The Trump campaign went back to the Supreme Court on Sunday seeking to reverse Pennsylvania’s election results and to vacate the state’s slate of 20 electors for President-elect Joseph R. Biden.
The petition asks the justices to grant Pennsylvania’s Republican-led legislature the authority to appoint new presidential electors, giving President Trump a last-gasp bid to claim a second term in the White House.
Mr. Trump said he also needs the help of other elected officials to expose what he called the “greatest voter fraud in history.”
“It’s the most corrupt election this country’s ever had, by far,” Mr. Trump said Sunday on WABC radio in New York. “We’ve already found the answers; now we have to get the support from some politicians.”
In the petition to the Supreme Court, the justices were asked to overturn Pennsylvania state court rulings that the campaign said “illegally changed” the state’s mail balloting laws.
The campaign wants rapid action by the high court, saying the outcome of the election “hangs in the balance.”
“Time is plainly of the essence because once candidates have taken office, it will be impossible to repair election results tainted by illegally and belatedly cast or absentee and mail ballots,” the petition states. “The intense national and worldwide attention on the 2020 presidential election only foreshadows the disruption that may well follow if the uncertainty and unfairness shrouding this election are allowed to persist.”
The campaign is asking for an expedited response by Dec. 23 and to rule before Congress meets Jan. 6 to consider the votes of the Electoral College.
The Trump team’s legal efforts to challenge the results haven’t reversed any outcomes in the handful of battleground states where they’ve filed lawsuits.
The Electoral College voted Dec. 14, as mandated by federal law, and certified that Mr. Biden received 306 electoral votes to Mr. Trump’s 232. A candidate needs 270 electoral votes to win the presidency.
The Supreme Court rejected earlier this month a petition from Texas, in a suit that Mr. Trump joined, seeking to overturn the election in Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, all states that Mr. Biden won.
Trump lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani said the new petition seeks to overturn three decisions by Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court that he said allowed expanded mail-in voting and thus violated the Constitution.
It’s the campaign’s first independent Supreme Court filing and seeks relief based on the same Constitutional arguments successfully raised in Bush v. Gore in 2000, Mr. Giuliani said.
“The campaign’s petition seeks to reverse three decisions which eviscerated the Pennsylvania Legislature’s protections against mail ballot fraud,” he said.
On another front, Mr. Trump is calling on lawmakers to intervene.
Mr. Trump said he has spoken with Sen.-elect Tommy Tuberville, Alabama Republican, who has left open the possibility of joining a long-shot bid from House conservatives to challenge the Electoral College results when they’re announced in Congress on Jan. 6.
“He’s so excited,” Mr. Trump said of Mr. Tuberville. “He said, ’You made me the most popular politician of the United States.’ He’s great.”
Other Republicans suggested that it’s time to move on, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Kentucky Republican, has warned his troops against joining any challenges to the results on Jan. 6.
“I think they’re entitled to pursue any legal remedy that they think they have,” said Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah. “I think it’s very unlikely to overturn the results of the election, but they apparently don’t.”
Mr. Romney, one of the most prominent Republican critics of Mr. Trump, said the president could leave office championing his successes, like the quick development of multiple coronavirus vaccines.
“Instead, he’s leaving Washington with a whole series of conspiracy theories and things that are so nutty and loopy that people are shaking their head, wondering, ’what in the world has gotten into this man?’” Mr. Romney said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
Other Republicans are urging Mr. Trump to focus on throwing his political weight behind GOP Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, who square off against Democrats Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock in runoff elections in Georgia on Jan. 5.
The president says he plans to head to Georgia on Jan. 4 to campaign as several high-profile Republican and Democratic surrogates descend on the state.
Republicans currently hold a 50-48 edge and the races will determine which party controls the chamber next year.
White House trade adviser Peter Navarro said Sunday that he likes the idea of postponing the Georgia elections to allow officials to get to the bottom of alleged voter fraud and irregularities.
“I like the idea of a special prosecutor to look at this. I like the idea of postponing the Georgia election on Jan. 5,” Mr. Navarro said on Fox News. “Georgia — when I look at that, that is a cesspool of election irregularities.”
Georgia officials said last week they plan to launch a limited review of signatures on mail-in ballots after Mr. Trump and others repeatedly lobbied them to do so.
• Dave Boyer can be reached at dboyer@washingtontimes.com.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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