TYLER, Texas (KETK) — Vice President Mike Pence filed Thursday to dismiss Texas Rep. Louie Gohmert’s lawsuit against him. Pence’s legal team stated that the vice president is not the proper defendant in the case.

“The Vice President — the only defendant in this case — is ironically the very person whose power they seek to promote,” the response stated.

Gohmert’s lawsuit, filed against Pence in his official capacity as vice president, sought to give Pence the ability to “determine which electors’ votes, or whether none, shall be counted” when there is any objection to the slate of electors.

Pence’s legal team’s response went on to state that “A suit to establish that the Vice President has discretion over the count, filed against the Vice President, is a walking legal contradiction.”

Instead of the vice president, the response stated that the House and the Senate would be the proper defendants in the case.

Attorneys for the U.S. House of Representatives also filed a brief asking for the case to be dismissed.

“The House also has a compelling interest in ensuring that the public’s confidence in the
processes for confirming the results of the 2020 Presidential election is not undermined by this
last-minute suit,” the House’s brief stated.

It continued that this lawsuit would “authorize the Vice President to ignore the will of the Nation’s voters and choose the winner in an election in which he himself is a candidate, as will often be
the case.”

Judge Jeremy Kernodle, a Trump-appointed federal judge in Tyler, has given Gohmert until Friday morning to respond with any additional filings.