Donald Trump and Attorney General William Barr (File)

Attorney General William Barr, breaking from Donald Trump, says the Justice Department has found no voting fraud “on a scale that could have effected a different outcome in the election”.

Since Trump appointed him in January 2019, Barr provided essential cover, burying the Mueller Report on the Trump campaign’s links with Russian officials. He tried to dismiss the findings in Trump’s pressure on Ukraine to discredit the Democratic Presidential nominee Joe Biden. He organized a Department investigation to establish that the FBI and other agencies tried to undermine Trump — although he had to announce just before the election that no findings would be produced.

Still, breaking Department guidelines not to intervene in an election before it is certified, Barr ordered prosecutors to examine allegations by Trump allies of voter ineligibility in Nevada and improperly dated mail-in ballots in Pennsylvania.

TrumpWatch, Day 1,359: Attorney General Barr Distances Himself from Trump’s Election Plot
TrumpWatch, Day 1,389 : Barr, McConnell, GOP Senators Dig In for Trump’s Refusal of Election Outcome

But on Sunday, an increasingly desperate Trump said in an interview with Fox TV that the FBI and Justice Department may have been involved in election fraud.

the president suggested on Sunday that the Justice Department and the F.B.I. may have played a role in an election fraud.

So Barr said on Tuesday:

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. And the DHS [Department of Homeland Security] and DOJ have looked into that, and so far, we haven’t seen anything to substantiate that.

He continued, “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. Some have been broad and potentially cover a few thousand votes. They have been followed up on.”

The Trump camp immediately lashed out at Barr and the Justice Department.

Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani, who has lost a series of lawsuits amid his outlandish and sometimes bizarre claims of a stolen election, said the Department was ignoring his “evidence” and “witness statements”.

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.

McConnell Finally Refers to “New Administration”

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who has been almost silent about the November 3 election, finally hinted on Tuesday at an acceptance of President-elect Biden’s victory.

McConnell was speaking about months of negotiations for a Coronavirus relief package, having blocked passage of a $2.2 trillion measure before the election.

“I think we all know that after the first of the year, there’s likely to be a discussion about some additional package of some size next year, depending upon what the new administration wants to pursue,” he said.

McConnell’s only statement about the election had been on November 9, when he backed the Trump camp’s multiple lawsuits trying to overturn results:

Georgia Election Official to Trump: Stop Inspiring Violence

The Georgia official overseeing the election process has called on Donald Trump to “stop inspiring people to commit potential acts of violence”.

Gabriel Sterling appealed at a news conference after Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger has received death threats, “Someone’s going to get hurt. Someone’s going to get shot. Someone’s going to get killed.”

Trump has angrily denounced Gov. Brian Kemp and Raffensperger — both Republicans — as Georgia certified a 12,670-vote win for Biden.

On Monday Trump demanded that his former ally Kemp overrule Georgia’s Raffensperger — an impossibility, since state law forbids the governor taking over the process.

See also Trump Slams GOP Governors as Arizona and Wisconsin Certify Biden’s Victory

Sterling, visibly angry, said on Tuesday:

Mr President, it looks like you likely lost the state of Georgia. We’re investigating, there’s always a possibility, I get it. You have the rights to go to the courts.

What you don’t have the ability to do – and you need to step up and say this – is stop inspiring people to commit potential acts of violence. Someone is going to get hurt, someone is going to get shot, someone is going to get killed, and it’s not right. It’s not right.

He said that Secretary of State Raffensperger’s wife has received “sexualized threats”.

The elections official said that Trump’s denunciation of Raffensperger as an “enemy of the people” had “helped open the floodgates to this kind of crap”.

Sterling said he was speaking out after learning that a contractor, helping with the state’s recount, received death threats after someone shot video of him transferring a report to a county computer and falsely said the man was manipulating election data.

Georgia’s Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan, another Republican, also spoke out against the Trump camp’s disinformation:

It’s certainly disheartening to watch folks willing to kind of put their character and their morals out there just so they can spread a half truth or a lie in the efforts to maybe to flip an election. That’s not what democracy is all about.

Long term I think we hurt the brand of the Republican party, which is certainly bigger than one person.