Trump-appointed federal judge tosses Texas GOP rep's lawsuit that tried to force Pence to overturn election

A federal judge has just tossed out a lawsuit from U.S. Congressman Louie Gohmert (R-TX) against Vice President Mike Pence, which was an attempt to force the vice president to effectively declare President Donald Trump the winner on January 6 when he leads a joint session of Congress in formalizing the November 2020 election.

Judge Jeremy Kernodle, who sits on the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas and was appointed by President Donald Trump in 2018, threw out the case, citing a lack of standing.

Gohmert's case claimed – falsely – that Pence has the "sole discretion in determining which electoral votes to count for a given State, and must ignore and may not rely on any provisions of the Electoral Count Act that would limit his exclusive authority."

The Texas Congressman claimed that Pence could choose alternate electors, which is also false.

Former federal prosecutor Renato Mariotti weighed in, saying – as have many others – that the case "wasn't worth the paper it was printed on."