17 Republican AGs Support Longshot Election Lawsuit

Texas suit seeks to block Electoral College votes from 4 states Trump lost
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 10, 2020 4:55 AM CST
Trump Asks Cruz to Argue 'Big One' Election Lawsuit
In this Nov. 14., 2020, Trump supporters rally outside the Supreme Court Building in Washington.   (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)

President Trump appears to have pinned his hopes of overturning his election loss on a longshot lawsuit filed this week by Texas Attorney General Bill Paxton. Some 17 other Republican state attorneys general supported the lawsuit in a brief filed with the Supreme Court Wednesday, and Trump himself filed a motion to intervene in his "personal capacity as a candidate for re-election," the New York Times reports. The lawsuit, which contains unproven—and disproven—allegations of election fraud, asks the Supreme Court to block Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin, four battleground states Trump lost, from casting Electoral College votes on Monday, reports the AP.

"This is the big one," Trump tweeted Wednesday. "Our country needs a victory!" Sources tell the Times that after a phone call from Trump Tuesday, Republican Sen. Ted Cruz agreed to argue the case. Legal experts and states targeted by the lawsuit, however, say the case appears to be more a publicity stunt than anything else and has virtually no chance of success, NPR reports. They note that Texas has no legal standing to challenge how other states award Electoral College votes. GOP Sen. John Cornyn, a former Texas attorney general, said he struggles to understand the legal reasoning behind it. "Why would a state, even such a great state as Texas, have a say so on how other states administer their elections?" Cornyn said, per the Texas Tribune. "I'm not convinced." (More Election 2020 stories.)

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