US President-elect Donald Trump has lodged a lawsuit to prevent an election recount in Michigan scheduled to begin next week.
The move on Friday comes after Republican Trump’s allies have begun to freeze recount efforts in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, the states where he narrowly beat his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.
The supporters of the business mogul seek to preserve the legitimacy of Trump’s win after Green Party nominee Jill Stein requested a recount in Wisconsin.
Trump’s lawyers said in the lawsuit that Stein wanted the state to “expend tens of millions of dollars on a wild goose chase that even Stein cannot identify.”
A pro-Trump super PAC in Wisconsin lodged a suit Friday, arguing that Stein’s recount push could “unjustifiably cast doubt upon the legitimacy of President-Elect Donald J. Trump’s victory.”
Recounting of Wisconsin’s about 3 million votes for president began on Thursday. Wisconsin’s 10 electoral votes are not going to change the outcome of the election on November 8 since Trump won 306 electoral votes, easily surpassing the 270 needed to clinch the presidency.
Also in Michigan, Attorney General Bill Schuette filed a lawsuit Friday to stop the recount there.
In Pennsylvania, a team of Trump attorneys filed a lawsuit Thursday, requesting a dismissal of Stein’s recount effort, asserting that she lacks a valid claim.
Although Clinton’s popular vote lead has increased beyond 2.5 million, it is unlikely that Clinton could come out victorious after recounts in the three states.
This comes as Trump tweeted last week that there were “serious voter fraud” issues in three US states -- Virginia, New Hampshire and California -- during the election, but the mainstream American media ignored it.
He also claimed in a Twitter message that “millions of people” voted illegally and said he would have won the popular vote if those "illegal" votes were discounted.