Biden Builds Legal War Room to Fight Trump Challenges to Voting

(Bloomberg) -- Democratic nominee Joe Biden’s campaign has set up a war room staffed by some of the nation’s top lawyers to be prepared to fight challenges to voting and ballot-counting in November, an election expected to have record numbers of mail-in ballots because of the coronavirus pandemic.

As President Donald Trump raises baseless allegations of voter fraud, the Biden campaign is preparing an integrated strategy to make its arguments in courtrooms as well as the court of public opinion.

The legal operation will be overseen by the campaign’s general counsel, Dana Remus, and Bob Bauer, a former White House counsel on leave from New York University’s law school. Former solicitors general Donald Verrilli and Walter Dellinger, former attorney general Eric Holder and an outside team headed by Democratic lawyer Marc Elias are also involved.

The Trump campaign is already suing over voting rules in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Iowa, Nevada and Montana, and there are at least 245 cases in 45 states, D.C. and Puerto Rico over voting during the coronavirus pandemic, making this the most litigated election in history.

The war room will provide support for elections officials running the election, voter education and responses to voter suppression, foreign interference or misinformation.

Verrilli and Dellinger will oversee a national team of lawyers handling special litigation. Elias’s efforts focus on state-by-state fights over voter access and ballot counting. And Holder will lead public outreach over voting rights.

For months, the Biden campaign has been quietly building up the war room, considered the largest election protection program in presidential campaign history.

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