Another attorney representing Donald Trump’s re-election campaign in Pennsylvania has abandoned the president’s ongoing efforts to challenge the state’s election results. Linda Kerns, the Philadelphia-based divorce lawyer and conservative media commentator, has officially withdrawn as counsel for the campaign, according to a Thursday morning filing in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania.
Kerns had requested to withdraw from the case earlier this week, but U.S. District Judge Matthew W. Brann required her to be present Tuesday for the first appearance of the newest addition to the Trump campaign’s legal team, Rudy Giuliani.
During his bizarrely free-wheeling appearance on Tuesday that was widely panned by attorneys and legal experts, Giuliani flubbed some of the most basic principles of civil procedure and took several positions on the issue of voter fraud, first alleging it was widespread throughout the state only to later concede to the judge that “this is not a fraud case.”
Kerns raised eyebrows over the weekend when she asked Judge Brann to sanction an associate at Kirkland & Ellis, the law firm representing Pennsylvania Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar (D). Kerns had received a one-minute voicemail she described as “abusive.” The attorney was not associated with the case. Brann denied the motion, indicating that the voicemail was not sanctionable, though he did say it was “really bad form,” per the ABA Journal.
Appearing on behalf of the campaign in Philadelphia County’s Court of Common Pleas last week, Kerns became one of several Trump campaign attorneys to tell the presiding judge that despite Trump’s public claims, the campaign was not alleging any fraud had taken place.
“Having read your moving papers, would you agree with me that you are not proceeding based on allegations of fraud or misconduct; is that correct?” the Judge James Crumlish asked Kerns, according to a full transcript of those proceedings obtained by Law&Crime.
“I am not proceeding on those allegations,” Kerns replied. “I’m simply proceeding on 3157 of the election code as well as 3246.”
Kerns was referring to sections of the Pennsylvania Election Code dealing with: (1) procedural appeals to county election boards; and (2) rules governing the canvassing of official absentee ballots, respectively.
Kerns Withdrawal by Law&Crime on Scribd
[image via Fox News screengrab]
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