Trump campaign to file for Wisconsin recounts today

Effort is not expected to succeed and could cost nearly $8m depending how expansive it is

Donald Trump’s legal team is formally requesting a recount in several counties in the state of Wisconsin, the latest in a series of long-shot legal manoeuvres in its attempt to overturn the results of the presidential election.

The Trump campaign’s request comes in only hours before Wisconsin’s deadline, which falls at 5pm on Wednesday. It is not as yet clear what proportion of the state’s counties are the target of the request, but according to Wisconsin Elections Commissioner Dean Knudson, the campaign has paid $3m overnight.

Based on current tallies, Joe Biden defeated Mr Trump in the state by fewer than 21,000 votes — similar to Mr Trump’s margin over Hillary Clinton in 2016.

That year, a recount was requested by Green Party candidate Jill Stein; Mr Trump opposed it. After recounting the votes, the state announced it had found 131 more for Mr Trump.

The campaign’s efforts to overturn the results in close-run states have run into trouble on several fronts in the last week. Numerous lawsuits have been thrown out, while law firms have backed out from cases where they had been hired to defend Mr Trump’s position that the election was stolen.

In addition, reports are circulating that leading Trump lawyers Rudy Giuliani and Jenna Ellis are creating friction within the campaign staff as they increasingly take over the effort to fight the election result.

Mr Giuliani in particular is the subject of controversy thanks to his public statements and behaviour, both of which have been the subject of ridicule. He is now representing the campaign himself in a case in Pennsylvania involving the “curing” of ballots.

In an appearance yesterday — his first as an attorney in a courtroom in decades — he struggled to convince the judge of the rationale for the campaign’s claims, at one point saying “this is not a fraud case”.