WRITING’S ON THE WALL

Trump Campaign Accepts Reality, Drops ‘Sharpiegate’ Lawsuit in Arizona

The Trump campaign revised its conspiracy-laden lawsuit during a disastrous hearing Thursday then pulled it all together on Friday.

The Trump campaign has dropped a conspiracy-laden lawsuit in Arizona after apparently accepting that Joe Biden’s margin in the state is now too big to overcome. The campaign was requesting a review of any ballots flagged by tabulation machines as “overvotes,” based on a conspiracy theory that Republican voters were given Sharpies to fill out their ballots, which then bled through the paper into other candidates’ boxes. But there were only 191 overvotes and, as of Friday night, Biden’s lead in the state was 11,414 with 10,315 ballots left to count.

A Trump campaign lawyer revised his request during a disastrous hearing on Thursday, telling the judge he would only seek a review if the number of overvotes exceeded the margin of victory. In a Friday filing, lawyers wrote that the most recent tabulation of votes “has rendered unnecessary” their request. Not content to bow out gracefully, the lawyers said they were still contesting results for two down-ballot races.