Trump invites Michigan GOP state lawmakers to White House as legal challenges there fail

Donald Trump, in an extraordinary move, is inviting Michigan state Republican lawmakers to the White House on Friday as he apparently opens a new front in his battle to overturn election results there.

The outgoing president has lost several legal challenges in Michigan based on claims of voter fraud his team has yet to prove. Now he has invited the GOP majority leader of the Michigan State Senate and other members of his party to Washington, a source confirmed on Thursday.

The planned meeting comes as some Trump surrogates are pushing the idea that Republican-controlled state legislatures could override the election process by sending pro-Trump delegates to the Electoral College session to formally count the electoral votes.

President-elect Joe Biden is over the 270 electoral votes needed to win, but Mr Trump’s legal team gave a remarkable press conference on Thursday claiming multiple paths to victory. All would require the throwing out by federal judges of tens of thousands of ballots from heavily Democratic cities and counties like Wayne in Michigan, which includes deep blue Detroit.

The expected meeting comes as a bipartisan board must by Monday certify the state’s vote count. The two GOP members of the four-person panel have rescinded their previous votes to certify. One says he is under pressure. The New York Times first reported the meeting being on the books.

Mike Shirkey, the state GOP leader who received the meeting invitation, told a local media outlet this about the state lawmaking body choosing its own electors: “That’s not going to happen.”

The source did not disclose what the president wants to discuss, but Mr Shirkey has said the state legislature is not legally in a position to weigh in on election results.

“Additional concerns have been brought before the courts, which is the proper place to resolve questions of legality surrounding the state elections process,” he said this week.