A Department of Justice official said the DOJ will continue to pursue allegations of fraud related to the 2020 election, after the Associated Press (AP) reported that Attorney General Bill Barr had not found any evidence of widespread voter fraud that would change the outcome of the election.
A DOJ spokesperson said in a statement on background to Breitbart News and other outlets that the department has not concluded anything yet:
Some media outlets have incorrectly reported that the Department has concluded its investigation of election fraud and announced an affirmative finding of no fraud in the election. That is not what the Associated Press reported nor what the Attorney General stated. The Department will continue to receive and vigorously pursue all specific and credible allegations of fraud as expeditiously as possible.
The AP had reported on Tuesday evening:
Disputing President Donald Trump’s persistent, baseless claims, Attorney General William Barr declared Tuesday the U.S. Justice Department has uncovered no evidence of widespread voter fraud that could change the outcome of the 2020 election.
Barr’s comments, in an interview with the The Associated Press, contradict the concerted effort by Trump, his boss, to subvert the results of last month’s voting and block President-elect Joe Biden from taking his place in the White House.
Barr told the AP that U.S. attorneys and FBI agents have been working to follow up specific complaints and information they’ve received, but “to date, we have not seen fraud on a scale that could have effected a different outcome in the election.”
Last month, Barr issued a memo authorizing U.S. attorneys to pursue substantial allegations of voting irregularities before the certification of the results of the 2020 presidential election.
Barr reportedly clarified in the AP interview that there is a difference between systemic allegations the federal criminal system would handle and allegations that state or local officials would address via audits.
“There’s a growing tendency to use the criminal justice system as sort of a default fix-all, and people don’t like something they want the Department of Justice to come in and ‘investigate,’” he said.
“Most claims of fraud are very particularized to a particular set of circumstances or actors or conduct. They are not systemic allegations [and] those have been run down; they are being run down,” he added. “Some have been broad and potentially cover a few thousand votes. They have been followed up on.”
The Trump Legal Team, led by Rudy Giuliani and Jenna Ellis, said there has not been “any semblance” of a DOJ investigation:
With all due respect to the Attorney General, there hasn’t been any semblance of a Department of Justice investigation. We have gathered ample evidence of illegal voting in at least six states, which they have not examined. We have many witnesses swearing under oath they saw crimes being committed in connection with voter fraud. As far as we know, not a single one has been interviewed by the DOJ. The Justice Department also hasn’t audited any voting machines or used their subpoena powers to determine the truth.
They added they would “continue our pursuit of the truth through the judicial system and state legislatures, and continue toward the Constitution’s mandate and ensuring that every legal vote is counted and every illegal vote is not.”
“Again, with the greatest respect to the Attorney General, his opinion appears to be without any knowledge or investigation of the substantial irregularities and evidence of systemic fraud,” Giuliani and Ellis said.
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