Lawyers for the House Republican who filed a lawsuit against Vice President Mike Pence hoping to secure President Trump another term in office suggested that he had a chance to support their efforts and didn’t.
Rep. Louie Gohmert of Texas, in conjunction with the entire delegation of Trump’s so-called shadow electors in Arizona, filed the lawsuit on Tuesday. The suit aimed to provide Pence with “exclusive authority” to determine which Electoral College votes are certifiable, arguing that the vice president has the “sole discretion” to determine the legitimacy of votes, per the 12th Amendment.
Gohmert’s lawyers noted in a motion filed on Tuesday for expedited proceedings that they had reached out to Pence’s legal team before going to court and that they were unable to come to an agreement. The White House did not immediately respond to the Washington Examiner‘s request for comment on the matter.
“In the teleconference, Plaintiffs’ counsel made a meaningful attempt to resolve the underlying legal issues by agreement, including advising the Vice President’s counsel that Plaintiffs intended to seek immediate injunctive relief in the event the parties did not agree,” according to Gohmert’s filing. “Those discussions were not successful in reaching an agreement and this lawsuit was filed.”
In several battleground states won by Biden, Republicans who would have been electors if Trump won held mock Electoral College voting ceremonies on the same day as the actual events, and Gohmert is looking to get Pence to pick those electors’ votes to count.
U.S. District Court Judge Jeremy Kernodle of the Eastern District of Texas partially granted the request for an expedited schedule on Tuesday. The judge ordered Pence to respond to the lawsuit before the end of business on New Year’s Eve and demanded Gohmert’s reply by 9 a.m. on New Year’s Day.
He did not agree to hold a hearing for it.
Gohmert’s representation told the judge that they needed an expedited resolution ahead of the Jan. 6 session of Congress in which the vice president counts the electoral votes. This occurrence is usually a formality, although Democrats have unsuccessfully protested during this session ahead of Trump’s inauguration and that of George W. Bush.
A handful of House Republicans plan to object to the vote tally during that joint session of Congress, but their objections are only successful if they’re also signed by a member of both chambers of Congress, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has warned his party not to object. The president has met with those House Republicans, and he has subsequently attacked the majority leader for recognizing Biden as the president-elect.
President-elect Joe Biden is set to be inaugurated on Jan. 20.
