Trump-appointed GA judge questions RNC’s 'reading comprehension' as he tosses lawsuit

Republican National Committee Co-Chair Lara Trump in San Antonio, Texas on June 7, 2024 (Gage Skidmore)

Lara

Carl Gibson
November 05, 2024Election 2024

One of the Republican National Committee's (RNC) legal challenges in a key swing state was flatly rejected by one of former President Donald Trump's judicial appointees.

Lawfare correspondent Anna Bower tweeted a thread Tuesday afternoon on U.S. District Judge R. Stan Baker of the Southern District of Georgia's recent dismissal of a lawsuit the RNC filed seeking to have absentee ballots in the Peach State thrown out. According to Bower, RNC lawyers argued that it was illegal for counties to accept in-person delivery of absentee ballots over the weekend, prompting Baker to harshly disagree.

"[The RNC's argument] does not withstand even the most basic level of statutory review and reading comprehension," said Baker, an alumnus of the conservative Federalist Society who was confirmed to the federal bench in 2018. He added that he would "unquestionably" be denying voters their constitutional rights if he granted the RNC's request for relief in its lawsuit.

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"Even more concerning, I would only be invalidating votes from the select counties that plaintiffs have cherry-picked based on nothing more than the past political preferences of the citizens in those counties," Baker said.

In Bower's thread, she described how Judge Baker gave a "public dressing-down" to the RNC's legal team, saying he felt the need to "address some concerns I have with the litigation tactics in this case." He laid into the GOP's central argument in the lawsuit as "factually and legally incorrect... Particularly when it comes to matters that underpin our constitutional republic, including our elections system, those of us in the legal profession owe an obligation...that we not strike any foul blows."

"Unfortunately, plaintiffs’ counsel missed that mark in this case," Baker continued. He added that there are typically "serious repercussions for those who violate the duty of candor," though he refrained from sanctioning RNC lawyers on Tuesday.

Bower also reported that this challenge was similar to a challenge Republicans also lost in Georgia state court, in which the Georgia Republican Party was a plaintiff along with the RNC. The hearing before Judge Baker concerning the absentee ballots was reportedly "hours long" before Baker rejected the Republicans' challenge.

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Both of those suits were reportedly filed by Alex Kaufman, who sat in on Trump's early 2021 call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensberger in which he asked the Peach State's top elections official to "find" an additional 11,780 votes. While there was apparently a question over whether Kaufman would be included in Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis' 2023 RICO indictment of Trump and his legal team, he was ultimately not charged.

The 2020 election was also rife with legal challenges from Republican attorneys — the vast majority of which were unsuccessful and dismissed due to lack of standing. And like Judge Baker, many of the judges that handed down approximately 60 losses to Trump and the RNC were appointed by Trump himself.

Click here to read Bower's thread in full.

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