3,999 participants on the call as the Trump campaign hearing in the middle district of PA gets underway

The lawyers, including Giuliani, are mostly present in person. The judge is going through a roll call.

“Who are these other individuals in the back?” He just asked. “Presenting or just dropped by?”

Giuliani says he will be seeking leave to amend the complaint to restore the due process claims he says were mistakenly removed. So I guess @joshgerstein’s reading comprehension is okay after all.

“The best description of this situation is widespread, nationwide voter fraud,” Giuliani says after telling the court that it has to assume his claims (for which there is no evidence) are true on a MTD.

Unclear if we’ll get a discussion of plausibility under Twombly and Iqbal.

Giuliani is wrapping up a stemwinder to the court that is mostly indistinguishable from listening to him rant on his podcast. He has repeatedly conflated jurisdiction, standing, and an equal protection claim on the merits based on Bush v. Gore. What $20k/day buys you.

We lost the feed after the first half of a quite well-organized presentation from defendant’s counsel. He brought slides!

His arguments on standing alone seem sufficient for dismissal; there’s a bevy of directly on pt precedent that these vote dilution claims lack standing.

This is the sort of situation where it would’ve been nice to have a pool reporter in the room to tell us the rest of what happened.

Statement on the clerk’s website

During the break, Giuliani opens twitter.

So far as I am able to report to you: the court has not been able to resolve the conference line problem and I have not been able to work out why Rudy ‘world’s best paid lawyer’ Giuliani attempted to introduce exhibits in a MTD hearing

UPDATE: We have a new conference line.

It’s completely silent so far. But I’m encouraged nevertheless.

The court is now asking an AT&T rep if it can restart the proceeding. An American metaphor.

AT&T gave a green light and we are back on the record. Donovan picks up with his Equal Protection merits argument.

Donovan’s colleague is making a redressability argument through a painfully garbled virtual connection. In moments of clarity, some personal jabs at Giuliani come through—says Rudy hasn’t even read a relevant case.

Aronchik may be a making a great argument or he may not be. I honestly couldn’t say for sure. It’s a good lesson that if you’re going to give an extended talk remotely, you need to insist on and confirm that your audience has a crystal clear connection.

Giuliani is responding but I think his mic is off. https://twitter.com/rmfifthcircuit/status/1328827813147840512

The questions the judge is asking Giuliani:
- how can your remedy of invalidating the votes of the entire Commonwealth be justified?
- why are you arguing claims that are not in your complaint?
- why didn’t you due the counties that you claim caused your clients injuries?

sue*

Judge: Does the campaign have direct or derivative injuries?

Trump lawyer:

Judge: what standard of review should I apply?

Rudy: the normal one.

Me:

The defendants are reasonably arguing that rational basis is the appropriate standard of review.

As to the merits, Giuliani keeps saying you can’t have different voting practices in different parts of the state. The problem for him is, for all of US history, you can. Even Bush v Gore says so. We’ll wait to see if the new 6-3 Supreme Court thinks that’s still the case.