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WASHINGTON (AP) – President Donald Trump has vowed legal action in the coming days by refusing to concede his loss to Democrat Joe Biden, calling on donors to help fund any legal battle.
Trump and his campaign have brought charges of large-scale electoral fraud in Pennsylvania and other states that have gone bankrupt for Biden, so far without evidence.
But senior officials, campaign aides and allies told The Associated Press the overwhelming evidence of fraud was not really the issue.
The strategy for waging a legal fight against the votes counted for Biden in Pennsylvania and other places is more to provide Trump with an exit for a loss he can’t quite comprehend and less to alter the election outcome , officials said. They spoke to AP on condition of anonymity to discuss internal strategy.
Trump’s aides and allies have also privately acknowledged that legal battles will – at best – prevent the inevitable, and some had deep reservations about the president’s attempts to undermine confidence in the vote. But they said Trump and a core group of loyalists aimed to keep his base of supporters on his side even if defeated.
There has never been a presidential election in memory where such widespread fraud has been alleged.
Moments after the AP called the race for Biden, Trump’s attorney Rudy Giuliani stood in front of a campaign banner stuck to the garage door of a Philadelphia landscaping company, wedged between a cremation center and an adult bookstore, with a handful of poll watchers and said they had been held too far to verify any inaccuracies.
“We have no way of knowing because we have been denied the right to inspect the ballots,” he said.
Election observers are nominated by a political party or campaign to report any concerns they may have. It is not election officials who count the ballots. Monitoring of polling stations and polling stations is permitted in most states, but the rules vary and there are certain limits to avoid harassment or intimidation. They are not allowed to interfere with the conduct of the election and are usually required to register in advance with the local election office.
This year, due to the coronavirus which has killed more than 230,000 people across the country, there has been litigation in a few states, including Pennsylvania, over where poll observers could stand to ensure distancing social.
Lawyers could argue that the vote count should be put aside due to the fraud observed by poll observers, but to win this argument they would need evidence, not just allegations that observers were not allowed to be seen clearly enough. Judges are loath to deny voters the right to vote, and substantial proof would be needed that the fraud damaged the tally so much that it must be overturned.
Democratic observers, who also had the same access, did not raise concerns. Giuliani called evidence of circumstantial fraud at the press conference. He said he would file a complaint in Federal Court, but the matter has already been referred to the judges.
A federal judge in Philadelphia on Thursday night ordered the two sides to come to an agreement on the number of poll observers and their proximity to the count. The judge also expressed concerns about the safety of polling officers during the pandemic if observers were allowed to look over their shoulders.
On Sunday, on Fox News Channel’s “Sunday Morning Futures,” Giuliani said two more lawsuits were being drafted, in addition to existing litigation in Pennsylvania.
At the end of this week, Giuliani predicted that the campaign would have filed “four or five” lawsuits, with a total of 10 possible.
Election fraud is extremely rare and when it does occur people are usually arrested and prosecuted and it does not change the outcome of the election. Typically, this is someone who wishes to honor the wishes of a recently deceased loved one and knowingly or unknowingly commits a crime by filling out this ballot.
Trump campaign officials also alleged that more than 21,000 were dumped on behalf of the dead in Pennsylvania. The allegations stem from a lawsuit brought by a conservative legal group against the secretary of state, accusing her of wrongly including 21,000 residents believed to have died on the electoral rolls.
Federal judge who has the case, John Jones, said he doubts the allegations. He said the Public Interest Legal Foundation that filed the complaint was asking the court to accept that there were deaths on the electoral roll, and he asked for evidence and wondered why they had waited until the “Eleventh hour” to bring an action.
“We cannot and will not take the complainant’s word for this – in an election where every vote counts, we will not deny potentially eligible voters solely on the basis of allegations from a private foundation,” he said. written in a decision of October 20.
Even the Trump administration rebuffed allegations of widespread electoral fraud and illegal voting, although it did not mention that Trump was the one making the allegations. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, the federal agency that oversees election security in the United States, also noted that local election offices have detection measures that “make it very difficult to fraud through fake ballots.” .
Senior election officials from the states of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Nevada – Republicans and Democrats – all said they saw no widespread voting irregularities, major cases of fraud or illegal activity.
Meanwhile, in a call with supporters on Saturday, Trump’s campaign manager Bill Stepien urged them to be ready to continue the fight for Trump, including standing up for rallies and protests. Other assistants pointed out what they considered to be irregularities in the count.
And Republicans stuck to the idea that all “legal” votes should be counted – language loaded with a clear implication that Democrats want illegal votes counted, a claim for which there is no evidence.
It’s a precarious balance for Trump’s allies as they try to back the president – and avoid risking further fallout – but face the reality of the vote count.
According to a Republican who granted anonymity to discuss the private conversation, Republicans on Capitol Hill gave Trump the space he needed to consider all legal options and allow the process to unfold.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has yet to make any public statements – neither congratulating Biden nor joining Trump’s complaints about the results.
“I’m not sure his position would have changed from yesterday – counting all the votes, judging all the claims,” said Scott Jennings, a Kentucky Republican strategist allied with McConnell. “My feeling is that there will be no tolerance for beyond what the law allows. There will be tolerance for what the law allows.
This was a view shared by several other Republicans who neither supported nor rejected the result.
“Nothing that I have seen regarding the election raises a legal issue that could be successful. There is just nothing there, ”said Barry Richard, who represented George W. Bush in the 2000 Florida recount that ended up in the United States Supreme Court. “When this type of lawsuit is brought, it only breeds contempt for the entire legal system,” he said.
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Associated Press editors Lisa Mascaro and Meg Kinnard of Columbia, SC contributed to this report.
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