Attorney General William Barr sent a memo to U.S. attorneys Monday evening authorizing them to “pursue substantial allegations of voting and vote tabulation irregularities,” despite little evidence surfacing thus far of any widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election.
In the memo Barr says that such inquiries “may be conducted if there are clear and apparently-credible allegations of irregularities that, if true, could potentially impact the outcome of a federal election in an individual State.”
But Barr emphasized in the letter that this should not be taken as the DOJ believing there was widespread fraud — a baseless claim being made by attorneys for Trump and the RNC. Rather, he’s doling authority out to U.S. attorneys in the event they might uncover any such credible evidence of a fraud conspiracy that might affect vote tabulations before election results are certified.
“Nothing here should be taken as any indication that the Department has concluded that voting irregularities have impacted the outcome of any election,” Barr wrote. “Rather, I provide this authority and guidance to emphasize the need to timely and appropriately address allegations of voting irregularities so that all of the American people, regardless of their preferred candidate or party, can have full confidence in the results of our elections.”
“While it is imperative that credible allegations be addressed in a timely and effective manner, it is equally imperative that Department personnel exercise appropriate caution and maintain the Department’s absolute commitment to fairness, neutrality and non-partisanship,” Barr said in the memo. “While serious allegations should be handled with great care, specious, speculative, fanciful or far-fetched claims should not be a basis for initiating federal inquiries.”
