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‘The people have spoken’: Michigan judge throws out Sidney Powell election lawsuit

They are the latest in a long string of legal defeats for president in battleground state courtrooms

Graeme Massie
Los Angeles
Tuesday 08 December 2020 07:52 GMT
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Sidney Powell and Lin Wood attend 'Stop the Steal' rally in Georgia
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Donald Trump’s disavowed lawyer Sidney Powell suffered a pair of courtroom defeats in Michigan and Detroit in her bid to overturn the president’s election defeat.

A Michigan federal judge ruled that the conservative attorney’s lawsuit was full of "theories, conjecture and speculation” as he dismissed it.

US district judge Linda V Parker ruled against the lawsuit, which asked the state to award its electoral votes to Mr Trump despite him losing there by nearly 155,000 votes.

“In fact, this lawsuit seems to be less about achieving the relief Plaintiffs seek – as much of that relief is beyond the power of this Court – and more about the impact of their allegations on People’s faith in the democratic process and their trust in our government,” wrote the judge.

“Plaintiffs ask this Court to ignore the orderly statutory scheme established to challenge elections and to ignore the will of millions of voters. This the Court cannot, and will not, do. The people have spoken.”

Ms Powell, who was publicly disavowed by Rudy Giuliani as working for the president, also saw a federal judge in Georgia dismiss her lawsuit seeking to overturn Joe Biden’s win in the state.

Georgia Secretary fo State Brad Raffensperger certified Georgia’s election results for the second time after a recount again gave the Mr Biden the win.

In court federal judge Timothy Batten, who was appointed by George W Bush, said he was unwilling to overtiurn the vote in Georgia, where Mr Biden beat Mr Trump by 12,000 votes.

“They want this court to substitute its judgement for two and ah alf million voters who voted for Joe Biden. And this I am unwilling to do,” he said.

It is the latest in a string of legal defeats for Mr Trump’s campaign, which has seen judges in battleground states across the country reject wild claims of voter fraud.

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