Attorneys general in several states including Michigan have to respond to a lawsuit in U.S. Supreme Court filed by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.
The lawsuit demands the 62 electoral votes in Michigan, Georgia, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin be invalidated.
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel believes Paxton has a personal motive and is seeking a pardon by President Trump.
“Ken Paxton, the attorney general, the state of Texas, has been under federal indictment for quite some time. The FBI continues to investigate him, not just for securities fraud but for a variety of other matters, and I think this is as clear signal that he is sending to President Trump requesting a presidential pardon, and that’s it. It’s a last-ditch effort,” said Nessel.
Nessel said the claims in the lawsuit are “absurd” and already have been debunked in lower courts. The lawsuit asks the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the case after the Court declined to hear a Pennsylvania case that wanted to reverse that state’s vote certification.
“I’ve never seen anything like this,” Nessel said during a MSNBC interview. “I don’t know if I have talked to anyone who has seen anything like this before, it is so incredibly outrageous. And I will say this to General Paxton, if he’s watching, you know who voted for you in Michigan, General Paxton? No one. Literally no one. So, stay in your lane, and stick to trying to disenfranchise voters in your own state. Don’t come to mine.”
“You know who voted for you in Michigan, General Paxton? No one. Literally no one. So, stay in your lane, and stick to trying to disenfranchise voters in your own state. Don’t come to mine,” says Michigan AG @dananessel discussing pro-Trump election lawsuit. pic.twitter.com/og5r8SEiKT
— All In with Chris Hayes (@allinwithchris) December 10, 2020
On Wednesday, 17 Republican-led states supported Paxton’s lawsuit that again has claims of disproven and unsupported allegations of illegal voting. Both Republican Senate candidates in the Georgia runoff elections in January are also on board and Trump’s legal team — which has lost at every turn in an attempt to keep him in power — asked to intervene as well.
“This is the big one. Our Country needs a victory!” Trump tweeted.
Legal experts have predicted that the Supreme Court will reject the case.
The lawsuit repeats numerous false, disproven and unsupported claims of illegal mail-in balloting and voting in Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
Michigan voters in 2018 approved no-reason absentee voting. This year, Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson sent out applications to vote, not actual ballots, unless the voter completed the process to vote absentee.
Nessel, along with Pennsylvania and Wisconsin’s attorneys general, already had released the following joint-statement:
“These insignificant attempts to disregard the will of the people in our three states mislead the public and tear at the fabric of the Constitution. The people of our states voted. Their votes were counted, in some cases, multiple times.”
.@MIAttyGen @dananessel, @JoshShapiroPA of Pennsylvania, and @JoshKaulWI of Wisconsin today issued a joint statement regarding Texas’ efforts to discredit the 2020 election results in federal court. pic.twitter.com/4WO8NA5LBt
— Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel (@MIAttyGen) December 8, 2020
Meanwhile, the AP reports that any Americans waiting for Republicans in Congress to acknowledge Joe Biden as the president-elect may have to keep waiting until January as GOP leaders stick with President Donald Trump’s litany of legal challenges and unproven claims of fraud.
Tuesday’s deadline for states to certify their elections came and went without much comment from Republican officials. Next week’s Dec. 14 Electoral College deadline may produce just a few more congratulatory GOP calls to Biden, the AP reports.
The AP also reports GOP lawmakers say the Jan. 6 vote in Congress to accept the Electoral College outcome may be when the presidential winner becomes official. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has signaled Jan. 20 as the certain date when the country is “going to have the swearing-in of the next president.”
Michigan Bureau of Elections plans for ‘most comprehensive post-election audits in state history’
The audits will include a statewide risk-limiting audit, a complete zero-margin risk-limiting audit in Antrim County, and procedural audits in more than 200 jurisdictions statewide, including absentee ballot counting boards, according to the Bureau.