There was no doubt among Trump’s White House staff that things had gone seriously over the edge. The presence of Sidney Powell was not necessary to confirm this. But she did become the tipping point into utter flapdoodleness. All in Trumpworld with any amount of professional concern and grounding now stepped pointedly aside, became only observers of the circus.

The law firm Porter Wright, which Matt Morgan and Giuliani had agreed to hire for the Pennsylvania lawsuit, bailed in the days before the hearing, one among many firms that quit the election challenges. Campaign and West Wing lawyers started to refer to being “ghosted” by the various outside counsels.

Rudy moved to step into the case. He had not argued in a courtroom in almost thirty years, and even his bar association standing was unclear, but he had convinced the president that he could no longer rely on his own campaign lawyers.

On November seventeenth, Giuliani appeared in federal court in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, before Judge Matthew Brann, joined by local counsel, radio host and lawyer Marc Scaringi. Giuliani presented a broad conspiracy of voter fraud and alleged that as many as 1.5 million votes might need to be invalidated.

The confused judge pointed out that the filing hadn’t argued voter fraud.

And, indeed, over the weekend, the campaign lawyers had removed the fraud charges because arguing fraud demands a far higher level of scrutiny, and they had deemed their case to be based on a woeful lack of evidence there. “I am not going to lose my fucking law license because of these idiots,” a disgusted Matt Morgan told White House colleagues.

Giuliani now asked the court to let them amend the complaint and refile those same outlandish claims. The judge turned him down. Giuliani argued massive fraud anyway, returning to his stacks of affidavits. “These ballots could have been from Mickey Mouse. We have no idea,” Giuliani told the increasingly irritated court in a hearing that was streamed online—with #mickeymouse soon trending on Twitter. (This, in turn, irritated the president: Giuliani was referencing Mickey Mouse! Why would he mention Mickey Mouse?)

Well, if you are arguing fraud, shouldn’t the stricter standard apply? the judge pressed.

They were not arguing fraud, because the court wouldn’t let them amend the complaint to include their fraud charge. Therefore, argued Giuliani, in sophist-absurdist style, reminiscent of his many cable television appearances, they should not be held to the fraud standard in their fraud claims.

As was so often the case, the president wasn’t happy with his legal team: They weren’t fighting hard enough. The message wasn’t clear enough. They needed impact. There wasn’t enough impact. Everybody was coming up way short in their defense of him. He was alone and let down.

“People have got to know this was stolen. This was taken from us. It was organized. It wasn’t even a close election. It was a landslide. We won by a landslide. A landslide—and it was taken. This is what people need to understand—it was a landslide.”