Trump mounts legal assault as Barr authorizes probes of vote irregularities

By Steve Holland and Simon Lewis

 

FILE PHOTO: U.S. Attorney General William Barr meets with members of the St. Louis Police Department, in St. Louis, Missouri, U.S., October 15, 2020. Jeff Roberson/Pool via REUTERS

 

WASHINGTON/WILMINGTON, Del. (Reuters) - President Donald Trump will push ahead on Tuesday with legal challenges to the results of last week's election after U.S. Attorney General William Barr told federal prosecutors to look into any "substantial" allegations of voting irregularities.

 

Barr's directive to prosecutors prompted the top lawyer overseeing voter fraud investigations to resign in protest. It came after days of attacks on the integrity of the election by Trump and Republican allies, who have alleged widespread voter fraud, without providing evidence.

 

Trump has not conceded the election to Democrat Joe Biden, who on Saturday secured more than the 270 votes in the Electoral College needed to win the presidency.

 

The Trump campaign has filed several lawsuits claiming the election results were flawed. Judges have tossed out lawsuits in Michigan and Georgia, and experts say Trump's legal efforts have little chance of changing the election result.

 

Barr told prosecutors on Monday that "fanciful or far-fetched claims" should not be a basis for investigation and his letter did not indicate the Justice Department had uncovered voting irregularities affecting the outcome of the election.

 

But he did say he was authorizing prosecutors to "pursue substantial allegations" of irregularities of voting and the counting of ballots.

Richard Pilger, who for years has served as director of the Election Crimes Branch, announced in an internal email he was resigning from his post after he read "the new policy and its ramifications."

 

Biden's campaign said Barr was fueling Trump's far-fetched allegations of fraud.

 

"Those are the very kind of claims that the president and his lawyers are making unsuccessfully every day, as their lawsuits are laughed out of one court after another," said Bob Bauer, a senior adviser to Biden.

 

Earlier on Monday, Trump's campaign filed a lawsuit to block Pennsylvania officials from certifying Biden's victory in the battleground state.

 

It alleged the state's mail-in voting system violated the U.S. Constitution by creating "an illegal two-tiered voting system" where voting in person was subject to more oversight than voting by mail.

 

It was filed against Pennsylvania Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar and the boards of elections in Democratic-leaning counties that include Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. Boockvar's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

 

'REHASH'

Jessica Levinson, a professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, said the latest lawsuit in Pennsylvania was unlikely to succeed and "reads like a rehash of many of the arguments the Trump legal team has made in and outside the courtroom."

 

Trump's re-election team asked for patience on Monday to pursue allegations of voter fraud. "This election is not over, far from it," Kayleigh McEnany, the White House press secretary, told reporters at a briefing in what she said was her capacity as a Trump campaign adviser.

 

Biden, who has begun work on his transition to the White House, will give a speech on Monday defending the Affordable Care Act, the landmark healthcare law popularly known as Obamacare, as the U.S. Supreme Court hears arguments on a lawsuit backed by the Trump administration to invalidate it.

 

Trump and Republicans have repeatedly tried to do away with the 2010 law passed under President Barack Obama, with Biden as his vice president.

 

The Supreme Court fended off previous challenges in 2012 and 2015. The Court now has a 6-3 conservative majority after Trump's third appointee, Amy Coney Barrett, was confirmed last month.

 

As Biden begins work on his transition, his team is considering legal action over a federal agency's delay in recognizing his victory over Trump.

 

The General Services Administration (GSA) normally recognizes a presidential candidate when it becomes clear who has won so a transition of power can begin.

 

But that has not yet happened and the law does not spell out when the GSA must act. GSA Administrator Emily Murphy, appointed by Trump in 2017, has not yet determined that "a winner is clear," a spokeswoman said.

 

A Biden transition official told reporters it was time for the GSA's administration to grant what is known as an ascertainment recognizing the president-elect, and said the transition team would consider legal action if it was not granted.

 

"Legal action is certainly a possibility, but there are other options as well that we're considering," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, declining to outline other options.

 

(Reporting by Steve Holland, Jan Wolfe and Sarah Lynch in Washington, Simon Lewis in Wilmington, Delaware; Writing by John Whitesides; Editing by Lincoln Feast.)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-11-10

 

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4 minutes ago, webfact said:

Biden's campaign said Barr was fueling Trump's far-fetched allegations of fraud.

Trumps going and so is Barr who should be investigated himself .

Barr saw what happened to Esper and is desperately covering his own as*.  Folks in the DOJ aren't too happy about it.  The top DOJ election crimes dude resigned in disgust.

 

[The Justice Department's top election crimes prosecutor resigned Monday in protest after Attorney General William Barr told federal prosecutors that they should examine allegations of voting irregularities before states move to certify results in the coming weeks.]

 

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/richard-pilger-doj-s-top-election-crimes-prosecutor-quits-in-protest-after-barr-tells-federal-attorneys-to-probe-unsupported-allegations-of-voting-irregularities/ar-BB1aQS6w

Curious mix of reporting. Which is it? Unsupported, substantial, or  just plain old ordinary allegations of voting irregularities?

How sad would it be if significant evidence surfaces contrary to Trump's objectives?

Barr authorises prosecutors to "pursue substantial allegations" of irregularities of voting and the counting of ballots.

 

Director of the Election Crimes Branch, resigns after he reading "the new policy and its ramifications."

 

Interesting!

17 minutes ago, PattayaJames said:

Barr authorises prosecutors to "pursue substantial allegations" of irregularities of voting and the counting of ballots.

 

Director of the Election Crimes Branch, resigns after he reading "the new policy and its ramifications."

 

Interesting!

"Interesting!"

Yes an interesting insight into the losers (lack of) mind set!

18 minutes ago, PattayaJames said:

Barr authorises prosecutors to "pursue substantial allegations" of irregularities of voting and the counting of ballots.

 

Director of the Election Crimes Branch, resigns after he reading "the new policy and its ramifications."

 

Interesting!

You left out 'any,', which indicates no such allegations have been made yet.

19 minutes ago, PattayaJames said:

Barr authorises prosecutors to "pursue substantial allegations" of irregularities of voting and the counting of ballots.

 

Director of the Election Crimes Branch, instantly resigns after he reading "the new policy and its ramifications."

 

Interesting!

 

4 minutes ago, stevenl said:

You left out 'any,', which indicates no such allegations have been made yet.

 

On the contrary you have inserted it.

Edited November 10, 20205 yr by PattayaJames

1 hour ago, webfact said:

Attorney General William Barr told federal prosecutors to look into any "substantial" allegations of voting irregularities.

 

Just now, PattayaJames said:

 

On the contrary you have inserted it.

Nope, see this quote from the OP.

3 minutes ago, stevenl said:

You left out 'any,', which indicates no such allegations have been made yet.

I saw today that there claim in Michigan was based on a post-it note , how pathetic and childish .

11 minutes ago, stevenl said:

Nope, see this quote from the OP.

 

OK fair enough I was quoting the following part:

 

1 hour ago, webfact said:

But he did say he was authorizing prosecutors to "pursue substantial allegations" of irregularities of voting and the counting of ballots.

 

Richard Pilger, who for years has served as director of the Election Crimes Branch, announced in an internal email he was resigning from his post after he read "the new policy and its ramifications."

 

 

1 hour ago, keith101 said:

Trumps going and so is Barr who should be investigated himself .

3 words..... Lock Them Up

It is unprecedented for these legal challenges to be mounted, also unprecedented for an Attorney-General to be so blatantly partisan. Redacted Mueller Report, anyone?

One can but hope the American taxpayer is not funding any of the challenges. Noted the Republican campaign is appealing for donations.

Biden not only beat Trump fair and square on the popular vote, he slaughtered him on campaign fund donations. That would get up Trump's nose even more.

It would be interesting to know how many of the Trump supporters on TV would put their money where their mouth is. But then, no way of knowing if what they posted by way of funding is true. Seems to be a scarce attribute in their alternative universe.

 

 

I’ve said all along, Trump’s illness will prevent him from accepting defeat.

 

He’s wasting valuable time, he needs to get signing executive orders on prison reforms.

It's going to be an interesting few weeks ahead....

Just read that Barr hopes to stay on in office.......delusional.

 

He is looking more and more like Fred Flintstone.

Edited November 10, 20205 yr by Surelynot

28 minutes ago, Chomper Higgot said:

I’ve said all along, Trump’s illness will prevent him from accepting defeat.

 

He’s wasting valuable time, he needs to get signing executive orders on prison reforms.

I’m sure billey Barr is running scared he knows he’s in deep do do for beeing so obviously partisan also there’s a strong possibility sally Yates is going to be the new AG oh my oh my I wouldent want to be in billey shoes rite now he must appease his master knowing short of a successful coup he and lame duck Donald are going to be shown the door yeiks!!

If anybody is wondering why so many posters on thaivisa.com were insisting that Trump would win in a landslide here's a link to a ny times article explaining one possibility:

Shocked by Trump’s Loss, QAnon Struggles to Keep the Faith
For years, followers of the pro-Trump conspiracy theory had been assured that the president would win re-election in a landslide.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/10/technology/qanon-election-trump.html

 

To circumvent the fire wall, you should be able to to incognito mode in Chrome or InPrivate in  Edge.

So, the Republicans lining up to support Trump's baseless claims is ominous.  If Trump had massive support in the Republican party with hundreds of thousands of citizens marching and call for the election to be overturn, then there would be some risk of a successful coup.  As it is the support of the Republicans in Congress does not appear to be enough to fire up the legislature of Pennsylvania, for example, to pass a law picking a slate of electors for Trump contrary to the results of the vote.   Still, not a good sign.

13 hours ago, keith101 said:

I saw today that there claim in Michigan was based on a post-it note , how pathetic and childish .

They live in their own reality bubbles built on lies and conspiracy theories so what did you expect.

Edited November 10, 20205 yr by shdmn

It's quite obvious. The future of these Trump appointees is to go down with the sinking ship. Therefore they will do all they can to hang on to their jobs so they can milk the last benefits possible before they get fired. It has nothing to do with serving the public and everything to do with serving themselves, a true Trump trademark.

The Penn fraud whistleblower beloved by the gop has fully recanted his claims.

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/postal-worker-fabricated-ballot-pennsylvania/2020/11/10/99269a7c-2364-11eb-8599-406466ad1b8e_story.html

18 minutes ago, Sujo said:

The Penn fraud whistleblower beloved by the gop has fully recanted his claims.

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/postal-worker-fabricated-ballot-pennsylvania/2020/11/10/99269a7c-2364-11eb-8599-406466ad1b8e_story.html

Stunning any educated person would fall for these BS claims. Or, support a corrupt administration.

32 minutes ago, klauskunkel said:

It's quite obvious. The future of these Trump appointees is to go down with the sinking ship. Therefore they will do all they can to hang on to their jobs so they can milk the last benefits possible before they get fired. It has nothing to do with serving the public and everything to do with serving themselves, a true Trump trademark.

Pompeo is setting himself up for a presidential run. McConnell is lying to try and save his job with the upcoming senate elections in Georgia.

Tidal wave of pushback on those law firms pushing the trump agenda in the courts.

 

Seems like this is just part of an epsiode of trump tv, which those close to trump are using to walk him back towards reality. I still say call in Dennis Rodman, Meat Loaf or Gary Busey for a dose of "reality".

 

Looks like President-elect Biden will end up with 306 Electoral votes (same total as trump's "biggest victory ever" in 2016, and a popular vote pluarality of ~ 7 million votes (currently 5 million but still a lot of vote to count in blue states like Il, NY and CA.

 

 

 

 

Edited November 11, 20205 yr by mtls2005

4 years of " you lost , get over it" forgotten the moment they loose.

Upon further review, the Barr memo actually seems to discourage Federal Prosecutors' investigations.

 

Pilger resigned because he wants to appear to be way above reproach?

 

Seems like this was simply done to placate trump for a minute or two?

 

https://beta.documentcloud.org/documents/20403449-barr-memo

They need evidence. 

We all know DT has been beholden to Putin (see the infamous Helsinki meeting).  Maybe he is trying to get his pal to help him with his current problem.  And at what cost to the country? 

"What kind evidence you want, Donalt?"

Be assured Steve Bannon and Roger Stone are busy these days.

 

 

Conservative judges and justices have been bleating about overreach of the federal government and federal courts for years. Now is their time to prove that they are willing to leave state matters to the states.