Pennsylvania appeals court judge orders officials to HALT any further steps toward certifying election results showing Biden won - as Gov. Tom Wolf vows to fight the ruling and Trump celebrates 'Big News'
A Pennsylvania appeals court judge has ordered state officials to halt any further steps toward certifying election results.
The ruling on Wednesday comes a day after Governor Tom Wolf said the Pennsylvania Department of State had certified Democrat Joe Biden as the state's winner of the presidential election.
It wasn't immediately clear if the order from Commonwealth Court Judge Patricia McCullough could hold up the certification of state and local contests on the ballot or interrupt the scheduled December 14 meeting of the state's 20 electors.
'To the extent that there remains any further action to perfect the certification of the results of the 2020 General Election for the offices of President and Vice President of the United States of America, Respondents are preliminarily enjoined from doing so,' pending an evidentiary hearing, according to the judge's order.
Governor Tom Wolf said the Pennsylvania Department of State had certified Democrat Joe Biden as the state's winner of the presidential election
A Pennsylvania appeals court judge has ordered state officials to halt any further steps toward certifying election results
President Donald Trump reacted to the ruling with a tweet declaring 'Big news!'
Wolf's administration quickly asked the state Supreme Court to block the ruling from taking effect, saying there was no 'conceivable justification' for it.
The evidentiary hearing, which was originally scheduled for Friday morning, was continued due to the administration's appeal.
Republican Rep. Mike Kelly and others are challenging approximately 2.5 million mail-in ballots that were predominantly cast by Democrats.
The people challenging the ballots filed a supplemental application for emergency relief shortly before midnight Tuesday.
Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro said in a Twitter post the judge's order does not impact Tuesday's appointment of electors.
The state's 20 electoral college votes are key to Trump's longshot attempts to overturn the election results, and it would be virtually impossible for him to achieve his dream without somehow securing them.
The Pennsylvania Department of State had certified Democrat Joe Biden as the state's winner of the presidential election on Tuesday
Biden is projected to secure 306 electoral college votes to Trump's 232, making the Democrat the clear winner of the election.
Trump has yet to present proof of the widespread voter fraud that he claims cost him the election to Biden.
The ruling in Pennsylvania came as Trump continued to contest the election results in Georgia, which holds 16 electoral votes.
Georgia certified Biden's victory there on Friday after a recount, but will undertake another machine review of the ballots at the Trump campaign's request. Few expect a different result.
On Wednesday, Trump campaign attorney Lin Wood said on Twitter that the 11th Circuit had granted his emergency motion for expedited review of a lawsuit challenging validity of Georgia's election procedure.
'We The People delivered a historic landslide win for @realDonaldTrump in GA & nationally,' Wood claimed it a tweet flagged as disputed by Twitter, and retweeted by Trump. 'We The People will not allow it be stolen.'
Separately, controversial attorney Sidney Powell has promised to 'release the Kraken' before midnight on Wednesday by filing a lawsuit alleging massive voter fraud in Georgia.
She was released from Trump's campaign legal team last week but is continuing the fight independently.
On Wednesday, Trump campaign attorney Lin Wood said on Twitter that the 11th Circuit had granted his emergency motion for expedited review of a lawsuit challenging validity of Georgia's election procedure
Separately, controversial attorney Sidney Powell has promised to 'release the Kraken' before midnight on Wednesday by filing a lawsuit alleging massive voter fraud in Georgia
Trump phoned in to lawyer Rudy Giuliani during a Pennsylvania hearing-style event Wednesday in order to claim 'we won this election' and that the election 'has to be turned around.'
'This election as rigged and we can’t let that happen,' Trump said, even after Michigan and Pennsylvania certified the vote and his own administration issued a letter allowing the transition to President-elect Joe Biden to begin.
'This was an election that we won easily. We won it by a lot,' Trump claimed, while trailing Biden by about 6 million votes.
'Why wouldn’t they overturn an election? Certainly overturn it in your state,' he said in his call, which was played for an audience in Pennsylvania and carried on livestreams and on some cable channels.
He made a surprise phone call to a hearing underway in Gettysburg. His lawyer Jenna Ellis patched him through by holding her own iPhone up to a microphone next to Giuliani.
Just like his call-ins to cable news, Trump mused about what he saw on TV and vented.
President Donald Trump called into a hearing-style event in Pennsylvania where lawyer Rudy Giuliani leveled charges of voter fraud
He said a 'big energy official was on this morning on an important show' who 'said there’s no way trump didn’t win Pennsylvania because the energy industry was all for him.
'This election as rigged and we can’t let that happen,' he claimed, despite a top homeland official saying it was among the most secure he had witnessed before being pushed out of his job.
'This election has to be turned around. We won pa by a lot and we won all of these swing states by a lot,' Trump said, while attendees and his counsel listened.
'We got 11 million votes more than we had four years ago in 2016 And we got many more votes than Ronald Reagan had when he won 49 states,' Trump said, pointing to an election forty years ago when the population was considerably smaller.
'It would be easy for me to say oh, let’s worry about four years from now,' he said, referencing talk he may run again.
After a push for state legislators to try to overturn the result in Michigan and Pennsylvania, Trump appeared to put his faith in the courts.
'All we need is to have some judge listen to it properly,' he said.
The call came hours after Trump pulled the plug on a plan to travel to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania Wednesday to hear lawyer Rudy Giuliani stitch together claims of voter fraud at a Republican hearing.
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