President Donald Trump
Carlos Barria | Reuters
A federal appeals court on Friday rejected an attempt from President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign to keep alive its effort to undo the result of Pennsylvania’s presidential election.
A three-judge panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit wrote in a blistering opinion that the Trump campaign’s “claims have no merit.”
The appellate court’s decision affirmed a federal judge’s ruling from a week earlier, which denied the Trump campaign’s request to block the Keystone State from certifying that President-elect Joe Biden won its election.
The court opinion marks the latest court loss for Trump, who has refused to concede the election to Biden and is falsely asserting that he won the race. On Wednesday, Trump flatly stated, “We have to turn the election over.”
Trump’s personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, had argued on behalf of the Trump campaign in the case before U.S. District Court Judge Matthew Brann in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. Giuliani has led the Trump campaign’s charge in the court of public opinion, spreading unproven claims of widespread voter fraud that he asserts tipped the outcome of the election.
But the appeals court noted in its 21-page opinion that when standing before Brann in court, Giuliani said that the campaign “doesn’t plead fraud” in the case.
“Calling an election unfair does not make it so,” the opinion read. “Charges require specific allegations and then proof. We have neither here.”
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