The Trump campaign’s attempt to block President-elect Joe Biden from being declared winner in Pennsylvania has been rejected by a federal appeals court.
The panel of three judges deemed the case was without merit, saying the Trump campaign had not made specific allegations or provided proof.
The ruling is another major setback for Donald Trump in his attempts to overturn the November 3 election.
On November 26, President Trump said he would give way if Joe Biden was declared the winner.
However, on the next day he again made unfounded allegations of “massive voter fraud”, tweeting: “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.”
The 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals had been asked to consider a lower court’s decision to dismiss the Trump campaign’s attempts to invalidate millions of mail-in votes in Pennsylvania.
The lower court ruling had paved the way for the battleground state to certify Joe Biden’s win, giving him 20 vital Electoral College votes and effectively the presidency.
In giving the appeal court’s opinion, Judge Stephanos Bibas wrote: “Free, fair elections are the lifeblood of our democracy. Charges of unfairness are serious. But calling an election unfair does not make it so.”
“Charges require specific allegations and then proof. We have neither here,” wrote Judge Bibas, who was nominated by President Trump.
Following the ruling, Trump campaign lawyer Jenna Ellis wrote: “On to SCOTUS!”
The Trump campaign has filed a slew of lawsuits alleging voter fraud in several states, but with little success.
Joe Biden is projected to defeat President Trump 306 to 232 in the US electoral college, which determines who becomes president – far above the 270 he needs to win.
Time is running out as states have until December 8 to resolve election disputes before the Electoral College meets on December 14 to formally declare the victor.
Donald Trump’s refusal to concede has upended the process that normally follows a US election.
However, it is not a requirement for Donald Trump to concede in order for Joe Biden to be sworn in as the 46th US president.
President Donald Trump has decided to postpone his first post-coronavirus lockdown election rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, so it does not fall on Juneteenth, the holiday commemorating the end of US slavery.
He tweeted that the June 19 rally would be held a day later out of respect for Juneteenth.
The choice of date had drawn criticism amid nationwide anti-racism protests.
The location was also controversial, as Tulsa saw one of the worst massacres of black people in US history in 1921.
Up to 300 people died when a white mob attacked the prosperous black neighborhood of Greenwood, known as the “Black Wall Street”, with guns and explosives. About 1,000 businesses and homes were also destroyed.
Juneteenth is not a federal holiday, but is widely celebrated by African Americans.
It celebrates the reading of the Emancipation Proclamation to enslaved African Americans in Texas.
Texas was the last state of the Confederacy – the slaveholding southern states that seceded, triggering the Civil War – to receive the proclamation, on June 19, 1865, months after the end of the war.
President Trump initially defended the timing of his rally, telling Fox News: “Think about it as a celebration. My rally is a celebration. In the history of politics, I think I can say there’s never been any group or any person that’s had rallies like I do.”
However, critics accused the president of disrespecting the date and the significance of Tulsa to US history.
Explaining the decision to move his rally, President Trump tweeted: “Many of my African American friends and supporters have reached out to suggest that we consider changing the date out of respect for this Holiday, and in observance of this important occasion and all that it represents. I have therefore decided to move our rally to Saturday, June 20th, in order to honor their requests…”
The “Make America Great Again” rally in Tulsa will be Donald Trump’s first campaign event since March 2, when the coronavirus pandemic put a halt to mass gatherings.
President Trump is seeking re-election in November 2020, but polls show him lagging behind his Democratic rival, Joe Biden.
Campaign rallies are seen as a key method of energizing his base, and Oklahoma is traditionally a Republican-voting state.
The event will proceed against a backdrop of ongoing protests against racial inequality and police brutality, triggered by the death of African American man George Floyd on May 25. George Floyd, who was unarmed, died in police custody in Minneapolis, Minnesota after a policeman knelt on his neck for almost nine minutes.
The rally is being held in a 19,000-seat indoor arena, and concerns have been raised about the potential risks.
Oklahoma has one of the US lowest infection rates, and businesses are reopening – but the state’s Governor Kevin Stitt has urged residents to keep social distancing and to “minimize time spent in crowded environments”.
People buying tickets for the Tulsa rally online have to click on a waiver confirming that they “voluntarily assume all risks related to exposure to Covid-19” and will not hold the president’s campaign responsible for “any illness or injury”.
President Trump has announced he plans to hold further events in Florida, Texas, North Carolina and Arizona.
President Donald Trump says he has spoken to
Attorney General William Barr about tracing the origins of the inquiry that cleared
him of colluding with Russia.
The Republican president described the investigation by former FBI director
Robert Mueller as “an attempted coup”.
William Barr meanwhile said he believes US authorities did spy on the Trump
campaign.
US intelligence officials have previously said they were spying on the
Russians, not the Trump campaign.
Speaking to reporters at the White House on April 10, President Trump railed
against the Department of Justice inquiry into whether the Trump campaign had
conspired with the Kremlin to sway the 2016 election.
The investigation cleared him and his aides of collusion, making no
determination on whether they had tried to obstruct justice.
President Trump said: “This was
an attempted coup. This was an attempted take-down of a president. And we beat
them. We beat them.
“So the Mueller report, when they
talk about obstruction we fight back. And do you know why we fight back?
“Because I knew how illegal this
whole thing was. It was a scam.
“What I’m most interested in is
getting started, hopefully the attorney general, he mentioned it yesterday.
“He’s doing a great job, getting
started on going back to the origins of exactly where this all started.
“Because this was an illegal
witch hunt, and everybody knew it. And they knew it too. And they got caught.
And what they did was treason.”
While President Trump was flying off to Texas, William Barr was appearing
before the Senate Appropriations Committee.
The attorney general was asked whether spying occurred on the Trump campaign
during the 2016 White House race.
“I think spying did occur,”
he said.
“The question is whether it was
adequately predicated.
“I’m not suggesting it was not
adequately predicated, but I need to explore that.”
William Barr said he did not understand why intelligence officials chose not
to warn the Trump campaign that it could be vulnerable to infiltration.
He praised the “outstanding” FBI as a whole, but told the panel: “I think there was probably a failure
among the group of leaders.”
He added: “I feel I have an
obligation to make sure government power is not abused.”
President Trump and his conservative allies have repeatedly suggested the
Obama administration planted a mole in his presidential campaign to undercut
his candidacy.
The former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper was asked on ABC
in May 2018 if the FBI had indeed snooped on the Trump team.
James Clapper replied: “No, they were not. They were spying on – a term
I don’t particularly like – but on what the Russians
were doing.
“Trying to understand were the
Russians infiltrating, trying to gain access, trying to gain leverage and
influence which is what they do.”
The same day in an interview with CNN, James Clapper said: “The objective here was actually to
protect the campaign by determining whether the Russians were infiltrating it
and attempting to exert influence.”
According to the New York Times last year, the FBI sent an informant, an unnamed US academic who teaches in the UK, to speak to two low-level Trump aides, George Papadopoulos and Carter Page, after the agency became suspicious of the pair’s Russian contacts.
Robert Mueller’s memo is mainly to guide sentencing for crimes President Trump’s ex-lawyer has admitted.
A second memo sets out the case against Donald Trump’s ex-campaign chief Paul Manafort for breaching a plea bargain deal.
Michael Cohen and Paul Manafort are among a number of President Trump aides being investigated in Special Counsel RobertMueller’s investigation.
Both have been co-operating with his team but Robert Mueller now accuses Paul Manafort of lying.
In a separate court filing onDecember 7, prosecutors in New York made their case for the length of Michael Cohen’s sentence when it is delivered on December 5.
They say Donald Trump’s ex-lawyer should serve a “substantial” jail term after admitting violating campaign finance laws, committing tax evasion and lying to Congress.
President Trump has repeatedly denied there was any collusion with Russian officials, calling the investigation a “witch hunt”.
The White House said the memos offered nothing new or damaging about the president.
President Trump tweeted: “Totally clears the President. Thank you!”
Michael Cohen had admitted making false statements about a Trump property deal, out of loyalty to the president.
The memo says that although this crime was serious, any sentencing should be served concurrently with the NewYork prosecutors’ recommendations on other crimes.
The memo says Michael Cohen has taken
“significant steps to mitigate his criminal conduct”.
The memo’s key elements are about the Russian links.
According to recent reports, President Donald Trump has appointed lawyer Marc Kasowitz to represent him in an inquiry into Russia’s alleged meddling in the presidential election and any links to the Trump campaign.
President Trump has used services of the New York lawyer – known as a tenacious litigator – for more than a decade.
Donald Trump denies any collusion between his campaign and Russia.
Image source kasowitz.com
However, US intelligence agencies believe Russia tried to tip the 2016 election in favor of Donald Trump.
Marc Kasowitz and the White House have so far made no public comments on the reported appointment.
He is well known to Donald Trump, and it was he who – during the presidential campaign – threatened to sue the New York Times if it didn’t retract a story about Donald Trump touching women inappropriately.
The New York Times stood by its story and a retraction was never published.
The FBI and Congress are also looking into potential links between Donald Trump’s campaign team and Russia.
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