There is a sense developing within Donald Trump’s legal team and what remains of his campaign staff that their efforts to overturn or delay the results of the election are coming to an end, multiple sources tell CNN, despite what the President has said publicly.
Trump said in a 46-minute video released last week that they would continue to file lawsuits, but his legal team has held fewer meetings and strategy calls in the last several days.
Following the news of Rudy Giuliani’s coronavirus hospitalization, staffers only speculated further that it’s a matter of time before their legal efforts come to a halt completely. Giuliani is currently expected to appear via Zoom in front of a hearing with Georgia House delegates Thursday, though whether he ultimately does will depend on his condition, a source said.
Trump White House
Officials are also aware they are rapidly approaching deadlines that will certify results of the election and final rulings in some of their legal challenges.
“The calendar is dictating that courts and judges will have to come to final decisions soon, but the legal effort continues,” Trump campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh told CNN.
Georgia is set to recertify its presidential election results on Monday, which will again find Joe Biden as the winner following three counts of ballots, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said.
Some campaign staff had their contract extended through the end of the year but decisions do not appear to have been made beyond that, a person familiar with the matter told CNN.
But on Saturday, the President continued to make his baseless claims about election fraud during a rally in Georgia purportedly aimed at helping the pair of GOP Senate candidates win their run-off elections. Instead, Trump spent his time making up fantastical stories about votes in suitcases, re-litigated his election tallies in battleground states and suggested that he will be successful in reversing the November results where Biden beat him with 306 electoral votes to Trump’s 232.
“We will still win it,” he said, even though there are no means for him to do so.
There is no evidence of widespread voter fraud and many states have already certified their results as the vast majority of Trump’s baseless legal challenges go down in defeat, meaning that he is merely trying to delay the inevitable as he fights Biden’s ascent to the White House.
CNN’s Maeve Reston and Chandelis Duster contributed to this report.
