United States Attorney General William Barr granted blanket clearance to federal prosecutors on Monday to open investigations into voting irregularities, as President Donald Trump repeated unsubstantiated claims that he lost the presidential election due to fraud.
Barr, a longtime close supporter of Trump, stressed that his letter to US prosecutors across the country was not an indication that the Justice Department still had evidence of genuine cases of election fraud won by Democratic challenger Joe. Biden.
But it freed prosecutors from previous restrictions on such investigations, just as Republicans raised claims of illegal voting and counting of votes in several states – claims that still await strong evidence.
“Since voting in our current elections has concluded, I authorize you to pursue substantial allegations of voting irregularities and vote tabulation prior to the certification of elections in your jurisdictions in certain cases,” Barr said in the letter.
“Such investigations and reviews may be conducted if there are clear and apparently credible allegations of wrongdoing that, if true, could potentially affect the outcome of a federal election in an individual state.”
Voter fraud investigations are normally the province of individual states, which establish and monitor their own electoral rules.
It has been the policy of the Department of Justice to withhold any federal participation until vote counts are certified, counts are completed, and races conclude.
But Barr told lawyers that “the practice has never been a hard and fast rule,” and stressed that if they see something that could reverse the results of last Tuesday’s election, they should follow it.
“While serious allegations should be handled with great care, misleading, speculative, fanciful or implausible claims should not be a basis for initiating federal investigations,” he wrote.
US media reported that the head of the Justice Department’s Voting Crimes Section, which oversees investigations into voter fraud, resigned on Barr’s order.
Branch manager Richard Pilger reportedly resigned within hours of Barr’s authorization.
In an email to colleagues about Barr’s order, Pilger said: “Having become familiar with the new policy and its ramifications … sadly I must resign my position,” The New York Times reported.
Barr’s order came as Trump struggles to reverse Biden’s narrow victories in several key states – Pennsylvania, Nevada, Georgia and Arizona – that gave former Vice President Barack Obama enough electoral votes to win the general presidential election.
The Trump campaign and the Republican party have filed or threatened lawsuits in several of the states, hoping to change the outcome with disqualifications and vote counts.
But so far their actions have gone nowhere and state officials have challenged them to provide evidence of the allegations.
Trump had reportedly pressured Barr to get involved on his behalf even weeks before the election.
But the attorney general had disappeared from public view for several weeks, until Monday when he was seen meeting with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
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