A federal appeals court denied an effort by the Trump campaign to amend its lawsuit challenging the election results in Pennsylvania.
The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a previous ruling to dismiss the case, which sought to block the state from certifying election results that determined Joe Biden as the winner.
Judge Stephanos Bibas said the lawsuit, led by Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani, has “no merit.”
“The campaign never alleges that any ballot was fraudulent or cast by an illegal voter,” Bibas wrote in the 21-page opinion. “It never alleges that any defendant treated the Trump campaign or its votes worse than it treated the Biden campaign or its votes. Calling something discrimination does not make it so. The Second Amended Complaint still suffers from these core defects, so granting leave to amend would have been futile.”
Bibas, who was appointed by Trump, and two other Republicans-appointed judges ruled 3-0 against the request for an emergency injunction.
“Charges of unfairness are serious,” Bibas wrote. “But calling an election unfair does not make it so. Charges require specific allegations and then proof. We have neither here.”
Trump adviser Jenna Ellis tweeted that the campaign would appeal the decision to the Supreme Court.
“The activist judicial machinery in Pennsylvania continues to cover up the allegations of massive fraud,” she said. “We are very thankful to have had the opportunity to present proof and the facts to the PA state legislature. On to SCOTUS!”
Pennsylvania Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar certified the state’s election results Tuesday. The Trump campaign argued that some Democratic-leaning areas allowed voters to fix administrative errors on their mail-in ballots, putting Trump and Republican voters at a disadvantage. Giuliani sought to add allegations that Republican observers were not allowed to watch the vote counting process.
Trump, who said Thursday that he would leave the White House if the Electoral College votes for Biden, continued to dispute the election results on Twitter on Friday.
“Biden can only enter the White House as President if he can prove that his ridiculous ‘80,000,000 votes’ were not fraudulently or illegally obtained,” Trump said in a tweet labeled by Twitter with “This claim about election fraud is disputed.”
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