Giuliani to represent Trump campaign in Pennsylvania case

President Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani on Tuesday is expected to represent the Trump campaign in federal court in Pennsylvania  in a case seeking to stop the commonwealth from certifying its election results.

President-elect Joe Biden was projected to win the Keystone State over a week ago, with the victory pushing him over the edge to win 270 Electoral College votes. 

Giuliani, who has been recently spearheading Trump’s effort to challenge the results of the presidential election, filed an application to appear in court on behalf of the Trump campaign on Tuesday morning just hours before a telephone hearing was scheduled in the case. 

His request was later approved by the federal judge overseeing the case. 

The move came after several lawyers withdrew from representing the Trump campaign in the case, which has been filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania.

The law firm Porter Wright Morris & Arthur withdrew from the case late Thursday, following a New York Times report about internal tensions at the firm related to its representation of the Trump campaign.

On Monday evening, three more attorneys withdrew from representing the Trump campaign in the case, and Marc Scaringi, an attorney based in Harrisburg, Pa., is now representing the campaign. Scaringi said on his radio show earlier this month that Trump’s lawsuits would not change the outcome of the election.

The hearing for the case is slated for Tuesday afternoon at 1:30 p.m., and will be conducted by phone.

Giuliani has been one of Trump’s more vocal allies in his effort to challenge the election that was called for Biden. Giuliani has publicly made claims about voter fraud without evidence. 

Lawyers for the campaign filed the lawsuit last week against Pennsylvania Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar, a Democrat, and several counties, alleging that the commonwealth set up an illegal system in which voters were held to different standards depending on how they cast their ballots.

The campaign filed an amended complaint on Sunday removing one of its key requests, with the campaign seeking to block Pennsylvania from certifying its election results until the suit plays out.

Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro (D) has dismissed the lawsuit as “meritless,” and election law experts have doubted that it will ultimately be successful.

The Democratic National Committee (DNC) has intervened in the lawsuit. 

The Trump campaign has filed lawsuits in a number of states in an effort to challenge the election results, but the efforts have fallen far short of their goal and failed to unearth credible evidence of widespread voter fraud.

Still, Trump himself has continued to make unsubstantiated assertions about systematic fraud in the electoral process and refused to concede to Biden.

Biden defeated Trump in battleground states that the president won in 2016, including Arizona, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Georgia.

Trump confirmed over the weekend that Giuliani, who was at the center of controversy that led to the president’s impeachment, would spearhead the legal push. Others involved include Jenna Ellis, his campaign’s senior legal adviser, and Sidney Powell, a lawyer and commentator who is a frequent presence on Fox News. 

Updated 1:56 p.m.