'This Is Not A Fraud Case,' Giuliani Tells PA Judge

PENNSYLVANIA — A federal judge received the Trump campaign's election lawsuit in Pennsylvania skeptically during a six-hour hearing Tuesday afternoon, canceling a follow-up court date Thursday where both sides would have presented evidence.

A final decision on the case, which marks one of President Trump's most high profile attempts to overturn his defeat to President-elect Joe Biden, was not made Tuesday.

The suit alleges there are 682,807 ballots that poll observers were not close enough to see, and that the Republicans needed to use "binoculars" in their failed attempt to monitor the process.

During the hearing Tuesday in federal district court in Williamsport, Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani presented the court with photographs from polling places in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh that he said demonstrated the distance.

"This is laughable," Giuliani said. "This doesn't happen in an honest place."

But he admitted later: "This is not a fraud case."

That admission came toward the end of the hearing, under pressure for clarification on the suit's allegations from Judge Matthew W. Brann. Just hours earlier in his opening remarks, Giuliani argued issues in the state were emblematic of "widespread, nationwide voter fraud."

The president's lawyer, who was brought into the case at the 11th hour following the sudden, unexplained departures of multiple groups of lawyers over the past several days, began the proceedings with an impassioned opening rhetoric. Chunks of it focused on the poll watchers not being allowed to close enough access monitor ballot counting in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. Giuliani said watchers were blocked by "corrals" or "cages."

"It (the Pennsylvania Election Code) has been not violated, it's been trashed, it's been disregarded here and in 10 other places," the former New York City mayor said. "It's an eerily similar pattern."

At the same time as the hearing was going on, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled 5-2 that the Philadelphia Board of Elections had, in fact, not violated the Election Code in keeping poll watchers distant from the ballot counting process.

RELATED: PA Supreme Court Says Philly Policy On Vote Observation Legal

But Brann ultimately declined to dismiss the case Tuesday, giving both sides until 5 p.m. Thursday to file additional documents. The next hearing is not yet scheduled. He said at the conclusion of the hearing that Giuliani and Daniel Donovan, the head attorney for the state's defense team, resolve the case over dinner.

Donovan countered Giuliani with a calmer but meticulous legal analysis.

"There is no claim of voter fraud," Donovan said, noting that nothing in the Republican suit states that voters cast more than ballot, or that any voter who cast a ballot was ineligible to vote, and that the claims in the suit are entirely "generalized."

"It's just speculation," he added.

Donovan had first argued for the case to be dismissed, before arguing against what he said was the final claim remaining in the pared down suit: a violation of the equal protection clause, meaning the GOP allegation that voters in Democratic-run of the state were treated differently. He argued that much of Giuliani's argument was irrelevant because it applied to parts of the suit which had already been "deleted" in the GOP's altered filing on Monday.

Attorney for Allegheny County Mark Aronchick argued that this further discounted Giuliani's claims and repeatedly characterized the attempt to discard votes as "disgraceful."

>>Giuliani Joins PA Election Lawsuit As More Trump Lawyers Back Out

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling Tuesday stated that this distance is not a violation of the Election Code, because the code only states that observers be allowed in the same room. There is nothing in Pennsylvania law which states that observers must be able to "audit ballots," the majority opinion reads.

It remains unclear what impact that ruling may have on this federal case, but Aronchick argued it was immaterial because he said that specific part of the GOP lawsuit was withdrawn.

Harrisburg attorney and radio talk show host Marc Scaringi appeared in court beside Giuliani, along with GOP lawyer Linda Kearns. Giuliani did almost all of the talking for the GOP side.