Before that, Reps. Ben Cline, H. Morgan Griffith and Rob Wittman of Virginia and Rep. Andy Harris (Md.) had joined more than 100 House Republicans to support the case.
Griffith said in a statement Friday morning that his name was “inadvertently” left off the amicus brief in the rush to file the document on Thursday. It was added on Friday.
“I support this effort on behalf of counting legal votes under the rules set by the Constitution,” said Griffith, who called the legal argument in the case “persuasive.”
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) sued Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan and Wisconsin in a last-ditch attempt to throw out election results in those states before a Monday deadline.
He argued that voting laws were unlawfully changed before the election and asked the Supreme Court to allow the Republican-led legislatures in each state to review the results and, if necessary, appoint new presidential electors — potentially disenfranchising millions of voters.
Outgoing Rep. Denver Riggleman (Va.) was the only congressional Republican in the increasingly blue greater Washington region who did not sign the brief.
He has been outspoken about Trump’s refusal to accept reality and has criticized colleagues for perpetuating Trump’s denial of President-elect Joe Biden’s victory.
A spokesman for his successor, Rep.-elect Bob Good (R), who ousted Riggleman in a GOP convention, said Good would have signed the brief if he were in Congress and “stands fully behind President Trump.”
Harris declined to comment on why he supported the lawsuit. Aides to Wittman did not respond to requests for comment, while a spokesman for Cline pointed to a Facebook statement the congressman posted Thursday.
“I will vigorously defend the right of every American, including the President, to have their day in court,” Cline wrote after signing the brief. “Just as Al Gore and George W. Bush sought redress from the Supreme Court in December of 2000, President Trump should be able to do so today.”
Josh Blackman, a constitutional law professor at the South Texas College of Law Houston, called the premise of the lawsuit “outlandish.”
“A lot of the things Paxton is complaining about have been known for months — the precise methods of voting available in each state. And he waited until the election results were settled,” Blackman said. He said it’s notable that Texas sued only swing states that Biden won, even though other states Trump won had similarly changed voting methods to make voting safer during the pandemic.
“So it’s pretty obvious that this is designed to just flip votes in states that Trump lost,” Blackman said, “and this is not done in some kind of uniform concern for the law.”
Lawyers for the states Paxton sued noted in their own legal filings that his claims have already been rejected by lower courts, part of a string of legal defeats for the president and his supporters since the election.
With the exception of Riggleman, the Republican congressmen in the Washington region also did not acknowledge Biden as the president-elect in the days after the election. Nor have more than 200 other congressional Republicans The Washington Post surveyed last week. Wittman did say in a Dec. 8 Facebook post that “a Biden Administration would mean a Cabinet filled with nothing but radical left-wing ideologues,” but it is unclear whether he accepts the results of the election.
Harris, Griffith and Cline were also among the 39 House Republicans to sign a Dec. 1 letter urging Attorney General William P. Barr to continue investigating potential fraud or irregularities in the election — just as Barr announced that he had found no evidence of fraud that would have affected the outcome of the vote.
On Nov. 19, Harris referenced the potential existence of “illegal large-scale voter fraud” while explaining his support for Trump’s legal challenges more broadly. He did not provide evidence.
“The democratic process includes making certain that issues involving illegal large-scale voter fraud, like counting ballots in secret, are resolved — which unfortunately will have to involve the courts,” he wrote in a statement to The Washington Post. “Until then, I would hope every American wants to be sure that the integrity of our voting system has not been compromised.”
Wittman has previously posted on Facebook: “The President has filed lawsuits that need to be heard. It is a fundamental principle of this nation that the Courts hear and decide any disputes between opposing parties. Until the courts have heard the cases, and until the recounts have been concluded, I believe the President has every right to exercise this authority.”
On Thursday evening, Democrats lambasted Republican colleagues who signed onto the amicus brief.
“Placating one man’s ego as he undermines our nation’s commitment to what has set us apart for centuries — free and fair elections that honor the will of the people — is dangerous and a dereliction of your duty,” Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-Va.) wrote on Facebook, directly addressing her colleagues. “He lost the election. You know it. He knows it. . . . May you feel more responsible to the American people than you feel afraid of one man and his Twitter account.”
Robert McCartney contributed to this report.