The big legal brains helping Donald Trump perform a coup have come up with yet another Hail Mary, a suit in the U.S. District Court for the northern district of Georgia against Gov. Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger asking the court to force them to decertify the election. Trump signed the complaint, verifying its claims, on New Year's Eve. It has been assigned to to U.S. District Court Judge Mark Cohen, an Obama appointee. This should go over really well with Judge Cohen following the bombshell taped phone conversation Trump had with Raffensperger Saturday, attempting to coerce him into a conspiracy to steal the election.
That's potentially a state and federal crime, one that is unlikely to make Cohen look favorably upon Trump's latest legal effort. That Trump lawyer Cleta Mitchell tried to use the case as leverage to make Raffensperger act after he pointed out that he needs to make his case to the courts. "I think what the president is saying, and what we’ve been trying to do is to say, look, the court is not acting on our petition," she told Raffensperger. "They haven't even assigned a judge. But the people of Georgia and the people of America have a right to know the answers. And you have data and records that we don’t have access to." The suit was filed on New Year's Eve. The next day was a holiday. The two days after that were a weekend. Of course a judge hadn't been appointed yet! Now there is one, and, well, good luck there.
The suit alleges "illegal votes" in Georgia, asking for an emergency injunction directing Kemp and Raffensperger to decertify the election because the whole election is a lie because illegal votes. And misconduct at vote tabulation centers. And "suitcases full of ballots." And basically all the QAnon conspiracy theories that have been tossed by dozens of courts around the country since November. Tossed because, the suit claims, "an eligible judge has not even been assigned to hear the challenge or the Constitutional claims." Instead, Trump argues, an "ineligible judge" was assigned. Fulton County Superior Court Judge Constance Russell is the judge in question, who just happens to be Black, and Trump has tried to argue this before in yet another failed suit before the Georgia state Supreme Court. So that will probably go over well with the judge, too.
This is a baseless and frivolous suit, like all the others have been. What makes it even worse, though, is it coincides with that phone call, with Trump trying to engage Raffensperger in a criminal conspiracy to "find the votes," to overturn a duly and legally certified election. Like all the other cases, this one will fail. But it should end in some goddamned consequences for Trump's lawyers.