A longshot lawsuit by a trio of Utah brothers has captured the imagination of many on the fringes of the political right. The suit, which leans on baseless claims of fraud in the 2020 elections, seeks to kick President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and nearly 400 members of Congress out of office and reinstate Donald Trump to the White House — though a legal expert says there’s very little chance of that happening.
On Friday, two years after a horde of Donald Trump supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol as part of an attempted coup, the Supreme Court is scheduled to decide whether to hear Brunson v. Adams.
The lawsuit claims members of Congress violated their oaths of office by allegedly failing to investigate and covering up evidence of foreign election interference that rigged the election against Donald Trump.
The plaintiff on the Supreme Court petition is Raland Brunson of Ogden. His brother, Loy, unsuccessfully ran for the GOP U.S. Senate nomination in 2018 and 2022 and has an identical lawsuit now in federal court.
Brunson’s suit claims rampant fraud invalidated his vote for Donald Trump in 2020. The complaint asks that the 387 members of Congress who voted to certify Biden’s election be immediately thrown out of office and barred from ever running again. Biden and Harris would also be removed from the White House and banned from running, as would former Vice President Mike Pence.
Among those facing expulsion if the suit succeeds include Utah Reps. John Curtis and Blake Moore, and Sens. Mike Lee and Mitt Romney, who all voted to certify Biden’s election. Reps. Chris Stewart and Burgess Owens joined with the majority of their House Republican colleagues by voting to throw out electoral votes for Biden in Pennsylvania, citing vague allegations of election integrity.
Then, the suit says that not having a president or vice president in office is a national security risk, so Trump should become immediately eligible to be inaugurated president. The argument ignores the presidential line of succession, which would elevate the speaker of the House of Representatives to the presidency.
“It’s very possible that Donald Trump could be the President of the United States in the next few days,” Loy Brunson