Election 2020

Law firm withdraws from key Trump election lawsuit in Pa.

Attorneys with Pittsburgh’s Porter Wright Morris & Arthur moved to withdraw from the suit they helped file in U.S. District Court just days earlier.

Ryan Briggs

November 13, 2020

A woman wears a Trump flag as a cape as supporters of President Donald Trump protest outside the Pennsylvania Convention Center, where vote counting continues, in Philadelphia, Monday, Nov. 9, 2020, two days after the 2020 election was called for Democrat Joe Biden. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

Court records show that a Pittsburgh-based firm representing President Donald Trump has withdrawn from a key lawsuit aimed at tossing out hundreds of thousands Pennsylvania votes.

On Thursday, Ronald L. Hicks Jr. and Carolyn B. McGee, attorneys with law firm Porter Wright Morris & Arthur, moved to withdraw from the suit they helped file in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania just days earlier.

The lawsuit, filed against the Pennsylvania secretary of state and a string of counties, alleges a vast pattern of mismanagement and obstructed observation that, Trump’s attorneys argued, invalidated immense blocks of votes.

However, legal analysts have described the complaint as a long shot, noting that the campaign provided no evidence of illegal ballots being cast intentionally.

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Linda A. Kerns, a Philadelphia-based election lawyer who has championed voter ID laws locally, will stay on as sole counsel in a suit that has seen national groups such as the NAACP, the American Civil Liberties Union and the League of Women’s Voters intervene on behalf of the state.

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