Five Trump election challenge appeals denied in Supreme Court double-blow

Appeals turned down in efforts to overturn results in Georgia, Arizona, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin

The Supreme Court has denied former President Donald Trump and his allies' challenges to the election results in five states. Appeals were filed in December in an attempt to overturn the results in the states to sway the election in favour of Mr Trump. The ruling ends the election challenges pushed in court by Mr Trump and his associates.

Appeals were turned away by the Supreme Court for challenges to the results in Georgia, Arizona, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin. Two of the filings came from Mr Trump personally, Bloomberg News reported.

The Pennsylvania case that the court declined to take up was focused on mail-in ballots. Republicans say the state's Supreme Court overstepped its authority by extending the deadline by which time ballots could arrive by three days because of the pandemic and mail delivery delays.

Even if Mr Trump had won that case, it wouldn't change the results, as state officials say that only about 10,000 votes were received in those three extra days and President Joe Biden won the state by 80,555 votes.

The blow from the Supreme Court comes in a double-whammy to Mr Trump as the court also cleared the way for Manhattan prosecutors to subpoena Mr Trump's tax records on Monday.

Read more: Follow live updates on the Biden Administration and the Trump post-presidency

The court rejected a request from Mr Trump to withhold his tax records from the Manhattan district attorney after New York state prosecutors sought his personal and corporate tax returns.

This opens the door to a grand jury review of his financial records, which Mr Trump has done his utmost to keep under wraps for decades.

The Supreme Court delayed acting on the case by months with the last of the briefs in the case being filed in October. Three of the justices were appointed by Mr Trump and they, along with the other six justices, waited through the election, the inauguration of Joe Biden and a month of Mr Trump being out of office to come to a decision.

Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr has been after Mr Trump's tax records since 2019. The Democrat Mr Vance had subpoenaed the records from the Mazars accounting firm, which has worked for Mr Trump and his businesses for years. They said they would comply with the subpoena but Mr Trump then sued to block the release of the records.

The case involves a grand jury subpoena for more than eight years of Mr Trump’s personal and corporate tax records. Mr Vance has disclosed little about what prompted him to request the records, but in one court filing last year, prosecutors said they were justified in demanding the records because of public reports of “possibly extensive and protracted criminal conduct at the Trump Organization".