© Mark Reinstein/ShutterstockTrump Attorney Rudy Giuliani
President-elect Joe Biden was projected to win the Keystone State over a week ago, with the victory pushing him over the edge to win 270 Electoral College votes.
Giuliani, who has been recently spearheading Trump's effort to challenge the results of the presidential election, filed an application to appear in court on behalf of the Trump campaign on Tuesday morning just hours before a telephone hearing was scheduled in the case.
His request was later approved by the federal judge overseeing the case.
The move came after several lawyers withdrew from representing the Trump campaign in the case, which has been filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania.
The law firm Porter Wright Morris & Arthur withdrew from the case late Thursday, following a New York Times report about internal tensions at the firm related to its representation of the Trump campaign.
Comment: The firm has represented Trump interests for a long time. One wonders what sort of professional and personal pressure has been brought to bear.
Porter Wright's decision was especially remarkable, because the firm stepped away from a federal lawsuit that it had filed only days earlier.
"Plaintiffs and Porter Wright have reached a mutual agreement that plaintiffs will be best served if Porter Wright withdraws," the law firm said in a court filing late Thursday.
The Trump campaign reacted angrily on Friday. "Cancel Culture has finally reached the courtroom," Tim Murtaugh, the campaign's communications director, said in a statement. "Leftist mobs descended upon some of the lawyers representing the president's campaign and they buckled." He added that Mr. Trump's team "is undeterred" and would continue its litigation.
Porter Wright — which is based in Columbus, Ohio, and has offices in Florida, Illinois, Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C. — is one of the few prominent law firms that have been representing Mr. Trump's campaign or the Republican Party as they challenge aspects of the election.
On Monday evening, three more attorneys withdrew from representing the Trump campaign in the case, and Marc Scaringi, an attorney based in Harrisburg, Pa., is now representing the campaign. Scaringi said on his radio show earlier this month that Trump's lawsuits would not change the outcome of the election.
The hearing for the case is slated for Tuesday afternoon at 1:30 p.m., and will be conducted by phone.
Giuliani has been one of Trump's more vocal allies in his effort to challenge the election that was called for Biden. Giuliani has publicly made claims about voter fraud without evidence.
Lawyers for the campaign filed the lawsuit last week against Pennsylvania Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar, a Democrat, and several counties, alleging that the commonwealth set up an illegal system in which voters were held to different standards depending on how they cast their ballots.
The campaign filed an amended complaint on Sunday removing one of its key requests, with the campaign seeking to block Pennsylvania from certifying its election results until the suit plays out.
Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro (D) has dismissed the lawsuit as "meritless," and election law experts have doubted that it will ultimately be successful.
The Democratic National Committee (DNC) has intervened in the lawsuit.
The Trump campaign has filed lawsuits in a number of states in an effort to challenge the election results, but the efforts have fallen far short of their goal and failed to unearth credible evidence of widespread voter fraud.
Still, Trump himself has continued to make unsubstantiated assertions about systematic fraud in the electoral process and refused to concede to Biden.
Comment: Funny. Members of Congress seem to be less upset than The Hill.
McConnell does not acknowledge Biden victory, says Trump '100% within his rights' to legally fight
Biden defeated Trump in battleground states that the president won in 2016, including Arizona, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Georgia.
Trump confirmed over the weekend that Giuliani, who was at the center of controversy that led to the president's impeachment, would spearhead the legal push. Others involved include Jenna Ellis, his campaign's senior legal adviser, and Sidney Powell, a lawyer and commentator who is a frequent presence on Fox News.
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