Trump campaign distances itself from attorney Sidney Powell: Transition updates

Senior House Democrats want Emily Murphy, the embattled administrator of the General Services Administration, to explain why she's held up Biden's transition by refusing to formally acknowledge his victory over Trump. They are also demanding a briefing from her by Monday, according to a letter obtained by ABC News. 

"At this stage, there is no conceivable argument that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are not the 'apparent successful candidates for the office of President and Vice President,'" Reps. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., Nita Lowey, D-N.Y., Gerry Connolly, D-Va., and Mike Quigley, D-Ill., wrote in a letter to Murphy on Thursday, citing the statute that empowers her to sign off on the transition process. 

Murphy's refusal to recognize Biden's victory has backed up the transition process -- preventing his team from formally communicating with any counterparts in the federal government. Biden and his top aides have warned that the delay could imperil national security, and slow down preparations for the distribution of a COVID-19 vaccine across the country. 

White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, questioned about the delay in a Fox News interview Wednesday, deferred to the GSA, saying the agency was "independent of us, and they haven't declared that just yet."

"We have been extremely patient, but we can wait no longer," they wrote. "As GSA Administrator, it is your responsibility to follow the law and assure the safety and well-being of the United States and its people -- not to submit to political pressure to violate the law and risk the consequences."

In their letter, the Democrats also raised questions about Trump's move to tap Trent Benishek, a White House lawyer, to serve as the agency's general counsel a week before the election -- and a September executive order that put the GSA's top lawyer fourth-in-line to lead the agency, after Murphy, her deputy and chief of staff. 

Democrats have requested a briefing "no later" than Monday, to help them determine whether to hold a hearing with Murphy, her deputies and the agency's top lawyer.

-ABC News' Benjamin Siegel

The Michigan Secretary of State said that legally and practically, the results in both Wayne County and Michigan cannot be challenged, in an interview with ABC News Live Prime on Thursday .

"I think first it's clear that the voters of Wayne County and Michigan have spoken and they've made a choice and there's no legal or factual basis for anyone to question that choice or challenge it," Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson said. 

"And so we accept the Wayne County certification, just as we accepted every one of our 83 county certification as it was properly made in a public vote, in a public meeting. And now we're moving forward and calling on the board of state canvassers to do the same," she added.

Amid the chaos in the state over Wayne County's certification process, President Trump is expected to meet with Michigan's top state GOP leaders on Friday at the White House, sources told ABC News, just a few days before the state board of canvassers is set to meet to vote to certify the statewide results on Monday. Benson urged that it is "improper" for any candidate regardless of party to seek to meddle in the ongoing certification process.

"It's certainly improper for any candidate on either side of the aisle to attempt to interfere with or obstruct a process that is very well ingrained in the law with an eye towards the processes protecting the will of voters," she said.

The chief elections official also said that the expectation on Monday is for the state board of canvassers, which is also made up of two Democrats and two Republicans, to move forward with certifying the results, calling it an "administrative role." Only three of four votes are needed to certify.

Benson also reiterated that there has been "no evidence of widespread fraud in the election" and dismissed again the concerns by the Republican canvassers in Wayne County as "clerical errors."

It's not the first time the county board was faced with similar issues, Benson said, highlighting that in 2016, there were actually more clerical errors, yet the board still certified the results. 

Looking ahead to future election, Benson said that she is "confident we will get through this. We will move forward and we will do the important work of healing our democracy moving forward."

-ABC News' Kendall Karson

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger's office has released the results of a full hand-count audit of the roughly 5 million votes cast in the presidential contest there, showing Biden has maintained his lead over Trump.

The release states that the audit, "upheld and reaffirmed the original outcome produced by the machine tally of votes cast (and) confirmed that the original machine count accurately portrayed the winner of the election."

Election officials maintained throughout the process, which began last Friday, that they expected the audit would affirm Biden as the winner -- a blow to Trump and his GOP allies as Georgia's 16 electoral votes haven't gone to a Democrat in nearly three decades. 

The audit was not an official recount, which Trump could still request following Georgia's deadline to certify the vote by Friday at 5 p.m. since he remains within a .5% margin of Biden.

Gabriel Sterling, the statewide voting system implementation manager for Raffensperger's office, told Fox News Thursday morning that he hopes Trump will accept the results "because when you question it from either side, it undermines the foundation of democracy."  

The secretary of state's office has reported that four counties -- Floyd, Fayette, Walton and Douglas -- found uncounted votes due to human error in the audit process, but those roughly 5,800 discovered votes have been added to the count. Cobb County, the third largest in the state, discovered it had missed a batch of ballots to hand count during the audit, but those votes were tabulated and reported in the county's original results. 

Though Trump has falsely claimed that Dominion voting machines removed votes for him, Raffensperger said Tuesday the hand-count audit, intended to check the machines, found no signs of foul play. 

Biden's margin of victory in the audit results was 12,284 votes.

-ABC News' Quinn Scanlan

While the results of Georgia's election audit have not been released, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger told Atlanta ABC affiliate WSB that "there's no doubt"that Biden won the state.

"The numbers support that. So does the audit. " Raffensperger said in the interview. 

He also told WSB that he had not seen evidence of any major fraud.

"We've not seen any evidence that they've given us, anything that really supports -- it just doesn't show up, it doesn't work out. The numbers aren't there," Raffensperger said.

-ABC News' Quinn Scanlan