Judge Denies Trump Bid to Invalidate Georgia Election Result

A federal judge on Tuesday denied President Donald Trump's effort to invalidate Georgia's election Nov, 3 results and allow the state’s Republican-led legislature to declare him the winner.

U.S. District Judge Mark H. Cohen in Atlanta ruled that Georgia’s certification of Democrat Joe Biden as the winner was carried out validly under state law, and that the court doesn’t have authority to tell Congress which Electoral College votes it can count, a person familiar with the matter said.

The hearing was held via videoconference for the lawyers and parties, but the public wasn’t permitted to call in. The person familiar with the the hearing, who asked not to be identified, provided details of the proceeding.

During the hearing, the person said, Cohen said Trump waited too long to challenge Georgia’s rules for mail-in voting during the pandemic, and that the president’s claims of rampant voter fraud should have been made sooner than late last week, when the suit was filed.

Trump’s lawyer, Kurt Hilbert, said in court that the president failed to challenge Georgia’s March settlement agreement with Democrats over how the state would manage mail-in ballots during the pandemic because Trump didn’t know how the election would play out, according to the person.

Trump had asked the judge to issue an order declaring Georgia’s election “null and void” and directing the state to “de-certify” Biden’s victory. That would have paved the way for Georgia’s legislature to choose electors for Trump.

Hilbert didn’t immediately respond to a message seeking comment.