Attorney General William Barr’s decision to have the Department of Justice (DOJ) probe any « substantial allegations » of voter fraud has triggered a wave of backlash …
Attorney General William Barr’s decision to have the Department of Justice (DOJ) probe any « substantial allegations » of voter fraud has triggered a wave of backlash that he is seeking to breathe life into President Trump’s unfounded claims of a stolen election. Barr’s announcement Monday quickly sparked fallout at the agency, with the top official in charge of voting crimes investigations saying just hours later that he would step down from his role. In a carefully worded memo, the attorney general authorized federal prosecutors to take investigative steps on “specific instances” of abuse “prior to the certification of elections” in their respective jurisdictions, but he warned that “specious, speculative, fanciful or far-fetched claims should not be a basis for initiating federal inquiries,” according to reports. The move was swiftly condemned by former DOJ officials who argued Barr was breaking longstanding precedent that says the agency should avoid getting involved in such investigations until after an election is certified. “Overt criminal investigative measures should not ordinarily be taken in matters involving alleged fraud in the manner in which votes were cast or counted until the election… has been concluded, its results certified, and all recounts and election contests concluded, » the DOJ policy states. Elie Honig, a legal analyst and former federal prosecutor in New York who has been critical of Barr, warned that the attorney general’s actions would risk mixing politics and prosecution. “This policy has been in place for decades and the purpose couldn’t be more simple: keep prosecution out of politics, keep politics out of prosecution,” Honig told CNN on Tuesday. “Now, with yesterday’s resignation, we’ve seen seven dedicated, career, nonpartisan prosecutors resign off of four different cases.… That is not normal, and the reason they all resigned is from Bill Barr’s political weaponization of the Justice Department,” Honig said. Other former agency officials took their criticisms further. “Barr authorizing federal prosecutors to investigate non-existent election fraud suggests only one thing: Trump has not yet delivered Bill Barr his much-needed pardon,” Glenn Kirschner, a former federal prosecutor who served in the U.
