(The Center Square) – Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who is leading President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the presidential election in Pennsylvania and other states, is scheduled to appear Wednesday before a hearing of the Pennsylvania Senate Majority Policy Committee.
The committee, led by state Sen. David Argall, R-Mahanoy City, is set to meet at 12:30 p.m. Wednesday at a hotel in Gettysburg.
According to a news release from the office of state Sen. Doug Mastriano, R-Chambersburg, he asked Argall to convene the hearing “to discuss 2020 election issues and irregularities.”
“Over the past few weeks, I have heard from thousands of Pennsylvanians regarding issues experienced at the polls, irregularities with the mail-in voting system and concerns whether their vote was counted,” Mastriano said in the news release. “We need to correct these issues to restore faith in our republic.”
Mastriano noted that he is among the Republican lawmakers who have called for the resignation of Pennsylvania Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar, the state’s top elections official. They have accused Boockvar of issuing conflicting guidance to counties in the run up to the Nov. 3 election and of issuing orders that exceed the powers of her office.
The president and many of his supporters have called on state lawmakers in key states to vote to award him their electoral votes, reversing the popular vote totals from Nov. 3. But Pennsylvania’s Republican legislative leaders have insisted that they do not intend to take such a step.
Giuliani, meanwhile, has been almost constantly in the news in the month of November. He has taken on an increasingly public role in the Trump campaign’s legal push against the publicly reported election results that led to former Vice President Joe Biden being declared the president-elect by almost all major news media outlets.
The former federal prosecutor stepped into a courtroom to argue a case for the first time since the 1990s last week when he appeared before U.S. District Judge Matthew Brann on Nov. 17. He stepped in after all of the attorneys who previously filed the Trump campaign’s lawsuits in Pennsylvania asked to be removed from the case.
Brann ultimately dismissed the case, refusing Giuliani’s request to file an amended lawsuit. The Trump campaign has since appealed that ruling to the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals.
In media appearances, Giuliani has repeatedly asserted that Biden gained his leads in states such as Pennsylvania, Michigan and Georgia as a result of widespread election fraud. But when he appeared in Brann’s courtroom, he somewhat backtracked on that assertion, contradicting himself at various points as to whether allegations of fraud were actually contained in the lawsuit.
Giuliani also generated some confusion Nov. 7 when he held a news conference about the election from the parking lot of Four Seasons Total Landscaping in Philadelphia. In the hours before the news conference took place, initial scheduling announcements gave the impression that its location was to be the famed Four Seasons Hotel in downtown Philadelphia, leading the hotel to deny that they were playing host. The news conference wound up coinciding with the first major media outlets calling the election in favor of Biden.
The former mayor can likely expect a friendly audience at Wednesday’s hearing, with the panel made up solely of Republican lawmakers. The Republican and Democratic caucuses in the Pennsylvania Senate and House of Representatives each maintain a policy committee that is empowered to conduct informational hearings as they see fit. Unlike other legislative committees, the policy committees consist solely of members of one party, and they do not vote on legislation.
It was unclear if Giuliani would be traveling to Gettysburg in person or if he would appear via a remote video link.
According to the news release from Mastriano’s office, Wednesday’s hearing will feature state Sen. Kim Ward, R-Greensburg – who is due to become Senate majority leader after the New Year – and Republican Reps. Dan Moul, Rob Kauffman and Paul Schemel, in addition to Argall and Mastriano.
“We want assurance that the issues encountered during this past election don’t happen again,” Argall said in the news release.
By Delphine Luneau | The Center Square
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Reposted with permission
