PHILADELPHIA — A federal judge in Williamsport rejected President Donald Trump's legal bid to disrupt certification of Pennsylvania's election results on Saturday, delivering an all but certain death blow to his campaign's ambitions of reversing President-elect Joe Biden's victory through the courts.
In a 37-page ruling, U.S. District Judge Matthew W. Brann dismissed the lawsuit, describing it as a "Frankenstein's Monster" of tortured legal claims that sought an "unhinged" remedy that would effectively disenfranchise all voters in the state.
"One might expect that when seeking such a startling outcome, a plaintiff would come formidably armed with compelling legal arguments and factual proof of rampant corruption," he wrote. "Instead, this court has been presented with strained legal arguments without merit and speculative accusations ... unsupported by the evidence."
He continued: "This cannot justify the disenfranchisement of a single voter, let alone all the voters in its sixth most populated state. Our people, laws and institutions demand more."
The federal case had been the one legal challenge on which the campaign had pinned its remaining hopes of stopping the state from approving its final vote tally before the Monday deadline for counties to report their results to state election administrators.
The case's dismissal leaves only one other lawsuit that the campaign is still actively pursuing in Pennsylvania — a fight before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court over roughly 8,300 challenged mail ballots from Philadelphia.
The Trump campaign has also urged the U.S. Supreme Court to take up a dispute over another 10,000 mail votes across the state, but the justices have not indicated whether they intend to do so.
As of Saturday, Biden led the state by a margin of more than 81,000 votes and state election administrators said they intend to proceed with their plans for certification next week.
Trump campaign lawyers did not immediately return requests for comment on whether they intend to appeal.
