How bad are impeached two-time popular vote loser lame duck Donald Trump's utterly ridiculous, baseless, nuisance election lawsuits? So bad that two of the law firms with lawyers representing him, the bad guys in big law, are reportedly getting bothered by the fact that their work is undermining the rule of law. In Arizona, the largest law firm that’s been working on challenges for Trump requested to withdraw from a case in Maricopa County.
One of their challenges there is so bad, they tried to get a judge in Maricopa County to seal the evidence they brought so the public couldn't see how pathetic their case is. Trump's lawyer in this case is alleging that poll workers "incorrectly rejected" Election Day votes. Attorney Kory Langhofer, on behalf of Trump, the Republican National Committee, and the Arizona Republican Party, is arguing that thousands of legitimate votes could have been left uncounted (county officials put the number in question at about 180). Langhofer wanted to submit evidence "including video footage from inside a polling place and 'voluminous declarations containing personally identifying information,' such as addresses and partial Social Security numbers." He wrote that sealing all this evidence "will allow full access to critically important evidentiary materials, while ensuring that the privacy of individual voters and witnesses is appropriately safeguarded."
Maricopa County attorney Thomas Liddy argued against sealing it, saying that the public "has a right to know how flimsy Plaintiffs’ evidence actually is." The judge agreed. The "evidence" will be public, with proper redactions. But, boy, did Team Trump get blasted by Liddy. He said it was "not a standard, run-of-the-mill election law challenge" and that the Republicans were attempting to hide "significantly more than what is protected by statute with no legal or factual basis."
"This case goes to the heart of election integrity, and alleges widespread, systemic failure by the Maricopa County Defendants, their employees, and their processes," Liddy wrote. "And it is not just that they alleged these baseless claims, it is the manner in which they alleged it so widely spread and volitionally to the press, on the internet and on Plaintiffs' fundraising letters. Because of that, it is not in the interest of justice to do this in secret." He was not happy.
He also noted that Langhofer intended to include Election Day voting center footage and reminded everyone that it is not legal to take pictures or video not just inside a polling place, but within 75 feet of one when voting is taking place. It's a Class 2 misdemeanor. He argued that Team Trump in taking this footage had already invaded the privacy of voters as well as violating their "right to vote in secret," with the intent to "use the fruit of that potentially illegal activity to advance a civil case." No word yet on whether he intends to bring charges against the operatives who filmed voting. He needs to.
He wasn't done yet. "Plaintiffs chose to bring this lawsuit, calling into question the integrity of the electoral process," Liddy said. "The public deserves to see all the evidence so that it can have confidence in this election." The judge agreed. All information that needs to be redacted will be redacted. The evidence will not be sealed and Arizona voters will be able to see exactly how Team Trump is trying to take their votes away.
