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United States Attorney General William Barr has authorized federal prosecutors to begin investigating “substantial allegations” of voter wrongdoing across the country in a radical break with long-standing practice and despite the lack of evidence of significant fraud.
The intervention by Barr, who has been frequently accused of politicizing the Justice Department, comes as Donald Trump refuses to admit defeat and promotes a series of legally meritless lawsuits designed to cast doubt on the legitimacy of the elections. Joe Biden was confirmed as president-elect on Saturday after winning the critical state of Pennsylvania.
Barr wrote to US prosecutors on Monday, giving them the green light to pursue “substantial allegations of vote and ballot tabulation irregularities” before the results of presidential elections in their jurisdictions are certified. As Barr himself admits in his letter, such a move by federal prosecutors to intervene in the thick of an election has traditionally been frowned upon, with the view that investigations into potential fraud should only be conducted after it is completed. the race.
But Barr, who was appointed by Trump in February 2019, scoffs at that approach, denouncing it as a “passive and delayed enforcement approach.”
The highly controversial action, which was first reported by the Associated Press, was greeted with joy by Trump supporters but with skepticism by lawyers and election experts. Within hours of the news, the New York Times reported that the justice department official who oversees voter fraud investigations, Richard Pilger, had resigned from his post.
“Having become familiar with the new policy and its ramifications,” Pilger reportedly told colleagues in an email, “I must regrettably resign my position as director of the Election Crimes Section.”
Doubts about Barr’s intentions increased after reported that a few hours before the letter was released to prosecutors, he met with Mitch McConnell, the Republican Majority Leader in the Senate.
McConnell has so far kept up with Trump. Earlier Monday he voiced his support for the defeated president on the chamber floor. He said: “President Trump is 100% within his right to investigate allegations of wrongdoing and weigh his legal options.”
As news of Barr’s memo circulated, social media lit up. “Here we go,” tweeted Stephanie Cutter, Barack Obama’s deputy campaign manager in the 2012 presidential race after Barr’s memo was revealed.
Mimi Rocha, a former assistant US attorney for the Southern District of New York, condemned the memo, saying it “denies the Justice Department’s policy not to get involved until after voter certification. It’s not right. “However, he added that there were” no clear and apparently credible allegations of wrongdoing, “as Barr cited it, and urged federal attorneys to” remain true to their oaths. “
Barr’s memo is the culmination of months of accumulated controversy in which the attorney general has shown willingness to jeopardize the justice department’s reputation for fairness by following Trump into his den of voter fraud.
In particular, he has doubled down on Trump’s unsubstantiated claims about rampant vote-by-mail fraud. That included lying on television about a Texas election crime allegation that his department later had to admit was never carried out.
Barr’s intervention came shortly after the Trump campaign filed another impromptu lawsuit in Pennsylvania, attempting to prevent the state from certifying its election results. It was Pennsylvania’s call for the contest on Saturday by the media in favor of Biden, who remains about 45,000 votes ahead of Trump in the state, which tipped the Democratic candidate over the electoral college mark of 270. and granted him the presidency.
Pennsylvania’s new lawsuit repeats many of the already disproven claims that have so far been unsuccessful in federal and state courts. The case hinges on the claim, made without any new solid evidence, that voters were treated differently depending on whether they voted by mail or in person.
The legal action also claims that nearly 700,000 mail and absentee ballots were counted in Philadelphia and Allegheny County, both Democratic strongholds, with no observers present. That claim has already been repeatedly discredited.
Josh Shapiro, Pennsylvania’s Democratic attorney general, dismissed the lawsuit as unfounded. “I am confident that Pennsylvania law will be upheld and the will of the people of the Commonwealth will be respected in this election,” he said.
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