Trump Legal Team Folds

January 7th, 2021

(ATLANTA) – On the eve of getting the day in court they supposedly were begging for, President Trump and Chairman David Shafer’s legal team folded Thursday and voluntarily dismissed their election contests against Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger rather than submit their evidence to a court and to cross-examination. However, even in capitulation, they continue to spread disinformation. The President’s legal team falsely characterizes the dismissal of their lawsuits as “due to an out of court settlement agreement.” However, correspondence sent to Trump’s legal team prior to the dismissals makes perfectly clear that there is no settlement agreement. The Trump legal voluntarily dismissed their lawsuits rather than presenting their evidence in court in a trial scheduled for tomorrow in front of Cobb County Superior Court Judge Adele Grubbs.

“Rather than presenting their evidence and witnesses to a court and to cross-examination under oath, the Trump campaign wisely decided the smartest course was to dismiss their frivolous cases,” Raffensperger said.

The withdrawals came after Secretary Raffensperger sent a letter to Congress on Wednesday containing point-by-point refutation of the false claims made by the President and his allies. Late last night, Congress accepted Georgia’s slate of electors without objection, as no Senator joined in Congressman Jody Hice’s objection to Georgia’s electors.

“Spreading disinformation about elections is dangerous and wrong,” said Secretary Raffensperger. “It was wrong when Stacey Abrams and her allies made false claims about Georgia’s election processes following the 2018 election and run-up to the 2020 election, and it’s wrong when the President and his allies are doing it now.”

The President’s lawyers also voluntarily dismissed three other lawsuits against Raffensperger in various courts rather than submit to certain repudiation:

 

  • Trump v. Kemp in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia,
  • Still v. Raffensperger et al in the Superior Court of Fulton County and
  • Boland v. Raffensperger et al in the Supreme Court of Georgia.

 

Those dismissals were not pursuant to a settlement agreement either.

Georgia is recognized as a national leader in elections. It was the first state in the country to implement the trifecta of automatic voter registration, at least 16 days of early voting (which has been called the “gold standard”), and no-excuse absentee voting. Georgia continues to set records for voter turnout and election participation, seeing the largest increase in average turnout of any other state in the 2018 midterm election and record turnout in 2020, with over 1.3 million absentee by mail voters and over 3.6 million in-person voters utilizing Georgia’s new, secure, paper ballot voting system.

 

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