Trump remains defiant after latest Supreme Court blow

Donald Trump remained defiant despite the Supreme Court's refusal to consider a plea by Texas to overturn the result of the presidential election.

The bid by Texas, which was backed by Mr Trump himself and 17 other states, was given short shrift by the justices. It was the latest and most serious blow to his attempt to block Joe Biden becoming president next month.

Mr Trump who had nurtured hopes that the conservative majority on the court - including three justices he appointed - would ride to his rescue, rounded on the bench on Saturday.

"The Supreme Court had ZERO interest in the merits of the greatest voter fraud ever perpetrated on the United States of America," he wrote on Twitter.

"All they were interested in is “standing”, which makes it very difficult for the President to present a case on the merits. 75,000,000 votes!"

With thousands of supporters gathering in Washington DC, he added: "We have just begun to fight."

There were sporadic clashes between Trump supporters, who included members of the white nationalist Proud Boys and counter-protestors, at least four people were arrested as police tried to keep both sides apart.

Violence also erupted between the Proud Boys and Antifa with at least one shot being fired, in Olympia, the capital of Washington state.

Rudy Giuliani, who has led Mr Trump's legal battle to quash the election result, said the president's team would attempt to rekindle the fight by taking the cases back to lower courts.

“We’re not finished,” he concluded. "Believe me.”

Attorney General Bill Barr also found himself under renewed attack from the president, triggering speculation that he could be sacked within days.

Mr Barr, who had already attracted Mr Trump's ire by concluding that there was no evidence of serious fraud in the election, further annoyed the president following reports that he had chosen not to reveal details of a justice department probe into Joe Biden's son, Hunter, ahead of election day.

Retweeting a call for Mr Barr to be sacked, the president described the attorney general as. "a big disappointment."

The Trump campaign suffered another legal rebuff on Saturday when a court in Wisconsin rejected a challenge to Joe Biden’s victory in the state which he won by just over 20,000 votes.

Mr Trump's legal team has indicated that it is ready to push to overturn his election defeat until Mr Biden is inaugurated next month.

A critical date in confirming the election result comes on Monday when electors, the handful of individuals in each state who officially nominate the president thanks to the electoral college system, gather to make that choice.

While it is theoretically possible for some to ignore voters in their states and select another candidate, such a move would be unprecedented and deeply controversial. Therefore it is expected Mr Biden will be picked.

Mr Giuliani is refusing to treat the this as a formality, pinpointing two dates in January as more critical.

One is January 6, when Congress gathers to effectively ratify the election result, and the other is January 20, the inauguration date which is specifically named in the US Constitution for when the defeated president leaves office.    The joint session of both houses of Congress on January 6 is normally ceremonial. Starting at 1 pm the votes of electors are read out and the US vice president announces the winner.

However, Mo Brooks, a Republican congressman from Alabama, said he was ready to lodge an objection. He has also spoken to 10 Senators, hoping to persuade one to follow suit and trigger a two-hour debate and vote in each house.

It would be a symbolic protest. With the Democrats controlling the House of Representatives and several Republican Senators already calling on Mr Trump to concede, there is no chance of Congress overturning the result.