Trump campaign drops key request in Pennsylvania lawsuit

President Donald Trump's campaign is withdrawing a central request in its lawsuit seeking to stop certification of election results in Pennsylvania, where Democrat Joe Biden beat Trump to capture state and help win White House. Ahe of a Tuesday hearing in case, Trump's campaign dropped its request in lawsuit that hundreds of thousands of mail-in and absentee ballots 682,479, to be precise be thrown out because y were processed without its representatives able to watch.

campaign's revised lawsuit, filed in federal court on Sunday, maintains aim of blocking Pennsylvania from certifying a victory for Biden in state, and it maintains its claim that Democratic voters were treated more favorably than Republican voters.

Meanwhile, Trump campaign switched up its lawyers in case Monday evening. Exiting is Linda Kerns, a Philelphia lawyer who has handled a number of lawsuits for campaign. Replacing her is Marc Scaringi, a Harrisburg-area lawyer who volunteered on Trump's 2016 campaign, is a conservative activist who hosts a rio talk show and ran unsuccessfully for U.S. Senate in 2012. campaign still contends in lawsuit that hundreds of thousands of ballots weren't properly processed.

Our lawsuit in Pennsylvania absolutely still makes an issue of 682,479 mail-in and absentee ballots that were counted in secret, Trump campaign spokesman Tim Murtaugh tweeted.  campaign said in a statement Monday that it strategically decided to restructure its lawsuit to rely on claims of violations of Equal Protection Clause of 14th Amendment to U.S. Constitution.

Trump campaign isn't making that claim on hundreds of thousands of mail-in and absentee ballots, however.Inste, in revised suit, it targets practice of giving voters an opportunity to fix mail-in ballots that were going to be disqualified for a technicality.It contends some Democratic-run counties allowed voters to do that, while Republican counties did t, arguing Democratic voters were treated more favourably than Republican voters.

Associated Press on v. 7 called presidential contest for Biden after determining that remaining ballots left to be counted in Pennsylvania would t allow Trump to catch up. Trump has refused to concede. lawsuit charges that Democratic-heavy counties violated law by identifying mail-in ballots before Election Day that h defects such as lacking an inner secrecy envelope or lacking a voter's signature on outside envelope so that voter could fix it and ensure that vote would count, called curing.

Republican-heavy counties followed law and did t provide a tice and cure process, disenfranchising many, lawsuit said. Cliff Levine, a lawyer representing Democratic National Committee, which is seeking to intervene, said it's unclear how many voters were given chance to fix ir ballot and that re is thing illegal about it.

But, he said, it is minimal and certainly fewer than margin almost 70,000 that separates Biden and Trump.

numbers aren't even close to margin between two candidates, t even close, Levine said. In any case, re is provision in state law preventing counties from helping voters to fix a ballot that contains a technical deficiency. Levine said lawsuit does t contain any allegation that somebody voted illegally. y really should be suing counties that didn't allow (voters) to make corrections, Levine said.

goal should be making sure every vote counts. Pennsylvania's top election official, Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar, a Democrat, responded in court on Sunday, asking judge to dismiss case. State courts are proper jurisdiction for subject, and lawsuit contains plausible claim for relief on any legal ory, state's lawyers wrote.

More than 2.6 million mail-in ballots were reported received by counties, and re has been report by state or county election officials or a prosecutor of fraud or any or problem with accuracy of count. 
A key me of Trump and his supporters has been ir claim that Philelphia a Democratic bastion where Trump lost bly h t allowed Trump's campaign representatives to watch mail-in and absentee ballots processed and tabulated.

However, Republican lawyers have ackwledged in a separate federal court proceeding that y h certified observers watching mail-in ballots being processed in Philelphia. Gov. Tom Wolf's ministration has said that ballot watchers from all parties h observers throughout process and that any insinuation orwise is a lie.