Barr Allows Probes Into Voting Outcome Despite Lack of Evidence
WASHINGTON — Attorney General William Barr authorized Justice Department officials to open inquiries into potential irregularities in the presidential election, while acknowledging there’s no conclusive evidence.
Barr issued a memo on Monday evening authorizing U.S. attorneys across the country, as well as his top lieutenants, “to pursue substantial allegations of voting and vote tabulation irregularities prior to the certification of elections in your jurisdictions in certain cases.”
“While serious allegations should be handled with great care, specious, speculative, fanciful or far-fetched claims should not be a basis for initiating federal inquiries,” Barr wrote. “Nothing here should be taken as any indication that the department has concluded that voting irregularities have impacted the outcome of any election.”
Barr has been one of the most ardent and aggressive supporters of President Donald Trump, and his message comes as Trump and his legal team make so far unsubstantiated claims that there was widespread voter fraud.
Kerri Kupec, a Justice Department spokeswoman, said that neither Trump nor anyone at the White House nor lawmakers had asked Barr to take the action.
Before the election, Barr had echoed Trump’s unsupported claims that mail-in ballots were subject to fraud, including ballots cast by foreign governments seeking to influence the election. But he had remained silent in the days just before and after last week’s election, until now.
___
(c)2020 Bloomberg News
In The News
Health
Voting
Dep. of Justice
A Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor is facing federal fraud charges after allegedly lying about transferring nanotechnology research to organizations associated with the Chinese government. On grant applications and tax forms, MIT professor Gang Chen allegedly did not disclose that he had received $29 million from... Read More
WASHINGTON (AP) — Justice Department leaders under President Donald Trump knew their 2018 “zero tolerance” border policy would result in family separations but pressed on with prosecutions even as other agencies became overwhelmed with migrants, a government watchdog report released Thursday has found. The report from... Read More
WASHINGTON - The top federal prosecutor in Washington said Tuesday investigators are aware of multiple reports of reporters being assaulted and otherwise abused during last Wednesday's siege at the U.S. Capitol and vowed to bring the guilty parties to justice. The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker said... Read More
Less than a month before he is sworn in, President-elect Joe Biden has not yet selected his attorney general, a key role given how politicized the department became under President Donald Trump and while federal officials are investigating Biden’s son. Biden is leaving his choice for... Read More
WASHINGTON -- Democrats in Congress are preparing legislation intended to capitalize on President-elect Joe Biden’s pledge to reform the Justice Department. The most recent examples are bills introduced last week in the House and Senate to reinstate the Justice Department’s Office of Access to Justice. The... Read More
WASHINGTON — Outgoing Attorney General William Barr, speaking to reporters for what is likely the final time before he leaves office later this week, said Monday he saw no reason to appoint a special counsel to investigate President-elect Joe Biden’s son and threw cold water on... Read More
