PA's High Court: GOP Lawmakers Can't Enforce Subpoena In 2020 Election Fraud Case

Pennsylvania’s highest court ruled Wednesday that Republican state lawmakers can no longer try to enforce a subpoena for election records they issued in 2021 in a quest inspired by Trump’s baseless claims of fraud in the 2020 presidential election.

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Pennsylvania’s highest court ruled Wednesday that Republican state lawmakers can no longer try to enforce a subpoena for election records they issued in 2021 in a quest inspired by former President Donald Trump’s baseless claims of fraud in the 2020 presidential election.

The court, in a brief order, dismissed three appeals in the case, vacated a lower court order and said the subpoena became “unenforceable” when the state Legislature’s two-year session ended in 2022.

A Republican-controlled state Senate committee issued the subpoena as part of what they called a “forensic investigation” of the 2020 presidential election as Trump and his allies applied pressure in battleground states where Trump lost to Democrat Joe Biden to investigate ballots, voting machines and voter rolls for evidence to support their baseless claims about election fraud.

The subpoena has been on ice for more than two years amid several court challenges. Senate Republicans did not immediately say Wednesday whether they will look to issue another subpoena.

The ruling is effectively a victory for the state attorney general’s office, Senate Democrats and several voter groups, who had gone to court to try to block the subpoena.

“It was a ton of work and a lot of commotion, and the case goes out with a whimper,” said Witold J. Walczak, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania, which represented the voter groups. “But fortunately, in our view, no damage was