Trump surrogate on election legal challenges: ‘Hopefully Amy Coney Barrett will come through’

A member of the California Republican National Committee and co-chair of Women for Trump said in an interview Thursday that she hoped Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett “will come through” in a dispute over Pennsylvania’s extended mail ballot deadline that’s currently pending at the Supreme Court.

Trump’s campaign on Thursday filed a motion to intervene in the case which, if successful, would close Pennsylvania’s extended Nov. 6 window for accepting mail ballots and invalidate those which arrived after Election Day. 

Barrett could play a pivotal role in whether the court takes up the case, and if it does, she would face a decision over whether to vote for or against tossing the late-arriving votes.

In an interview with Fox News’s Lou Dobbs, attorney and Trump surrogate Harmeet Dhillon also discussed litigation in which the campaign is seeking to more closely monitor ballot counting in Pennsylvania. 

Dhillon claimed that “election officials are in contempt” by “ignoring that court order and going on with the counting without Republican election monitors there to witness it.” 

“Because that election is so close and because the president’s lead is declining, that is where we could lose it, and it is an outrage that those people are in contempt of court,” Dhillon said. 

Dhillon then turned back to the case pending in the U.S. Supreme Court. 

“We’re waiting for the United States Supreme Court – of which the President has nominated three justices – to step in and do something,” she continued. “And hopefully Amy Coney Barrett will come through and pick it up.”

However, Dhillon added that “there’s no guarantee of that,” adding that Republicans “have to fight this on the ground and make sure that we challenge every place.” 

Should the court grant the appeal, a decision would fall to the justices less than two months after Trump nominated Barrett, who filled the seat vacated by late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.  

During her hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee last month, Barrett refused to say if she would recuse herself from potential cases related to the November election.

“It always happens after consultation with the full court, so I can’t offer an opinion on recusal without short-circuiting that entire process,” Barrett said at the time. 

“I commit to you to fully and faithfully applying the law of recusal, and part of that law is to consider any appearance questions. … But I can’t offer a legal conclusion right now about an outcome of the decision I would reach,” Barrett added. 

According to The Associated Press, Trump was leading Pennsylvania on Thursday early evening by more than 75,000 votes with 89 percent of ballots tabulated.

Updated 8:34 p.m.