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“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 told the [Associated Press] 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.’” AP News
“Barr told The Associated Press on Tuesday that he had appointed U.S. Attorney John Durham as a special counsel in October under the same federal regulations that governed special counsel Robert Mueller in the original Russia probe… The current investigation, a criminal probe, had begun very broadly but has since ‘narrowed considerably’ and now ‘really is focused on the activities of the Crossfire Hurricane [Russia] investigation within the FBI,’ Barr said. He said he expects Durham would detail whether any additional prosecutions will be brought and make public a report of the investigation’s findings. Durham’s investigation has resulted in one prosecution so far: a guilty plea by a former FBI lawyer who admitted altering an email.” AP News
The right generally accepts Barr’s claims regarding fraud and applauds Durham’s appointment.
“In an election with 155 million votes, there are no doubt irregularities and maybe some fraud. But for Mr. Trump to win the Electoral College, he’d need to flip tens of thousands of votes in multiple states. We’re open to evidence of major fraud, but we haven’t seen claims that are credible. Now comes Mr. Barr, who has no reason to join a coverup. He likes his job. He wanted Mr. Trump to win. As the election timetable closes, Mr. Trump should focus on preserving his legacy rather than diminishing it by alleging fraud he can’t prove.”
Editorial Board, Wall Street Journal
“For good reason, Barr believes that vote fraud is a very real problem and that widespread mail-in balloting makes such fraud or widespread error more likely… [If even] Barr, whose political worldview is quite similar to Trump’s, says the evidence for the big conspiracy theories is inadequate, Trump should stop stoking the flames in ways that radicalize his supporters…
“In 1960, Richard Nixon had good reason to believe far more obvious and potentially decisive claims of voter fraud on behalf of presidential opponent John F. Kennedy than the ones Trump claims occurred this year. Yet, for the good of the country’s stability, Nixon declined to pursue them. Now that Trump does not even have his attorney general supporting him, Trump should follow Nixon’s lead. While still insisting that meritorious allegations of anomalies be investigated, Trump should concede the election and honor the tradition of a peaceful, stable transfer of presidential authority.”
Quin Hillyer, Washington Examiner
Regarding Durham, “[he] has been under considerable pressure to produce results under difficult circumstances… Yet Durham has methodically continued his investigation and has obviously resisted outside political pressure, particularly from supporters of President Trump, to file indictments or issue a narrative report in connection with the alleged misconduct of investigators and others implicated in the probe. Indeed, in order to avoid any perception of interference in the 2020 election, the Justice Department made it clear this summer that neither Biden nor former President Obama was a subject of the investigation. No charges were brought during the run-up to Election Day…
“Durham should be retained on merit. He has put nearly two years into the investigation. He has done nothing to suggest that the investigation is politicized. And it would rightly be perceived as the height of politicization if a Biden Justice Department were to close the case summarily without allowing Durham to see it through to conclusion.”
Andrew C. McCarthy, National Review
“The inclusion of the Mueller investigation into Trump as part of the [investigation’s] scope is especially curious, suggesting the possibility there was wrongdoing by members of Mueller’s team that probed whether Trump colluded with Russia. In the past, Barr has disputed parts of the team’s report, saying it did not follow certain Justice Department guidelines, but has not raised the possibility of criminal conduct…
“The inclusion also raises the possibility that the obvious bias against Trump will be scrutinized to determine if it shaped the team’s official actions. That bias was apparent in the final report, which excessively cited media reports in its footnotes, as if they were the basis of the prosecutors’ decisions, and seemed to be written to gin up criticism of Trump by Democrats in congress. In addition, subsequent comments by pugnacious lead prosecutor Andrew Weissmann, who wrote a book revealing internal deliberations and disputes and criticizing his colleagues, also smack of a desire to get Trump at any cost.”
Michael Goodwin, New York Post
The left is encouraged by Barr’s statements on fraud and willing to allow the Durham investigation to run its course.
The left is encouraged by Barr’s statements on fraud and willing to allow the Durham investigation to run its course.
“Multiple key officials have said the same. But Barr’s admission is striking because he’s one of the Trump officials who promoted fear about election fraud in the first place. In the lead-up to the election, Barr and Trump-appointed U.S. attorneys across the country told the public they were keeping a close eye out for voter fraud. Election Day 2020 went pretty smoothly overall, especially amid a global pandemic. Barr was looking for fraud, and he didn’t find it.”
Ryan J. Reilly, Huffington Post
“Let's break [this] down. In one corner, we have Giuliani and the rest of Trump's legal team, who have continually had their cases thrown out of court for complete lack of evidence. ‘Charges require specific allegations and then proof. We have neither here,’ wrote a Trump-appointed federal judge last week in a stinging rebuke to the campaign's efforts to undo Pennsylvania's vote count certification. In the other corner, we have Barr and the entire Justice Department looking for fraud and finding nothing. Take your pick.”
Elie Honig, CNN
“[This will not] persuade Trump or his campaign to stop spreading disinformation about the election… [But] If we are lucky, others may find Barr’s statement more persuasive. Trump’s refusal to concede defeat and his trumpeting of meritless claims of election fraud have, like many of his other outrages, been amplified by far-right television news and social media platforms. These lies have inflicted serious damage on our already weakened democratic norms… With Barr finding no evidence of significant fraud, Republican leaders can’t hide behind pious statements about the need to count every legal vote. The votes have been counted and Trump lost.”
Michael McGough, Los Angeles Times
“Trump’s Twitter feed remains devoted to promoting outlandish conspiracy theories about how the election was supposedly stolen; he even retweeted a user named ‘Catturd’ to make his case. His former lawyer Sidney Powell retweeted a demand that the president ‘use the Insurrection Act, Suspend the December Electoral College Vote, and set up Military Tribunals immediately.’ One of his current lawyers, Joe diGenova, says that former cybersecurity official Christopher Krebs, who was fired by Trump for rebutting his claims of fraud, ‘should be drawn and quartered. Taken out at dawn and shot’…
“Republicans are worried that some of their voters will not turn out in the Jan. 5 Georgia runoffs, which will determine control of the U.S. Senate, because they have been fed paranoid fantasies about ballot machines controlled by the ghost of Hugo Chávez. If so, it would serve the Republican Party right… Trump’s political operation has raised more than $170 million since Election Day with fraudulent claims of fraud. The campaign wasted $3 million on a recount in Wisconsin that expanded Biden’s lead in that state by 87 votes. It might as well have used donors’ money to light Donald Trump Jr.’s cigars — and it still might.”
Max Boot, Washington Post
Regarding Durham, “[he] has spent more than a year investigating the investigators in a fruitless attempt to prove out Trump’s wild charges that the Obama administration illegally surveilled his campaign. The Russia investigation has been turned inside out through multiple probes — by the Justice Department Inspector General, the Republican Senate, as well as Durham — and has produced barely anything of note…
“Unlike the Russia investigation, which Trump stymied by withholding an interview and getting his top aides to clam up by dangling pardons, Durham’s subjects have all cooperated. So let him finish… investigate them all. Turn over every rock.”
Jonathan Chait, New York Magazine
