Biden campaign warns it has 'legal teams standing by' as Trump threatens court action over election result

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Democrat Joe Biden's campaign says it will fight any efforts by President Donald Trump's campaign to go to the US Supreme Court to prevent ballots from being tabulated. 

In a statement on Wednesday, Biden campaign manager Jen O'Malley Dillon called Trump's statement that he will "be going to the US Supreme Court" and that he wants "all voting to stop" "outrageous, unprecedented and incorrect." 

O'Malley Dillon said if incumbent Trump “makes good on his threat to go to court to try to prevent the proper tabulation of votes” the Biden campaign has "legal teams standing by ready to deploy to resist that effort." 

She said: “It was outrageous because it is a naked effort to take away the democratic rights of American citizens.”

“Now Donald Trump is trying to invalidate the ballot of every voter who relied on these assurances.”

O’Malley Dillon emphasised that the law requires every legitimate vote to be counted.

And she says, "They will prevail." There are still hundreds of thousands of votes left to be counted, and the outcome hinges on a handful of uncalled battleground states.

The counting of votes could take several days and a close or contentious decision may well be thrown to the courts.

“We’ll be going to the U.S. Supreme Court – we want all voting to stop,” Trump said early on Wednesday.

“We were getting ready to win this election - frankly we did win this election.”

"So our goal now is to ensure the integrity for the good of this nation. This is a very big moment.

The president also tweeted: “We are up BIG, but they are trying to STEAL the Election. We will never let them do it. Votes cannot be cast after the Polls are closed!”

Twitter has flagged the tweet as “misleading about an election or other civic process." 

Trump launched his unfounded attack on Democrats in a speech from the White House, claiming that a group of "sad" opponents were trying to "disenfranchise" his supporters and that “major fraud” is taking place. 

Legal experts point out that there is no way to go directly to the supreme court with a claim of fraud. Trump’s campaign could claim problems in how the votes are being counted in each state, but this process would have to begin in a state or lower federal court.

Neither candidate has achieved the 270 electoral college votes necessary for entering the White House and counting is still under way in the key battleground states of Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Georgia.