Law firm Porter Wright withdraws from representing Trump in Pennsylvania case

The law firm Porter Wright Morris & Arthur on Thursday moved to withdraw from a case filed on behalf of President Trump’s campaign in Pennsylvania challenging the election results.

The development comes just three days after the case was filed in federal court in Pennsylvania after Joe Biden was declared president-elect.

The suit is one of several related to the election that the campaign has filed in Pennsylvania and other states. It alleges irregularities in the voting process in counties across the commonwealth.

“Plaintiffs and Porter Wright have reached a mutual agreement that Plaintiffs will be best served if Porter Wright withdraws, and current co-counsel and such other counsel as Plaintiffs may choose to engage represent Plaintiffs in this case,” states the memorandum accompanying the motion to withdraw filed Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania.

The motion does not provide an explanation for the decision. It states that Linda Kerns, another lawyer on the case, will remain on representing the Trump campaign.

The New York Times reported earlier this week that there were internal tensions at the firm, which is based in Columbus, Ohio, related to its work for the Trump campaign in Pennsylvania.

In this particular lawsuit, the Trump campaign sued Pennsylvania’s Democratic secretary of state and seven counties on Monday, alleging that the commonwealth implemented an illegal “two-tiered” system in which voters were held to different standards depending on how they cast ballots. The campaign is seeking to prevent the certification of the states’ election results until the case plays out.

Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro (D) has dismissed the lawsuit as “meritless” and insisted that Pennsylvania’s election, overseen by bipartisan election officials, was “lawful, fair and secure.”

The Democratic National Committee and the American Civil Liberties Union have each successfully moved to intervene in the ongoing case.

Biden defeated Trump in Pennsylvania by over 50,000 votes.

Trump has refused to concede to Biden, who was declared the winner of the presidential race on Saturday and defeated the incumbent in the key battlegrounds of Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin and Arizona. The Trump campaign has filed a handful of suits in state and federal court in Pennsylvania alone.

Election officials have disputed Trump’s unsubstantiated claims of widespread voter fraud.