Giuliani, with Michigan GOP chair Cox beside him, urged activists to pressure lawmakers to remember their oath to the constitution & to award electors to Trump. 'Sometimes it even requires being threatened.'

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer urged Michigan Republican activists on Wednesday to pressure, even threaten, the GOP-controlled Legislature to “step up” and award the state’s 16 electoral votes to Trump despite Democrat Joe Biden’s 154,000-vote victory.

Rudy Giuliani made baseless claims of “massive fraud, all over the country,” before testifying to a Republican-led legislative committee. Just a day before, Attorney General William Barr declared the Justice Department had uncovered no evidence of widespread voter fraud that could change the outcome of the 2020 election.

GOP legislative leaders have said they will not try to replace Michigan’s electors.

Giuliani said the U.S. Constitution empowers legislatures to appoint electors directly, even though the Legislature long ago passed a law allotting them to the popular vote winner. Biden won the state by 2.8 percentage points. The result was certified by the state’s bipartisan election board last week.

Ivanka Trump sat for a deposition today with investigators from the DC attorney general’s office as part of its lawsuit alleging misuse of inaugural funds, per @KaraScannell. Her deposition was disclosed in a new court filing.

Ivanka Trump, the President's daughter and adviser, sat for a deposition Tuesday with investigators from the Washington, DC, attorney general's office as part of its lawsuit alleging the misuse of inaugural funds, according to a court filing.

In January, the DC attorney general's office sued the Trump Organization and Presidential Inaugural Committee alleging they abused more than $1 million raised by the nonprofit by "grossly overpaying" for use of event space at the Trump hotel in Washington for the 2017 inauguration.

Depositions of witnesses as part of the lawsuit have been underway over the past several weeks.

Tom Barrack, chairman of the inaugural committee, was deposed on November 17, according to the court filing.

Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) has been telling colleagues and allies that he plans to challenge the Electoral College votes when Congress officially certifies Joe Biden’s victory on Jan. 6, as long as a Senate Republican joins him in the long-shot effort, sources tell your Huddle host.

Brooks confirmed his plans in a phone interview, adding that he is still considering objecting to the vote-counting process even if no one joins him — though he acknowledged that would be more of a symbolic protest. Brooks, echoing President Donald Trump’s baseless claims of voter fraud without providing evidence, argued that the election was “badly flawed” and that most mail-in voting is “unconstitutional.”

“In my judgment, if only lawful votes by eligible American citizens were cast, Donald Trump won the Electoral College by a significant margin, and Congress’s certification should reflect that,” Brooks said. “This election was stolen by the socialists engaging in extraordinary voter fraud and election theft measures.”

Brooks, a member of the conservative Freedom Caucus, said he has had “indirect communication” with some senators about potentially joining forces, though he declined to elaborate further. He also said he’s discussed the procedural maneuver with some members of GOP leadership, but they gave him neither a “thumbs up” nor a “thumbs down,” Brooks said.

And while Ducey was signing the certification documents Monday, his cell phone buzzed with the ringtone of "Hail to the Chief." Ducey previously has said he set that for calls coming from the White House. On Monday, he muted the ring tone and set the phone aside, continuing to sign documents that made Trump's loss official.

At a press conference held at a Kissimmee elementary school, DeSantis called closing public schools during the coronavirus pandemic the "biggest public health blunder" in modern U.S. history and called his detractors "flat-earthers." He said the effects of closing schools will be felt for years.

"Virtual learning is just not the same as being in person," DeSantis said of public education.

The announcement comes as Florida has seen a surge in cases in past weeks and is poised to cross the million-case mark on Tuesday.

An in-person connection, many educators and parents say, is often the linchpin for academic success. It's why, despite the pandemic, a growing number of districts are requiring students struggling online to attend class in person, if that's an option. "

Republicans have filed a petition in the WI Supreme Court seeking to block the certification of the 2020 election results.