Powell trying to resurrect bid to undo Biden’s Arizona win

PHOENIX (AP) - Conservative lawyer Sidney Powell is appealing the dismissal of her lawsuit seeking to decertify election results that gave Democrat President-elect Joe Biden a victory in Arizona over Republican President Donald Trump.

Powell said in a court filing Thursday that she was taking her case to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which later scheduled the first brief in the appeal to be due two months after inauguration date.

But Alexander Kolodin, a Phoenix attorney who along with Powell filed the challenge, has since said the plan is to instead take the case directly to U.S. Supreme Court on an expedited basis.

The lawsuit filed on behalf of Trump’s proposed electors in Arizona was dismissed Wednesday by a lower court for failing to provide any evidence to back up its election fraud claims and lacking legal standing to bring the case.

It alleged the state’s election systems have security flaws that let election workers and foreign countries manipulate results and that those systems switched votes from Trump to Biden.

Opposing attorneys said the lawsuit used conspiracy theories to make wild allegations against Dominion Voting Systems, one of Maricopa County’s vendors for voting equipment, without providing proof to back up its claims of widespread Arizona election fraud.

In dismissing the case, Judge Diane Humetewa had concluded the lawsuit doesn’t contain a plausible allegation that Dominion voting machines were hacked in Arizona.

No evidence of voter fraud or election fraud has emerged during this election season in Arizona.

Similar election challenges filed by Powell were dismissed earlier this week in Michigan, Georgia and Wisconsin.

In all, seven lawsuits challenging the results of the presidential vote in Arizona have been dismissed.

Earlier this week, a woman filed yet another challenge that is nearly identical to Powell’s now-dismissed case. A hearing in the case, which was filed in Pinal County, is scheduled for Friday.

Arizona certified its elections results on Nov. 30, showing that Biden had won the state by more than 10,000 votes. The Electoral College is scheduled to vote Monday.