Three attorneys withdraw from representing Trump campaign in Pennsylvania suit
Three attorneys representing President Trump’s campaign withdrew from a lawsuit challenging the election results in Pennsylvania on Monday.
Attorneys Linda Kerns, John Scott and Douglas Bryan Hughes filed a motion to withdraw from the case Monday evening. The motion said that Marc Scaringi, an attorney in Harrisburg, would now represent the campaign.
The motion came the evening before a hearing scheduled in the case, which was filed one week ago.
“Plaintiffs and Linda A. Kerns, John Scott, and Douglas Bryan Hughes have reached a mutual agreement that Plaintiffs will be best served if Linda A. Kerns, John Scott, and Douglas Bryan Hughes withdraw, and Marc A. Scaringi represent Plaintiffs in this case,” states the motion filed in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania.
“Marc A. Scaringi is aware of the schedule set by the Court in this matter and will be prepared to proceed according to that schedule,” the motion states.
The attorneys did not provide further explanation for their decision to withdraw from the case. A hearing is scheduled for Tuesday afternoon.
Last Thursday, the law firm Porter Wright Morris & Arthur also moved to withdraw from the same case in Pennsylvania. The development followed a report in The New York Times about internal tensions at the Columbus, Ohio-based firm over its representation of the Trump campaign in the case.
Lawyers for the campaign filed the suit last Monday, claiming that Pennsylvania implemented an illegal system in which voters were held to different standards depending on whether they cast ballots in person or by mail.
The campaign pared down its suit in an amended filing on Sunday, dropping a request for more than 680,000 ballots to be thrown out because they were processed without election observers given adequate ability to watch the process. The campaign is asking the court to block the certification of the state’s results.
In a statement Monday, the campaign said that it decided to restructure the lawsuit around claims of violations of the Equal Protection Clause and noted that the lawsuit still claimed the ballots were counted “illegally.”
“We are still arguing that 682,479 ballots were counted illegally, in secret,” said Trump campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh. “Our poll watchers were denied meaningful access to watch the vote counting and we still incorporate that claim in our complaint.”
Election law experts have expressed considerable doubt that the case could prevail. The Democratic National Committee has moved to intervene in the case.
The suit is one of a handful the Trump campaign has filed challenging the election results in various states. President-elect Joe Biden was projected the winner of the race more than a week ago, but Trump has refused to concede. Biden won Pennsylvania by more than 50,000 votes.