘chief glorified envelope bearer’.
Although the Twelfth Amendment to the Constitution requires Pence, as Vice President, to preside over the January 6 session, his authority is detailed in the Electoral Tally Act of 1887. It requires Pence to present voters in alphabetical order by state, and it sets out a process for MPs and Senators to challenge contested voters.
Under the Election Count Act, that challenge would be resolved by separate votes from the House and Senate – and in the case of the 2020 election, those challenges would effectively be doomed to fail. The majority in the Democratic House would certainly oppose them, and the tightly divided Senate includes a large number of Republicans who have recognized Biden as the clear winner of the contest.
If Pence refused to accept enough electoral votes to put either candidate above the 270 vote threshold, Gohmert runs in his trial, the election would be sent back to the House as part of a process also defined in the Twelfth Amendment, which gives state delegations a single vote. This wording would favor Republicans, who are in the House minority but control more state delegations than Democrats.
Pence thursday urged the court to dismiss Gohmert’s lawsuit against him, arguing that his fight is with the House and Senate, not the Vice President, who would be empowered if Gohmert wins. Pence did not indicate his own vision of his power as sitting chairman on January 6, and he did not indicate whether he intends to present the unofficial voters lists that Trump allies claim to have thrown in order to compete with the certified lists submitted. in states like Arizona, Michigan, Wisconsin and Georgia.
The Chamber submitted its own brief, more comprehensive, dismantling Gohmert’s effort as an unconstitutional and thinly veiled effort to overturn the democratic result of the 2020 election. The drafters would never have foreseen a process allowing a sitting vice president – often, as in this case, a real candidate in the electoral college ballot – to have the unilateral power to choose which voters to count, argued the House.
Gohmert’s new brief argues that Pence is the appropriate defendant in the case, but also says the congressman could add the United States or members of the House or Senate as defendants if that clarified Gohmert’s right to a repair.
Justice Department attorneys representing Pence argue that Pence is not an appropriate or logical defendant for Gohmert’s trial and that whatever the Congressman’s grievance is, it belongs to the House, the Senate, or both.
Gohmert’s effort received additional support on Friday from Republicans who would have voted for Trump had he won Michigan. The group filed a 44-page brief arguing that the current rules for counting electoral votes in Congress should be removed so that Pence alone decides the outcome.
U.S. District Court Judge Jeremy Kernodle, a Trump-appointed person who sits in Tyler, Texas, has not set a hearing on Gohmert’s lawsuit or indicated when the court can rule. But the judge set a quick timeline for filings in the case, including the unusual New Year’s deadline for the congressman’s latest brief.
Gohmert argued he needed Kernodle to render a decision by Jan.4 to resolve any potential appeals before the Jan.6 session.
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