US judge dismisses Trump election lawsuit in Pennsylvania

US President Donald Trump suffered another major setback on Saturday in his desperate crusade to overturn the recently conducted presidential election and win it -- as a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by his campaign that sought to throw out millions of mail-in votes in Pennsylvania.

Trump and his allies have now won two election-related cases and lost 34, according to Democratic election lawyer Marc Elias.

District Court Judge Matthew Brann ruled that Trump's campaign had failed to demonstrate there had been widespread voting fraud in the November 3 vote.

Brann said that he "has no authority to take away the right to vote of even a single person, let alone millions of citizens."

The lawsuit, spearheaded by Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, sought to stop officials from certifying Biden's victory in the state, arguing that some counties wrongly allowed voters to fix errors on their mail ballots.

Giuliani and other Trump lawyers floated a variety of conspiracy theories at a news conference on Thursday as they alleged that the election was marred by widespread voter fraud. But they have had little success in court.

Democrats said Saturday's scathing verdict was further proof that those charges are false.

Giuliani has signalled in legal filings that he will pursue an appeal, but he has little time to do so before the state formalizes Biden's victory on Monday.

Trump is seeking to invalidate or change the election results through recounts and direct pressure on lawmakers in several states. He would need to prevail in at least three states to prevent Biden from being sworn in as president on January 20 -- an unprecedented action.

In Michigan, Republicans wrote to state authorities on Saturday asking them to wait 14 days to certify Biden's victory to allow for an audit of ballots in Wayne County, which includes the majority-Black city of Detroit. The letter cited allegations of "irregularities" that have not been substantiated. Biden won 154,000 more votes than Trump in Michigan.

Meanwhile, a manual recount and audit in Georgia confirmed Biden on Friday as the winner in the southern state, the first Democratic presidential candidate to win Georgia in nearly three decades.

The Trump campaign has two business days to request a recount in Georgia. Trump's legal team has also said it plans a lawsuit in the state, but has not provided specifics.

Trump's accusations have continued to inflame his hard-core Republican base.

Hundreds of supporters gathered at the statehouse in Atlanta on Saturday, with video posted online showing speakers denouncing the media for calling Biden the election winner, as well as state Republican leaders for certifying the results.

Police in riot gear were deployed to separate them from counterprotesters who gathered nearby.

Critics say the delay and Trump's refusal to concede have serious implications for national security and the fight against the coronavirus, which has killed nearly 255,000 Americans.

Biden, who has denounced Trump's attempt to reverse the election results as "totally irresponsible", spent Saturday meeting with transition advisors and attending church.

Trump took part in a virtual summit of the 20 biggest world economies and then went to play golf at his club in Sterling, Virginia.