Trump-Biden transition live updates: Trump campaign loses appeal in federal case

Sidney Powell, the attorney recently removed from the president’s legal team, filed a lawsuit in Georgia this week alleging, without evidence, a vast conspiracy against Trump built on unproven claims of numerous instances of voter fraud in the state.

The 104-page suit, filed in the U.S District Court in Atlanta on behalf of Trump electors and Republican officials, among others, is demanding numerous longshot remedies, including decertifying the state’s election results, preventing the results from being transmitted to the electoral college and disqualifying Biden’s electors in favor of Trump’s electors.

“While the bedrock of American elections has been transparency, almost every crucial aspect of Georgia’s November 3, 2020, General Election was shrouded in secrecy, rife with ‘errors,’ and permeated with anomalies so egregious as to render the results incapable of certification,” the suit states. “Accordingly, the results for President and Congress in the November 3, 2020 election must be set aside. The results are infected with Constitutional violations.”

Biden won the state of Georgia by more than 12,000 votes, a victory confirmed by a hand tally last week. State elections officials also began a machine recount at the request of Trump’s team, permitted because he lost by less than 0.5 percentage points.

Like many suits before it, Powell’s case relies on affidavits from various poll watchers, audit watchers and self-described experts who claim, without documentation or supporting evidence, that they witnessed a wide range of fraudulent activity, including switching votes from Biden to Trump, counting illegal votes and shutting observers out of the process.

The suit rests heavily on a debunked conspiracy theory that has been trafficked widely on the internet which blames the Dominion Voting Systems for secretly flipping thousands of votes from Trump to Biden. Veteran elections officials from both parties have refuted the claim, as did the Trump administration’s own cybersecurity expert.

Dominion released a lengthy statement Friday rebutting the claims in the lawsuit – calling it “a bizarre election fraud conspiracy that—were it possible—would necessarily require the collaboration of thousands of participants… This quite simply did not occur.”

“Sidney Powell’s wild and reckless allegations are not only demonstrably false, but they have also led to stalking, harassment, and death threats to Dominion employees,” the Dominion statement says. “We intend to hold Ms. Powell, and those aiding and abetting her fraudulent actions, accountable for any harm that may occur as a result.”
 
Other conspiracy theories cited in the lawsuit as “evidence” include an affidavit from a man who claims he went undercover in Antifa and overheard a top Dominion official talking about rigging the election. The lawsuit also claims, with no evidence, that a water pipe burst on election night, which briefly delayed the counting of ballots, was part of a conspiracy to prevent Trump poll watchers from seeing them…