A JUDGE dismissed the last-gasp lawsuit led by GOP Rep Gohmert trying to force Mike Pence to to help hand the election to Donald Trump, reports say.
Rep Louie Gohmert of Texas and Arizona Republicans hoped to force the vice president to throw the election to Trump when Congress meets to count the Electoral College votes – but the suit was thrown out on Friday.
Texas Judge Jeremy Kernodle of the Eastern District ruled that Gohmert and the other GOP plaintiffs didn’t have standing to sue over their suggestion that only Pence could decide what electoral votes count.
The lawsuit was based on unfounded claims of widespread voter fraud and allegations that President-elect Joe Biden won illegally when coronavirus changed voting rules.
Kernodle’s ruling was the latest in a slew of pro-Trump cases that have been rejected in federal courts, noted CNN.
The judge wrote that Gohmert “alleges at most an institutional injury to the House of Representatives” but determined that “under well-settled Supreme Court authority, that is insufficient to support standing.”
In reference to the AZ republicans, Kernodle said the “allege an injury that is not fairly traceable to the Defendant, the Vice President of the United States, and is unlikely to be redressed by the requested relief.”
A House member and senator are needed to object when Congress counts the votes and GOP Sen Josh Hawley of Missouri confirmed that he will be objecting earlier this week.
House and Senate lawmakers will have to vote on whether to accept the results of Biden’s victory as a result.
Citing an insider familiar with the situation, CNN reported that Trump’s Chief of Staff Mark Meadows was aware of the Pence filing after being tipped off by the DOJ and White House counsel Pat Cipollone also knew.
Meadows was reportedly told the department would be asking the judge to reject Gohmert’s lawsuit.
It’s unclear if Trump knew as aides try to explain that the January 6 count by largely ceremonial.
In an amicus brief on Thursday, House General Counsel Doug Letter asked for the Gohmert case to be dismissed.
Letter slammed it as a “radical departure from our constitutional procedures and consistent legislative practices.”
He wrote: “At bottom, this litigation seeks to enlist the federal courts in a belated and meritless assault on longstanding constitutional processes for confirming the results of a national election for President.”
In a lengthy December 28 statement before the ruling, Gohmert declared that “the 2020 presidential election was one we’d expect to see in a banana republic, not the United States of America.”
“The rampant fraud and unconstitutional actions that took place were so egregious that seven contested states – Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, New Mexico, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin all sent dueling slates of electors to Congress,” he raged.
“This puts Vice President Mike Pence in a position where some argue he has to choose between morality and the law. That is not the case.
Gohmert claimed the “mainstream media, now the Alt-Left media, continue to say that every court has said there is no evidence of fraud.”
“That is disingenuous, deceitful, and flat out dishonest,” he wrote. “The truth is that no court so far has had the morality and courage to allow evidence of fraud to be introduced in front of it.
“We continue to hold out hope that there is a federal judge who understands that the fraud that stole this election will mean the end of our republic, and this suit would insure that the Vice-President will only accept electors legitimately and legally elected. There must be an opportunity for a day in court when fraud was this prevalent.”
Gohmert said this is why he and the other GOP members filed the complaint for “expedited declaratory and emergency injunctive relief” to seek judgment from the court on Pence’s authority during the Joint Session.
He asked the court to grand the vice president the “exclusive authority and sole discretion in determining which electoral votes to count.”
Meanwhile, he Trump campaign twice asked the court to overturn Biden’s win in Wisconsin this week.
Those filed by Trump and his supporters in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin and Arizona are pending.
On Wednesday, Hawley joined several House members objecting to force a vote in each the House and the Senate over whether to accept individual slates of electors, which will lead to a debate on the matter.
The chances of overturning the results are slim with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and several GOP members congratulating Biden, prompting some stinging Twitter commentary from Trump.
But House Speaker Nany Pelosi said Hawley’s decision to force a debate on election integrity issues would have little impact on Biden becoming the next president, however.
“I have no doubt that on next Wednesday, a week from today, that Joe Biden will be confirmed by the acceptance of the vote of the Electoral College as the 46th president of the United States,” she told reporters two days ago.
