President Donald Trump has asked the US Supreme Court to let him join a lawsuit by Texas seeking to overturn his election loss by throwing out the voting results in four states, litigation that also drew support from 17 other states.
In a court filing, Mr Trump asked to intervene in the Texas lawsuit, the latest litigation to try to undo Democratic President-elect Joe Biden's victory over the Republican incumbent in the 3 November election.
In a separate brief, lawyers for 17 states led by Missouri's Republican Attorney General Eric Schmitt also urged the nine justices to hear the case.
Efforts in the courts on behalf of Mr Trump challenging the election results so far have failed.
The lawsuit, announced yesterday by the Republican attorney general of Texas Ken Paxton, targeted four states that Mr Trump lost to Mr Biden after winning them in the 2016 election.
Mr Trump has falsely claimed he won re-election and has made baseless allegations of widespread voting fraud. Election officials at the state level have said they have found no evidence of such fraud.
Writing on Twitter earlier today, President Trump said, "We will be INTERVENING in the Texas (plus many other states) case. This is the big one. Our Country needs a victory!"
Election law experts have said the Texas lawsuit stands little chance of success and lacks legal merit.
"Both procedurally and substantively, it's a mess," Justin Levitt, an election law professor at Loyola Law School in California, said of the Texas lawsuit. "There's zero chance the court agrees to take the case."
In addition to Missouri, the states joining Texas were: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah and West Virginia.
All of the states were represented by Republican officials in the filing. All but three of the states have Republican governors.
Officials from Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin have called the lawsuit a reckless attack on democracy. It was filed directly with the Supreme Court rather than with a lower court, as is permitted for certain litigation between states.
