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John Scott, Abbott's appointee to be Texas' Secretary of State,
briefly served as Trump's counsel in a November lawsuit that
sought to block certification of Pennsylvania's election
results. Scott withdrew from the case after a few days,
according to court records.
The case was one of dozens of lawsuits that Trump and his allies
filed around the country, seeking to delegitimize President Joe
Biden's resounding November victory by falsely claiming the
election was stolen through widespread voting fraud.
Abbott's press release announcing the Texas appointment did not
mention Scott's involvement in the Pennsylvania election
challenge. The Republican governor said Scott's "decades of work
in election law and litigation make him the ideal choice" for
the job.
Scott did not immediately return calls for comment. When asked
about Scott's work on the Pennsylvania lawsuit, a spokesperson
for Abbott declined to comment beyond the governor's press
release.
The Texas Senate must confirm the appointment. The state
legislature just adjourned and will not meet again until 2023,
so Scott will serve as interim secretary of state until then.
He will oversee next year's elections in Texas, in which Abbott
himself will be up for reelection. Abbott will face two
far-right Republican rivals in the primary, both of whom have
challenged his conservative bona fides.
Abbott has moved farther to the right in recent months. In
September, he signed into law a host of Republican-backed voting
restrictions in the name of combating voting fraud and defended
an audit that Trump demanded of 2020 presidential election
results in four Texas counties.
(Reporting by Julia Harte; Editing by David Gregorio)
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