Giuliani argues to block Biden win in Pennsylvania

Rudy Giuliani, President Donald Trump's personal attorney, returned to federal court Tuesday after a long hiatus to accuse Democrats in control of big cities of hatching a nationwide conspiracy to steal the election, even though no such evidence has emerged in the two weeks since Election Day.

The court case is over the Trump campaign's federal lawsuit seeking to prevent Pennsylvania officials from certifying the vote results. Lawyers defending the Democratic secretary of state, Philadelphia and several counties said the Trump campaign's arguments lack any constitutional basis or were rendered irrelevant by a state Supreme Court decision Tuesday.

They asked U.S. District Judge Matthew Brann to throw out the case, calling the allegations “at best, garden-variety irregularities" that would not warrant throwing out Pennsylvania's election results, which delivered a victory for President-elect Joe Biden. Giuliani, the former New York City mayor, baselessly asserted there was a wide-ranging scheme to steal the election from Trump in big cities in Pennsylvania and 10 other places.

“The best description of this situation is widespread, nationwide voter fraud, of which this is a part. ... This is not an isolated case, this is a case that is repeated in at least 10 other jurisdictions,” Giuliani said.

The dozens of affidavits Trump's lawyers filed in the case, however, do not assert widespread fraud, but rather the potential for something fishy to occur because partisan poll watchers weren’t given an opportunity to view the results. Tuesday’s hearing focused on the Trump campaign’s request for a temporary restraining order, as well as Democrats’ request to have the case dismissed.

Giuliani - who had not argued a case in federal court since 1992, according to online court filings - asked Brann to let him put on evidence to back up his claims. Trump's campaign has not been shy in previous weeks about publicizing what they say is evidence of election fraud. Brann has scheduled a hearing for Thursday to hear evidence - if he decides against dismissing the case.

There is no evidence of widespread fraud in the 2020 election, and experts say Trump’s various lawsuits have no chance of reversing the outcome in a single state, let alone the election. In fact, officials of both political parties have stated publicly that the election went well, and international observers confirmed there were no serious irregularities. The Trump campaign wants to prevent certification of results that give Biden Pennsylvania's 20 electoral votes.

The Trump campaign’s lawsuit is based on a complaint that Philadelphia and some Democratic-controlled counties in Pennsylvania let voters make corrections to mail-in ballots that were otherwise going to be disqualified for a technicality, like lacking a secrecy envelope or a signature. It is not clear how many ballots that could involve, although some opposing lawyers say it is far too few to overturn the election result. 

(Image Credits: AP)