The dismissal of the suit just two days before Pennsylvania was scheduled to certify its vote and award its 20 electors to President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. was merely the latest of the more than 30 legal losses the Trump campaign and other Republican plaintiffs have suffered since Election Day.
At a rambling news conference on Thursday that mixed misleading statements, conspiracy theories and outright fabrications, Rudolph W. Giuliani, Mr. Trump’s personal lawyer, promised more suits attacking the integrity of the elections and proving “massive fraud,” but at least so far, those suits have not been filed.
The suit Judge Brann considered was particularly troubled by legal challenges.
One week after it was filed, the Trump campaign was already on its third set of lawyers. On Tuesday, Mr. Giuliani, rushing into the matter, personally appeared at a hearing in Federal District Court in Williamsport, Pa., and gave a disjointed opening statement that mentioned Mickey Mouse, former mayor Richard M. Daley of Chicago and the Philadelphia mafia.
In court papers filed on Saturday, he misspelled the name of Pennsylvania’s governor, Tom Wolf.
Even though Mr. Giuliani began his presentation at the court hearing by accusing the Democratic Party of committing “nationwide fraud” in Pennsylvania and at least nine other states, under questioning by Judge Brann, he quickly backtracked and acknowledged he was making no such claims in this case.
“This is not a fraud case,” he said.
In his 37-page order, Judge Brann systemically dismantled the Trump campaign’s arguments and those brought by the suit’s two other plaintiffs, Republican voters who claimed their mail-in ballots had not been counted.
Given the almost total lack of evidence that the Trump campaign provided, Judge Brann seemed incredulous that he was being asked to toss the results of an entire state’s election.
“In the United States of America, this cannot justify the disenfranchisement of a single voter, let alone all the voters of its sixth most populated state,” he wrote. “Our people, laws and institutions demand more.”
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