Rudy Giuliani says election case losses help Trump campaign’s strategy to get ‘expeditiously’ to Supreme Court

‘We’re thankful to the Obama-appointed judge for making this anticipated decision quickly’

Rudy Giuliani has said he is “thankful” to the judge who dismissed the Trump campaign’s post-election lawsuit in Pennsylvania, as it helps them to get “expeditiously” to the Supreme Court.

On Saturday, a federal judge in Pennsylvania dismissed a lawsuit by the Trump campaign that attempted to block the certification of votes in the state.

“This Court has been presented with strained legal arguments without merit and speculative accusations, unpaid in the operative complaint and unsupported by evidence,” judge Matthew Brann wrote in his dismissal on Saturday.

He added: “In the United States of America, this cannot justify the disenfranchisement of a single voter, let alone all the voters of its sixth most populated state. Our people, laws, and institutions demand more.”

Although President-elect Joe Biden was declared the winner of the presidential election earlier this month, Mr Trump has still not conceded and has repeatedly claimed without evidence that widespread voter fraud took place in several states.

The Trump campaign, led by Mr Giuliani, has filed lawsuits in multiple swing states that were called for Mr Biden, including Pennsylvania, and has pressed state and local authorities not to certify the election results.

On Saturday evening, Mr Giuliani, President Trump’s personal lawyer, and Jenna Ellis, senior legal adviser to the 2020 Trump campaign, said that they were thankful to the judge for dismissing the case in Pennsylvania.

“Although we fully disagree with this opinion, we’re thankful to the Obama-appointed judge for making this anticipated decision quickly,” Mr Giuliani and Ms Ellis wrote in a statement on Saturday.

They wrote that the campaign will appeal the ruling, and said that the “decision turns out to help us in our strategy to get expeditiously to the US Supreme Court".

Mr Giuliani and Ms Ellis added: “We hope that the Third Circuit will be as gracious as Judge Brann in deciding our appeal one way or the other as expeditiously as possible.”

The Trump campaign and Republican allies have now lost or withdrawn more than 30 lawsuits that were filed to contest election results.

Following the dismissal of the lawsuit, Pennsylvania Republican senator Pat Toomey joined the increasing number of GOP elected officials who have acknowledged Mr Biden as the winner of the presidential election.

In a statement on Saturday, Mr Toomey wrote that with the decision by the judge “to dismiss the Trump campaign's lawsuit, President Trump has exhausted all plausible legal options to challenge the result of the presidential race in Pennsylvania".

The senator said: “I congratulate President-elect Biden and vice president-elect Kamala Harris on their victory. They are both dedicated public servants and I will be praying for them and for our country.”