海角大神

As they frantically searched for ways to salvage President Donald Trump's failed reelection bid, his campaign pursued a dizzying game of legal hopscotch聽across six states聽that centered on the biggest prize of all: Pennsylvania.

The strategy may have played well in front of television cameras and on talk radio to Mr. Trump's supporters. But it has proved a聽disaster in court, where judges uniformly rejected their claims of vote fraud and found the campaign's legal work amateurish.

聽late Saturday, United States District Judge Matthew Brann 鈥� a Republican and Federalist Society member in central Pennsylvania 鈥� compared the campaign's legal arguments to 鈥淔rankenstein's Monster,鈥� concluding that Mr. Trump's team offered only 鈥渟peculative accusations," not proof of rampant corruption.

The campaign on Sunday filed notice it would appeal the decision to the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, a day before the state's 67 counties are set to certify their results and send them to state officials.

So, as the legal doors close on Mr. Trump's attempts to have courts do what voters would not do on Election Day and deliver him a second term, his efforts in Pennsylvania show how far he is willing to push baseless theories of widespread voter fraud.

It was led by聽Rudy Giuliani, Mr. Trump's personal lawyer, who descended on the state the Saturday after the Nov. 3 election as the count dragged on and the president played golf. Summoning reporters to a scruffy, far-flung corner of Philadelphia on Nov. 7, he聽held forth聽at a site that would soon become legendary: Four Seasons Total Landscaping.

The 11:30 a.m. news conference was doomed from the start.

Only minutes earlier, news outlets had started calling the presidential contest for Democrat Joe Biden. The race was over.

Just heating up was Mr. Trump鈥檚 plan to subvert the election through litigation and howls of fraud 鈥� the same tactic he had used to stave off losses in the business world. And it would soon spread far beyond Pennsylvania.

鈥淪ome of the ballots looked suspicious,鈥� Mr. Giuliani said of the vote count in Philadelphia as he stood behind a chain link fence, next to a sex shop. He maligned the city as being run by a 鈥渄ecrepit Democratic machine.鈥�

鈥淭hose mail-in ballots could have been written the day before, by the Democratic Party hacks that were all over the convention center,鈥� Mr. Giuliani said. He promised to file a new round of lawsuits. He rambled.

鈥淭his is a very, very strong case,鈥� he asserted.

Justin Levitt, a Loyola Law School professor who specializes in election law, called the Trump lawsuits dangerous.

鈥淚t is a sideshow, but it鈥檚 a harmful sideshow," Professor Levitt said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a toxic sideshow. The continuing baseless, evidence-free claims of alternative facts are actually having an effect on a substantial number of Americans. They are creating the conditions for elections not to work in the future.鈥�

Not a single court has found merit in the core legal claims, but that did not stop Mr. Trump's team from firing off nearly two dozen legal challenges to Mr. Biden鈥檚 victory in Pennsylvania, including an early morning suit on Election Day filed by a once-imprisoned lawyer.

The president's lawyers fought the three-day grace period for mail-in ballots to arrive. They complained they weren't being let in to observe the vote count. They said Democratic counties unfairly let voters fix mistakes on their ballot envelopes. Everywhere they turned, they said, they sniffed fraud.

鈥淚 felt insidious fraud going on,鈥� Philadelphia poll watcher Lisette Tarragano said when Mr. Giuliani called her to the microphone at the landscaping company.

In fact, a Republican runs the city's election board, and has said his office got death threats as Mr. Trump鈥檚 rants about the election intensified. No judges ever found any evidence of election fraud in Pennsylvania or any other state where the campaign sued 鈥� not in Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona, Nevada, or Georgia.

Instead, Trump lawyers found themselves backpedaling when pressed in court for admissible evidence, or dropping out when they were accused of helping derail the democratic process.

鈥淚 am asking you as a member of the bar of this court, are people representing the Donald J. Trump for president [campaign] 鈥� in that room?鈥� U.S. District Judge Paul Diamond asked at an after-hours hearing on Nov. 5, when Republicans asked him to stop the vote count in Philadelphia over their alleged banishment.

鈥淭here鈥檚 a nonzero number of people in the room,鈥� lawyer Jerome Marcus replied.

The count continued in Philadelphia. The Trump losses kept coming. By Friday, Nov. 6, when a state appeals court rejected a Republican complaint over provisional ballots and a Philadelphia judge refused to throw out 8,300 mail-in ballots they challenged, Mr. Biden was up by about 27,000 votes.

Nationally, the race had not yet been called. But it was becoming clear that a Biden win in Pennsylvania, with its 20 electoral votes, was imminent.

When it came, Mr. Trump quickly pivoted to litigation. It did not go well.

A U.S. appeals court found Pennsylvania's three-day extension for mail-in ballots laudatory, given the disruption and mail delays cause by the pandemic. Judges in Michigan and Arizona, finding no evidence of fraud, refused to block the certification of county vote tallies. Law firms representing the campaign started to come under fire and withdrew.

That left Mr. Giuliani, who had not argued a case in court for three decades, in charge of the effort to overturn the election.

鈥淵ou can say a lot at a driveway [news conference]. ... When you go to court, you can't,鈥� said lawyer Mark Aronchick, who represented election officials in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and elsewhere in several of the Pennsylvania suits. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 really pay attention to the chatter until I see a legal brief.鈥�

On Tuesday, Mr. Giuliani stepped into the courtroom. He was a late addition to the docket after election lawyers from Porter Wright Morris & Arthur had bowed out over the previous weekend. He had an entourage in tow, a show of force that had everything but a compelling legal argument.

Mr. Giuliani asked Judge Brann to hold up the certification of the state鈥檚 6.8 million ballots over two Republican voters whose mail-in ballots were tossed over technical errors.

鈥淚 sat dumbfounded listening,鈥� said Mr. Aronchick, a seasoned trial lawyer.

鈥淲e were ready to argue the one count. Instead, he treated us to an even more expanded version of his Total Landscaping press conference,鈥� Mr. Aronchick said. 鈥淚t didn鈥檛 bear any relationship to the actual case.鈥�

Mr. Giuliani, admired by some for his tough talk as Manhattan鈥檚 top prosecutor and his leadership as New York City鈥檚 mayor during the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, struggled to answer even basic legal questions.

But he waxed on about a supposed conspiracy to rig the state election.

鈥淭he best description of this situation is widespread, nationwide voter fraud,鈥� Mr. Giuliani argued. Under questioning, though, he acknowledged their complaint no longer included a fraud claim.

And then, just as it had at Four Seasons, reality came crashing down on him, when news broke in the courtroom that the Pennsylvania Supreme Court had rejected the campaign's appeal over observer access in Philadelphia. It was one of the campaign's last remaining claims.

Even the dissent was crushing.

鈥淭he notion that presumptively valid ballots cast by the Pennsylvania electorate would be disregarded based on isolated procedural irregularities that have been redressed ... is misguided,鈥� Chief Justice Thomas G. Saylor wrote for the minority in the 5-2 decision.

Judge Brann, who sits in Williamsport, let the federal court hearing drag on past the dinner hour, and gave both sides time to file additional motions. The campaign filings were replete with typos, spelling mistakes and even an errant reference to a 鈥淪econd Amendment Complaint鈥� instead of a second amended complaint.

The campaign took the opportunity to answer one of the more puzzling questions that its election challenge raised: It only wanted the presidential election results set aside, not votes on the same ballots for other offices. The briefs were filed by Mr. Giuliani and co-counsel Marc Scaringi, a local conservative talk radio host who, before he was hired, had questioned the point of the Trump litigation, saying 鈥渋t will not reverse this election.鈥�

Mr. Aronchick balked at the campaign's core premise that local election workers 鈥� perhaps working for the Mafia, as Giuliani suggested 鈥� had plotted to spoil Trump's win.

鈥淵ou鈥檙e going to suggest part of them are in a conspiracy? How does that work?鈥� Mr. Aronchick asked. 鈥淲ho? Where? When? How?鈥�

Judge Brann, in his ruling, said he expected the campaign to present formidable evidence of rampant corruption as it sought to nullify millions of votes. Instead, he said, the campaign presented 鈥渟trained legal arguments without merit and speculative accusations.鈥�

The 3rd Circuit, based in Philadelphia, may have already tipped its hand. In its Nov. 13 ruling, the appeals court called it "indisputable in our democratic process: that the lawfully cast vote of every citizen must count.鈥�

Mr. Biden's lead in the state has expanded to more than 80,000 votes.

鈥淥ur system depends on the possibility that you might lose a fair contest. If that possibility doesn't exist, you don't have a democracy,鈥� said Professor Levitt, of Loyola. 鈥淭here are countries that run like that. It just doesn't describe America.鈥�

This story was reported by The Associated Press.