Dershowitz: It Will Be a ‘Tall Order’ for Trump Lawsuits to Overturn Election

Prominent lawyer Alan Dershowitz said during a November 20 Jewish Republican Alliance Zoom webinar that he thinks former Vice President Joe Biden’s projected presidential election victory will likely hold in the face of President Donald Trump’s campaign lawsuits.

Dershowitz, a Democrat who has defended Trump in certain instances, said that the Trump campaign’s legal strategy seems to be more focused on denying Biden 270 Electoral College votes rather than getting Trump to 270, which would then “immediately” turn the election to the House of Representatives.

“It means you don’t get vote after vote in the Electoral College,” Dershowitz said, although in the House it could be “vote after vote” until a president is elected.

But in order to get to that point, a “perfect storm” would have to happen for the Trump team, Dershowitz said. He thinks that the Trump team’s best chance for victory lies in Pennsylvania, arguing that the Pennsylvania Supreme Court violated the Constitution by declaring that mail-in ballots could be accepted three days after the election,even if they weren’t postmarked. Although Dershowitz acknowledged that the policy may have been a good idea to help voters deal with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, he argued that the Constitution only gives such authority to state legislators.

“I think that case would win in the Supreme Court 5-4 or 6-3,” Dershowitz said.

However, Dershowitz thinks that the Supreme Court would only intervene if there are enough invalid votes to change the outcome in Pennsylvania.

“What we don’t know is how many challenged votes there are,” Dershowitz said, noting that Biden currently has a 60,000 vote lead over Trump in Pennsylvania and he has heard that only 30,000–40,000 votes are being challenged in the state.

Even if Trump’s legal team were to flip Pennsylvania in the courts, they would still need to flip two other states to reach 270. The lawsuits in other states — Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, Michigan and Wisconsin — could only succeed if Trump’s team were to show that enough individual votes were fraudulent, which would be a “tall order,” according to Dershowitz. The Trump campaign has claimed to have evidence showing widespread instances of voter fraud; election officials have largely denied that widespread fraud took place during the election.

As for the Trump legal team’s recent claims about systemic irregularities in computer voting, Dershowitz thinks the Trump team could score some victories there, but “we need evidence. I haven’t seen it.” He also pointed out that the challenge with such lawsuits is that it would have to go to the state courts first, since state legislatures voted for the use of computers for election voting.

Dershowitz said if he had to bet on it, he would bet on Biden being sworn in as president in January, but he thinks the Trump team should pursue these legal challenges.

Dershowitz said if he had to bet on it, he would bet on Biden being sworn in as president in January, but he thinks the Trump team should pursue these legal challenges.

“There are a lot of novel constitutional questions that have never been answered [about the electoral process],” Dershowitz said. “Will we get some answers? I don’t know.”

As for the incoming Biden administration, Dershowitz said that Biden “is generally more pro-Israel, generally closer to the center,” but he’s going to keep an eye on the new administration to ensure that the United States. continues to support Israel and that Biden rejects the fringes of his party, especially if the Democrats take control of the Senate.

“Would [Biden] have the courage to veto a House/Senate law that packs the courts?” Dershowitz said. “I don’t know the answer to that.” He acknowledged that Biden personally opposes packing the courts, but argued that a veto requires a different level of strength than just personally opposing a policy.