[7][8] In one instance, the Trump campaign and other groups seeking his reelection collectively lost multiple cases in six states on a single day.
[9] Only one ruling was initially in Trump's favor: the timing within which first-time Pennsylvania voters must provide proper identification if they wanted to "cure" their ballots.
[13] Every state except Wisconsin[14] met the December 8 statutory "safe harbor" deadline to resolve disputes and certify voting results.
[15][16][17] Three days after it was filed by Texas attorney general Ken Paxton, the U.S. Supreme Court on December 11 declined to hear a case supported by Trump and his Republican allies asking for electoral votes in four states to be rejected.
[19][20][21] Dominion Voting Systems brought defamation lawsuits against former Trump campaign lawyers Sidney Powell and Rudy Giuliani, each for $1.3 billion.
[22][23] Smartmatic brought a defamation lawsuit against Fox Corporation and its anchors Lou Dobbs, Maria Bartiromo, and Jeanine Pirro as well as Giuliani and Powell for $2.7 billion.
[35] Sixteen federal prosecutors assigned to monitor the election sent a letter to Attorney General William Barr saying there was no evidence of widespread irregularities.
[36] Four lawsuits orchestrated by conservative lawyer James Bopp in Georgia, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania were dropped on November 16 after a federal appellate court said voters could not bring some constitutional claims.
Federal judges in Georgia and Michigan rejected last-ditch efforts by pro-Trump lawyer Sidney Powell to overturn the election results on December 7, 2020.
[47][48] In April 2023, Dominion settled with Fox News for $787.5 million, but a related $2.7 billion lawsuit by Smartmatic, another electronic voting systems, remains unresolved.
[50] Ohio State University election law professor Ned Foley noted "[y]ou have to have a legal claim, and you have to have evidence to back it up.
[51] Bradley P. Moss, an attorney specializing in national security, wrote that the suits "continue to defy reason and logic, and are purely theater ...
[29] Barry Richard, who helped to oversee the Republican-led Florida recount effort during the 2000 election, called the lawsuits "entirely without merit" and said they "will not be successful";[53] Gerry McDonough, an attorney who worked for the Gore campaign, said Trump "has no chance of overturning the result—it's just impossible".
[35] Jones Day, one of many law firms working for the Trump campaign and one that specifically handled Pennsylvania Democratic Party v. Boockvar,[55] faced internal criticism for its "shortsighted" efforts on litigation that "erode[s] public confidence in the election results".
On December 4, 2020, the Minnesota Supreme Court held that the doctrine of laches applied to petitioners' claims against the secretary of state and that they had adequate time to bring suit prior to the election but failed to do so.
In regards to observer access to post-election review, Minnesota law requires charges be served against county election officials which the petitioners did not do.
[60] Texas alleged that the four states used the COVID-19 pandemic as a pretext to unconstitutionally change voting laws and increase the number of mail-in ballots.
[84] On December 10, over 100 House Republicans signed an amicus brief in support of Texas, including Minority Whip Steve Scalise and the ranking member on the Judiciary Committee, Jim Jordan.
[60] University of Texas law professor Stephen Vladeck remarked, "It looks like we have a new leader in the 'craziest lawsuit filed to purportedly challenge the election' category.
[91] A lawsuit challenging the election results of Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Georgia and Arizona was filed by the Amistad Project of the conservative Thomas More Society.
[93] This is an ongoing federal criminal case regarding Donald Trump's alleged participation in attempts to overturn the 2020 U.S. presidential election, including his involvement in the January 6 Capitol attack.
"Given the undisputed public record regarding the suspension of the witness requirement for absentee and mail ballots, petitioners had a duty to act well before November 3, 2020," the ruling states.
[103] On April 19, 2021, more than five months after the November 3, 2020, election, the Supreme Court declined to hear the outstanding case brought by former Republican congressional candidate Jim Bognet, dismissing it without comment.
[104] In August 2024, a judge ruled that Washington County, Pennsylvania, violated state law by failing to notify voters when their mail-in ballots were rejected during the April primary election.
The Trump campaign also submitted a request to expedite proceedings,[107] but the Court ignored this and instead set the deadline for reply briefs from the respondents for January 22, 2021, two days after Biden's inauguration.
[79][78] On January 2, a three-judge panel speedily and tersely rejected the appeal, "affirm[ing] the judgment" of the district court "essentially for the reasons stated" in Kernodle's order.
[79][114] The unanimous ruling was made by three Republican appointees: Andy Oldham (Trump) and Patrick Higginbotham and Jerry Edwin Smith (Reagan).
The hearing is the first step in determining if lawyers that participated in post-election lawsuits should receive attorney misconduct sanctions or be referred to a regulatory body for disbarment proceedings, for violating the ethics of their profession.
[128][129] In November 2021, Neureiter ordered the two attorneys to pay the groups they sued $187,000 to defray their legal costs, and to deter similar frivolous suits.
[130] Attorney Sidney Powell used the phrase "release the Kraken" to describe legal efforts to overturn the 2020 United States presidential election.