By Aiyeku Timothy
Texas representative, Louie Gohmert and President Donald Trump’s defeated electors from Arizona on Monday, sued Vice President Mike Pence in the federal court to compel him to overturn Joe Biden’s win in the 2020 elections.
This is in a long-shot bid to throw out the rules that govern Congress’ counting of electoral votes next week.
Vice-President Pence, in his capacity as President of Senate and Presiding Officer of the January 6, 2021, Joint Session of Congress under the Twelfth Amendment, is subject solely to the requirements of the Twelfth Amendment and may exercise the exclusive authority and sole discretion in determining which electoral votes to count for a given State,
“In the teleconference, Plaintiffs’ counsel made a meaningful attempt to resolve the underlying legal issues by agreement, including advising the Vice President’s counsel that Plaintiffs intended to seek immediate injunctive relief in the event the parties did not agree. Those discussions were not successful in reaching an agreement and this lawsuit was filed.” according to Gohmert’s filing.
The lawsuit comes before Judge Jeremy Kernodle, a Trump appointee to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas but it is yet to be seen if he will grant the request for an expedited judgment.
However, Pence has reportedly engaged with GOP lawmakers seeking to reverse the election results but his stand is not known to the public and has given no indication how he intends to handle his role presiding over the Jan. 6 session of Congress set to certify Biden’s victory.
Meanwhile, Trump allies have repeatedly counted on Pence’s role at the center of the Electoral College certification process as their major hope that the election results could still be reversed. Trump even amplified one such theory last week, retweeting a suggestion that Pence could intervene in the transmission of electoral votes to the National Archives.
