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02:07 pm
Tuesday 10 November 2020
Washington – (BBC):
US Attorney General William Barr wrote that federal prosecutors could conduct investigations “if there are clear and credible allegations of wrongdoing. And if these allegations are true, they are likely to affect the outcome of elections in a state.”
Barr said that plaintiffs should only consider “material allegations” of wrongdoing and that “false, speculative or fictitious allegations” should be ignored.
He said each individual state bears primary responsibility for the elections, but said the Justice Department must “ensure that the elections are conducted in a way that gives the American people full confidence in their electoral process and their government.”
Preliminary investigations are usually sufficient until elections are completed and results are validated, but Barr said this can lead to an inability to “realistically correct violations.”
Richard Pilger, the Justice Department official who would oversee such investigations, resigned in response to Barr’s memo.
“After learning about the new policy and its repercussions, I must sadly resign,” he wrote in an email to his colleagues.
Separately, the Trump campaign filed a lawsuit Monday in federal court in Pennsylvania, demanding an emergency order to prevent state officials from confirming Biden’s victory in the state.
The state’s attorney general, Josh Shapiro, described the lawsuit as “unworthy.”
Meanwhile, prosecutors in traditionally Republican states have backed the president’s defiance of the election results.
Ten prosecutors have filed so-called “friendly briefings” in the US Supreme Court in support of the case brought by the Trump campaign in Pennsylvania.
