DNC asks judge to toss Trump Wisconsin election suit filed by Indy firm

The Democratic National Committee has moved to intervene in a federal lawsuit filed on behalf of President Donald Trump by an Indianapolis law firm seeking to overturn President-elect Joe Biden’s election victory in Wisconsin. The judge in the case has set proceedings for later this week.

Indianapolis attorney William Bock III and law firm Kroger Gardis & Regas last week filed a lawsuit in the Eastern District of Wisconsin, one of dozens of so far fruitless suits that have sought to overturn certified election results in several decisive battleground states.

Biden won the popular vote in the Badger State by a 20,682-vote margin, according to the Associated Press — a margin that grew slightly after the Trump campaign paid for a recount of two of the state’s most populous counties. Electors are scheduled to meet Dec. 14 to cast their ballots to formally elect Biden, who the Associated Press says won the Electoral College over Trump 306-232 and the popular vote by more than 7 million ballots. Trump has refused to concede.

Democratic Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers certified the state’s election and its 10 electoral votes for Biden last week. Lawyers defending the state in separate litigation that sought to overturn the vote by tossing ballots only in counties that voted heavily for Biden called that litigation an “assault on democracy.” The Wisconsin Supreme Court declined to hear that case last week.

In the federal case filed by Kroger Gardis & Regas lawyers, the DNC moved on Friday to intervene in the suit that names the Wisconsin Elections Commission, its members and several local elected officials as defendants. The national Democratic Party filed an answer that largely denies the allegations in the suit, dismissing most of them as “mere characterizations, legal contentions, conclusions, and opinions to which no response is required.”

Additionally, the DNC asserted 11 affirmative defenses, from standing to unclean hands to asserting the claims are “barred by the doctrine of illegality.” The answer also says Trump’s claims “are barred in whole or in part by the failure to join an indispensable party.”

The DNC asks District Judge Brett Ludwig to deny Trump’s request for an injunction and dismiss the case with prejudice and to award the DNC’s attorney fees.

Ludwig, a Trump appointee, issued an expedited discovery and briefing scheduling order for parties in the case, culminating with a final hearing on the complaint via Zoom at 9 a.m. Thursday. CBS58 in Milwaukee reported last Friday that Ludwig seemed vexed by the lawsuit.

“I have a very, very hard time seeing how this is justiciable in the federal court,” the report quoted Ludwig as saying to Bock. “I also have real questions, the request to remand this case (to the Wisconsin state Legislature) also strikes me as really bizarre.”

Attorneys for defendants in the case also complained to the judge at the Dec. 4 hearing that the case could have been filed weeks earlier.

In an Associated Press tally through Friday of roughly 50 cases brought by Trump’s campaign and his allies, more than 30 have been rejected or dropped. Trump has notched just one small victory, a case challenging a decision to move the deadline to provide missing proof of identification for certain absentee ballots and mail-in ballots in Pennsylvania.