Coleman’s Lawyer: “I’m Done”
Mar 21, 2009 8 Comments ›› Pat Dollard
By Glenn Thrush
An attorney representing Norm Coleman more or less conceded the (former-current-future) Minnesota Senator will lose his case before a three-member panel determining the final vote tally.
Coleman lawyer Joe Friedberg, speaking to KFAN, seemed gloomy about Coleman’s chances before the trial court — and said he’ll be stepping aside soon — even as the case heads for an appellate hearing.
Q. Joe, are you done?
A. Yes, I’m done.
Q. Let me ask you in a different way. Is Norm done?
A. Well, I think that we have been trying this case with the appeal record in mind, and that’s where we’re going, and it’s going to be a very quick appeal, and then I will know whether or not it worked.
Q. Well, when you say quick appeal, are you confident that you are going to lose the case in front of the three-judge panel? By losing the case, I mean Norm ends up with less votes.
A. I think that’s probably correct that Franken will still be ahead and probably by a little bit more. But our whole argument was that it was a constitutional argument, and it’s an argument suitable for the Minnesota Supreme Court, not for the trial court. So we will see whether we were right or not.
UPDATE: Friedberg, Emailing us through a Coleman spokesman, says he’s still plenty confident in the ultimate result and reels his radio statement back a bit:
“I was interviewed on KFAN by Ron Rosenbaum. He asked me if I was ‘done’, speaking of the trial, I told him that I was ‘done’, not speaking slang but literal, in the sense that my part in the trial court was concluded,” he said. “I believe that our position of enfranchising thousands of Minnesotans who had not had their ballots counted was, and remains, the proper way to proceed.
“The Court’s February Thirteenth order has created a multitude of problems in this process. Yet, we still believe that when the court opens the 1,359 ballots that we submitted, and properly rules on the double-counting of ballots, and reverses the counting of votes where ballots have been lost, we will see positive results. To that end, I feel confident that if the court proceeds with wisdom and with decisions based on the facts, and on the law, that we will succeed in our case.”
