William Barr: No evidence of voter fraud in 2020 elections [Video]

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:

• US Attorney General William Barr revealed on Tuesday that both the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security have not found any evidence to support President Donald Trump’s claim of widespread voter fraud.
• Prior to the election, Barr supported Trump’s claims that mail-in voting was not secure.
• Trump and his legal team have continuously pursued legal action to challenge the election results.

In an interview with the Associated Press released on Tuesday, Attorney General William Barr said that the Justice Department has not discovered any proof to back President Donald Trump’s claims of widespread voter fraud.

Despite being a loyal supporter of the president, Barr was the latest Republican to rebuff Trump and dismiss his baseless claim of a “rigged” election after being defeated by President-elect Joe Biden.

“To date, we have not seen fraud on a scale that could have effected a different outcome in the election,” Barr said.

Before the election, the attorney general supported Trump’s claim that mail-in voting was less secured than the actual electronic voting. On Wednesday, though, Barr said that both the Justice Department and Homeland Security did not found any evidence to substantiate the voter fraud allegation.

“There’s been one assertion that would be systemic fraud and that would be the claim that machines were programmed essentially to skew the election results,” the attorney general said, adding that the “DHS and DOJ have looked into that, and so far, we haven’t seen anything to substantiate that.”

Barr’s remarks followed on the same day he announced the appointment of Connecticut US Attorney John Durham as special counsel to investigate whether a violation was made by intelligence and law enforcement officials who investigated the 2016 Trump presidential campaign.

Trump’s legal counsel, led by Rudy Giuliani and Jenna Ellis, quickly dismissed Barr’s comments on Tuesday, saying that they have “ample evidence of illegal voting in at least six states.” They argued that the attorney general was not aware of that.

“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,” Trump’s legal counsel said in a statement.

Previously, Barr pushed for claims led by Trump that says mail-in voting is susceptible to fraud. In September, the attorney general made numerous misleading comments during his interview with CNN as he denounced states that pushed for mail-in voting amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

“People trying to change the rules to this, to this methodology ━ which, as a matter of logic, is very open to fraud and coercion ━ is reckless and dangerous and people are playing with fire,” he said back then.

Trump and his campaign have continuously sought legal remedies to contest the election results in some key states. So far, the president’s campaign has not obtained any successful attempt to overturn the results.

Source: CNN.com