Lawyers decided to quit Trump case after chaotic Four Seasons Landscaping press conference

Lawyers who had committed to working with the Trump campaign to contest the results of the election reportedly backed away after Rudy Giuliani’s disastrous press conference in the parking lot of a suburban Philadelphia landscaping company.

Politico reports that campaign staffers were horrified when they learned about the event, organised by Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, and tried to get it cancelled.

Nevertheless, the press gathered at Four Seasons Total Landscaping — not the Four Seasons hotel — between an adult bookstore and a crematorium, and listened to the former mayor of New York rant about conspiracy theories regarding vote counting.

The whole episode was ridiculed around the world, and undercut the legal strategy that had been planned out ahead of the election.

Many of the lawyers that the campaign had spent months recruiting no longer wanted to be involved.

“I can’t imagine that a rational person" in the general public "wouldn’t be adversely affected by the way he conducts himself,” said Barry Richard, who represented George W Bush in the 2000 Florida recount.

Politico reports that the news on Friday that Mr Giuliani would be taking over any new post-election litigation, stunned many observers, with some in the Republican Party and campaign believing the actions of the president’s lawyer are thwarting any chance they have of successfully challenging results.

He may even spoil any future political ambitions that Mr Trump may harbour.

The decision to promote Mr Giuliani is also seen by Republican officials as an implicit acknowledgment that Mr Trump’s legal options are closing in, and a sign that he’s determined to go out guns blazing, according to Politico.

There is a feeling of resignation that the election is coming to a close.

Since June the campaign had been assembling teams of lawyers in swing states in a strategy overseen by Citizens United President David Bossie.

Targeting lawsuits for each state specific to the circumstances, the intention was to diminish Joe Biden’s leads in swing states to the point of triggering recounts.

Mr Giuliani on the other hand has independently appeared on Fox News with wild allegations of widespread voter fraud, telling the rest of the Trump legal team that they are not being aggressive enough.

The promotion of Mr Giuliani may see the final days of the Trump campaign defined by the pursuit of parallel legal strategies with little hope of success.

Cases in Michigan and Pennsylvania are still pending, but a suit in Arizona was dropped on Friday.

“There’s zero, zero basis” for overturning the election, Mr Richard, the ex-Bush attorney, told Politico. “They’re not going to win this. All these cases, I think, will be dismissed by the end of next week.”

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