Via America’s Lawyer: RT Correspondent Brigida Santos joins Mike Papantonio to discuss how SCOTUS has shot down Texas AG Ken Paxton’s lawsuit attempting to overturn election results in four battleground states. What’s more, the TX attorney general himself was indicted on fraud charges and is now facing claims of bribery and abuse of power.
Transcript:
*This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos.
Mike Papantonio: The US Supreme Court has rejected Texas bid to in, to invalidate the results of this year’s presidential election in four swing States where Donald Trump lost. Brigida Santos joins me now to put this in perspective, you know, Brigida to me, no surprise here, even though, you know, you have everybody who was, oh my God, the Supreme Court is lost to the right. They’re not going to be judges anymore. Doesn’t this kind of get in the way of that argument? Why has the high court denied the complaints? I mean, what’s their reasoning.
Brigida Santos: Yeah. This gets in the way of that, for sure. Now the US Supreme Court has rejected a complaint aiming to invalidate election results in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Georgia. The lawsuit was spearheaded by Texas attorney general, Ken Paxton, who accuses government officials in the four defendant States of unconstitutionally revising their state’s election statutes without legislative authority when updating mail in ballot rules during the pandemic. Now in the lawsuit, Paxton also questions the security of mail-in ballots and accuses the States of weakening signature verification and witness requirements for the ballots that were cast. But SCOTUS has denied the motion citing lack of standing under article three of the constitution. The high court States, “Texas hasn’t demonstrated a judicially recognizable interest in the manner in which another state conducts its elections. All other pending motions are dismissed as moot.” The Supreme court’s rejection is widely seen as the final stop for those in the Republican party who are seeking to overturn the results of the presidential election.
Mike Papantonio: Yeah. I mean, coming from Ken Paxton being charged that there’s crimes taking place, that is very special because five years ago, Ken Paxton, the guy who’s making these accusations well, he was charged with crimes and it’s issues still going on. You know, why hasn’t he gone to trial? He instead, he’s up there making this issue in front of the Supreme Court. Starts with no legitimacy, simply because it’s Paxton to begin with. He hasn’t gone to trial yet, has he? Is something happened with Paxton that I missed?
Brigida Santos: No, he hasn’t gone to trial. Texas attorney general, Ken Paxton was indicted on felony securities fraud charges back in 2015. And this October seven of the highest ranking officials in his office wrote a letter to the Texas director of human resources stating that they have good faith, belief and knowledge that Paxton is violating federal and or state laws, including improper influence, bribery, abuse of office, and other possible crimes. Paxton denies the allegations. As to why he’s yet to face trial, well, that’s not clear, it’s, it reeks of corruption. So far there’s no trial date on the books and the main activity in the case has been venue changes and disputes over payments to these special prosecutors handling the case. But the recent whistleblower complaints and Paxton’s highly publicized efforts here to overturn the election results are renewing the pressure to get a trial on the books. Now we’ll see if that happens. A lot of people believe that he filed this lawsuit as a plea to president Trump, to try to get a pardon.
Mike Papantonio: In other words, corruption center led by Paxton in Texas, I mean the very heart of corruption is going to the Supreme Court and they’re saying there’s corruption in the electoral process. That is very rich. You know, this, this week the electoral college has officially affirmed Joe Biden’s presidential win, but the Donald, well, he continues to fight the court. What’s his latest legal battle. We know the, we know the ending to the legal battle and nothing has worked for him because there’s no evidence. It’s like somebody was interviewed the other day on, on corporate media and they were saying, well, what evidence do you have that there’s been anything on, on toward here? And the guy says, well, I don’t, I, I didn’t actually, I wasn’t there when they landed on the moon. So isn’t that an analogy here? That’s, that’s the kind of thinking we have. What’s your take on this?
Brigida Santos: Yeah. Look despite the actions of the electoral college and Supreme Court this week, president Trump and his legal team, of course, they’re not going to give up. They’re now filing another election lawsuit, this time in New Mexico, accusing the state of breaking the law when allowing voters to drop off absentee ballots, rather than handing them to the location’s presiding judge in person. Now, at this point, any new lawsuits are completely performative. This is unsurprising for the president. He’s not going to go down without a fight and he’ll probably drag this out all the way to the end.
Mike Papantonio: Yeah. The question is how much damage does he do to the democratic process while he’s doing that? That’s what we ought to be focusing on. Brigida, thank you. I, I, we want to do another story in a few weeks and I think it’s going to be the same story and Trump is going to have the same results. Nothing is going to happen here. Joe Biden is the president. Get over it, Trump. Thank you for joining me. Okay.
Brigida Santos: Thanks Mike.
