President-elect Donald Trump Donald John TrumpOmar fires back at Trump over rally remarks: 'This is my country' Pelosi: Trump hurrying to fill SCOTUS seat so he can repeal ObamaCare Trump mocks Biden appearance, mask use ahead of first debate MORE's transition officials are blasting the media for covering the Green Party-sponsored recount push, saying the accusations of voter fraud that Trump has raised are being ignored.



"It's ridiculous that so much oxygen has been given to the recount effort where there's absolutely not a chance of the election results changing," Trump spokesman Jason Miller told reporters on a Monday conference call. He said reporters are chasing the recount like a "shiny object."



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"If this much attention and oxygen given to a completely frivolous throwaway fundraising scheme ... there should be actual substantive looks at the overall examples of voter fraud and illegal immigrants voting in recent years."The Green Party's Jill Stein filed for a recount in Wisconsin on Friday and in Pennsylvania on Monday and has raised more than $6 million with the hopes of extending the effort to Michigan.While Trump won all of those states by a small margin, the results in all three would need to be flipped in order forto win the election. That outcome is seen as nearly impossible by Republicans and Democrats alike.Trump regularly raised the specter of a "rigged" election during his campaign, warning about an influx of illegal voting. He had steered clear of that controversy since his election but waded back in on Sunday with a series of tweets that alleged that he would have won the nationwide popular vote if not for "millions" of illegal votes.He also specifically alleged "serious voter fraud in Virginia, New Hampshire and California," all three states won by Clinton.When asked for specific data on allegations of illegal voting during the 2016 election, Miller pointed to a 2012 Pew Research study that estimated that one out of every eight voter registration forms is either inaccurate or not valid. He also pointed to a study covered in The Washington Post in 2014 that said 14 percent of non-citizens could be registered to vote.The Post's fact-checkers later noted that some academics have pushed back on the validity of the study, noting a small sample size.A transition official later provided The Hill with a 45-page memo detailing studies and other accusations of voter fraud over the past few election cycle. Those allegations include reports of up to 20 "potentially fraudulent" voter registrations in Harrisonburg, Va. this year, as well as a count from the Heritage Foundation of 430 criminal convictions for election fraud by October.Reporters asked Miller whether Trump's Justice Department would investigate the voter fraud claims once Trump took office, but Miller said he felt it would be "inappropriate ... to speculate.""I will leave that one," he said."But obviously I do think that it's an issue of concern, the fact there's concern that so many have voted who were not legally supposed to. A key point is there's a responsibility from members of the media to give an appropriate level of attention to these concerns."



This story was updated at 1:10 p.m.