Texas Judge Rejects Gohmert Suit Aimed at Empowering Mike Pence to Overturn Election Results
A Texas judge dismissed a lawsuit by Republican Louie Gohmert that aimed to give Vice President Mike Pence the power to overturn the results of the presidential election.
Lawyers for VP Pence had asked for the case to be thrown out on December 31.
Mike Pence, as president of the Senate, will oversee the session on January 6 and declare the winner of the White House race.
President-elect Joe Biden is due to take office on January 20.
President Donald Trump is yet to concede.
Louie Gohmert told Newsmax TV that he planned to appeal against the verdict.
President Trump’s friends and colleagues in the Republican party have presented dozens of legal challenges to the November outcome which delivered a decisive win to Joe Biden.
Joe Biden’s victory was announced after days of vote-counting that took longer than in recent years because of the huge number of postal ballots cast due to the coronavirus pandemic.
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President Trump has made numerous unsubstantiated claims that Joe Biden’s win, which saw the president-elect gain 306 Electoral College votes to his rival’s 232, was fraudulent.
Congressman Gohmert’s case sought to allow VP Mike Pence to reject some Electoral College votes when they are ratified by Congress on January 6.
The vice-president presides over the vote certification in Congress in a ceremonial role that involves opening and tallying the envelopes containing Electoral College votes before announcing the result.
Gohmert’s case aimed to expand that role to allow VP Pence to cast judgment on the validity of the votes and potentially replace votes for Joe Biden with ones for Donald Trump.
Judge Jeremy Kernodle, who was appointed to the Texas court in 2018 by President Trump, rejected the case, saying it was based on speculative events.
On December 31, a lawyer from the DoJ representing Mike Pence urged Louie Gohmert to drop the case, suggesting that it was not the vice-president’s office that should be scrutinizing the outcome.
Although most Republicans in Congress are expected to vote in favor of certifying the results, a small number including Senator Josh Hawley, say they plan to object. But their vote is not expected to change the outcome.
Joe Biden is due to be sworn in as president on January 20 at a scaled-back ceremony with just 1,000 tickets available due to Covid-19 precautions.