Trump Campaign Drops Georgia Election Lawsuits

ATLANTA, GA — After months of baseless claims of voter fraud against Georgia's presidential election results, President Donald Trump's campaign voluntarily dismissed four separate lawsuits challenging the November results on Jan. 7, according to court documents — but not before falsely claiming the state agreed to a settlement to review "withheld" election data.

In a letter marked confidential — but filed on the public court docket for the lawsuit against Gov. Brian Kemp and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger — Roswell attorney Kurt Hilbert said they "accept the terms of your settlement proposal dated Jan. 3, 2021" and look forward to receiving the "heretofore withheld Nov. 3, 2020 election data."

Hilbert is the attorney for a federal court case that was thrown out on Tuesday, a pending Superior Court of Fulton County lawsuit, a case on appeal to the Georgia Supreme Court and a long-delayed case filed by the Trump campaign in December.

"We are promptly voluntarily dismissing the following legal actions as per your request and in consideration of the settlement," the letter reads.

However, the state's legal counsel filed a response to the voluntary dismissal of the lawsuits saying the claims of a settlement agreement were false.

"While Defendants are appreciative of this voluntary dismissal and the cessation by Plaintiff of this groundless litigation, as officers of the court it is expected that all matters before the court will be handled with complete candor," said Chris Anulewicz, special assistant attorney general, in the state's filing. "The Defendants make this response to ensure that the actual record of what has transpired is accurately reflected in the docket."

Anulewicz also said Hilbert may have violated the Georgia Rules of Professional Conduct.

"Without notifying Defendants' counsel, Plaintiff and his litigation counsel participated in a phone conference with Defendant Raffensperger on Saturday, Jan. 2, 2020," he wrote in the filing. "The participation of counsel for Plaintiff in that call appears to be in violation of the Georgia Rules of Professional Conduct Rule 4.2, as Plaintiff's counsel neither notified litigation counsel for Defendant Raffensperger nor sought nor obtained consent to conduct or participate in a conversation with Defendant Raffensperger."

Hilbert was one of several attorneys on the call that Trump had with Raffensperger on Saturday, where the president asked Raffensperger to "find" enough votes to overturn the election in his favor.

The dismissal of the lawsuits comes a day before the president's legal team was set to present their evidence to a court and to cross-examination.

"Rather than presenting their evidence and witnesses to a court and to cross-examination under oath, the Trump campaign wisely decided the smartest course was to dismiss their frivolous cases," Raffensperger said in a news release. "Even in capitulation, they continue to spread disinformation."

Just before midnight Thursday, Congress certified Georgia's 16 Electoral College votes for President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris; however, U.S. Rep. Jody Hice of Georgia offered an objection to the results. But without outgoing Sen. Kelly Loeffler's support, which she rescinded following the Capitol riots, Vice President Mike Pence dismissed the objection.