In a fresh setback to US President Donald Trump’s efforts to reverse the November 3 presidential election have gone in vain. The result in the battleground state of Pennsylvania, court has dismissed the lawsuit filed by his team, observing that “voters, not lawyers choose the president.”
The judgement came four days after Pennsylvania certified Trump’s Democratic rival Joe Biden as the winner in the state which has 20 electoral college votes.
Trump who has refused to accept defeat in the November 3 presidential election, and told reporters on Thursday that it would be “hard” to concede to Biden.
The President has said that he would leave the White House if the Electoral College declares Biden as the winner, but made clear he is not prepared to “concede” the election.
He has launched a slew of lawsuits in key states, but has not provided any evidence to back his claims of electoral fraud. Many of the lawsuits have been dismissed by courts.
The three-judge panel of the 3rd US Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday upheld a previous ruling that dismissed the Trump campaign’s request for an injunction in the case in Pennsylvania to challenge the election results and slammed the lawsuit.
Judge Stephanos Bibas who was appointed by Trump said, “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,”
Former vice president Biden was declared the winner of the US presidential election on November 7 after flipping Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin to the Democrats’ column.
Biden has 306 electoral votes to Trump’s 232 votes. To win the race to the White House, the successful candidate should have at least 270 electoral votes out of the 538-member Electoral College.
Biden’s tally is far more than the 270 needed to win the race for the White House, and he also leads the popular vote by more than six million.
Trump’s lawyers Rudy Giuliani and Jenna Ellis said they will now appeal to the Supreme Court.
“The activist judicial machinery in Pennsylvania continues to cover up the allegations of massive fraud. We are very thankful to have had the opportunity to present proof and the facts to the PA state legislature. On to SCOTUS!” they said.
According to the local Philadelphia Inquirer, “Bibas pointed out that despite the campaign’s speculative claims and fiery rhetoric, it never alleged – let alone offered any evidence to suggest – that any vote had been improperly counted or cast.”
“Voters, not lawyers, choose the president. Ballots, not briefs, decide elections alchemy cannot transmute lead into gold,” Bibas wrote in his order.
The Electoral College is scheduled to meet on December 14 and is expected to formally declare the 78-year-old Biden as the 46th US President.
