Mike Pence says Gohmert’s trial to quash election is directed against ‘wrong defendant’

Vice President Mike Pence responded on Friday to a lawsuit brought against him by Republican Texas Rep. Louie Gohmert and 12 Arizona Republicans by asking that Gohmert’s litigation be dismissed in court.

Gohmert filed a lawsuit against Pence on Monday, which sought to prevent Pence from declaring President-elect Joe Biden the electoral college winner. Congress is expected to meet on Wednesday to certify Biden’s victory. In his trial, Gohmert alleged that Pence had “the exclusive authority and sole discretion to open and permit the counting of electoral votes for a given state”. Since President Donald Trump claimed that electoral fraud in some states tipped the election in favor of Biden, Gohmert has alleged that Pence’s expected certification of Biden’s victory would be “unconstitutional.”

In Friday’s response to Gohmert’s litigation, Assistant Deputy Attorney General John V. Coghlan wrote that Gohmert’s trial is “not an appropriate way” to approach the counting of the electoral votes “because the plaintiffs have sued the wrong defendant “.

“The vice president – the only defendant in this case – is ironically the very person whose power they seek to promote,” the court documents continued. “The Senate and the House, not the Vice-President, have legal interests which are sufficiently unfavorable to complainants to form a matter or controversy under Article III.” The Respondent respectfully requests that the Complainants’ Emergency Motion be dismissed because the relief that the Complainants seek is not properly found against the Vice President. “

Newsweek contacted Gohmert’s office for comment.

Pence, as part of his duties as President of the Senate, is expected to chair the electoral vote count in Congress. Since all 50 states have officially certified their election results, election votes are set. Pence’s role in the proceedings is expected to be minimal. Gohmert said Wednesday his trial was aimed at prompting Pence to take a more active role in the event and reject some electoral votes.

“Five states send two groups of voters and [Pence] must be able to determine which are fraud-based and which are not fraud-based, “Gohmert said in an interview with KLTV.” So that’s what we’re looking for, a statement that he can do just that. “

No hearing date for the case, which has been filed with the United States District Court in the Eastern District of Texas, has been announced.

Gohmert’s attempts to alter the Electoral College’s results were not the only ones planned by the GOP. Some Republicans have come forward and said they will formally oppose electoral votes in states where suspected electoral fraud has occurred. Formal contestations of votes must be submitted by both a member of the House and a member of the Senate. Republican Senator from Missouri, Josh Hawley, said Wednesday he would challenge the certification to vote as have a number of GOP House members. The precise number of Republican officials who plan to issue objections is still unknown.

Republicans’ efforts to reverse the election results are expected to fail. Trump won 232 electoral votes in the November election while Biden received 306 electoral votes, more than the 270 votes required to be declared the Electoral College winner.

In a social media post on Wednesday, Republican Nebraska Senator Ben Sasse criticized the move to sabotage the certification of the electoral vote.

“We have a group of ambitious politicians who believe there is a quick way to tap into the president’s populist base without causing real long-term damage,” Sasse wrote. “But they are wrong – and this problem is beyond anyone’s personal ambitions. Adults do not point a loaded gun at the heart of legitimate self-reliance.”