Indiana attorneys for Trump at Wisconsin election challenge hearing today

Updated coverage: Federal judge casts doubt on Indiana lawyers’ Trump Wisconsin suit.

President Donald Trump’s legal team from Kroger Gardis & Regas LLP in Indianapolis will be appearing virtually in federal court in Wisconsin today as the attorneys try to overturn the November election results that showed President-elect Joe Biden won the Badger state.

The attorneys, William Bock III, James Knauer and Kevin Koons, are representing Trump in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin. In a motion seeking declaratory and injunctive relief, the legal team is arguing the 2020 presidential election process was flawed and the Wisconsin Legislation should appoint the electors to the Electoral College.

Defendants in their response brief assert the plaintiff’s “vague allegations” against the city of Milwaukee officials is Premised on misstatements of fact and mischaracterizations of law.”

The case, Donald J. Trump, Candidate for President of the United States of America v. The Wisconsin Elections Commission, et al., 2:20-cv-01785, was filed Dec. 2.

A hearing is scheduled for 10 a.m. Eastern Time before Judge Brett Ludwig. Live audio was being streamed live over the court’s YouTube channel.

At a scheduling conference Wednesday, Ludwig told the lawyers for the plaintiff and the defendants his “strong preference” was for all the parties to reach an agreement on the factual issues prior to the hearing today. If they could do that, the judge predicted the proceeding would be finished by noon but if they could not, the hearing could go much longer.

“I want to be fair and give everybody an opportunity, but I want to get this resolved,” Ludwig said.

Trump’s attorneys argue state and local officials did not follow Wisconsin law when conducting the November election. As a result, the election and the outcome are void.

Also, in their brief, the Kroger Gardis team asserted Gov. Tommy Evers should be required to issue a certification of determination consistent with the appointment of electors by the Wisconsin Legislature.

Previously, Ludwig has called the request to remand the case to the Wisconsin Legislature “bizarre.” Wednesday, pointing to the demand the governor to act, the judge said he was frustrated that the plaintiff’s request for relief was changing a day before the Dec. 10 hearing.

The plaintiff has claimed 50,000 votes were tainted. Biden won the popular vote in Wisconsin by 20,682 votes, according to the Associated Press.

However, the Milwaukee defendants’ response brief countered that the documents the plaintiff presents “utterly fail” to support his allegations of vote fraud. Trump and his attorneys, according to the defendants, submitted 10 affidavits and declarations along with one Wisconsin Elections Commission Complaint form.

The response brief said one affidavit presented by the plaintiff cites “more than 10 counting errors” but provides no details. Another affidavit contains nearly identical language and describes the same number of errors, “more than 10.”

Others are “more ambiguous,” according to the defendants’ brief. One witness admitted he did not witness any ballot irregularities but he still had a “genuine belief” that ballots were being “tampered with” in violation of Wisconsin law.

“The Plaintiff does not identify a single voter whose vote was tainted or a witness to testify that any ballots were tainted, much less than 50,000 ballots were tainted,” the defendants’ response motion asserts. “… Wisconsin law does not allow the Plaintiff to make unsupported allegations about the validity of a vote. He is required to prove the allegations beyond a reasonable doubt.”

The case is among dozens filed nationwide that have failed to change the outcome of the election in key battleground states won by Biden en route to a 306-232 electoral college victory. Biden also won the nationwide popular vote by more than 7 million ballots, according to the Associated Press.