How William Barr Is Weaponizing the Justice Department to Help Trump Win - 2020-08-29

How William Barr Is Weaponizing the Justice Department to Help Trump Win August 29, 2020, Peter Stone, The Intercept

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On August 13 , a day after President Donald Trump again charged that Democrats' efforts to expand mail-in voting due to the pandemic will create "the greatest rigged election in history," U.S. Attorney General William Barr too made unfounded and conspiratorial-sounding claims. Barr told Sean Hannity on Fox News that Democrats' drive seeking to expand mail-in voting could raise "serious questions about the integrity of the election," were "grossly irresponsible," and "reckless."

That was hardly the first time they seemed to agree. In a July House Judiciary hearing and in a June interview with Fox News, Barr joined Trump in his monthslong and spurious attacks on voting by mail. He told Fox that voting by mail "absolutely opens the floodgates to fraud," adding, without evidence, that "right now a foreign country could print tens of thousands of counterfeit ballots."

Citing Barr's words in one tweet, Trump then upped the ante: "MILLIONS OF MAIL-IN BALLOTS WILL BE PRINTED BY FOREIGN COUNTRIES,AND OTHERS. IT WILL BE THE SCANDAL OF OUR TIMES!"

"Barr has admitted he has no evidence of widespread mail-voting fraud," former federal prosecutor and former senior official at Homeland Security Paul Rosenzweig told me. "All he is doing is trying, unsuccessfully, to give Trump a basis for challenging the election. This is not the job of the Attorney General."

Wikipedia cite:

{{cite news | first = Peter | last = Stone | title = How William Barr Is Weaponizing the Justice Department to Help Trump Win | url = https://theintercept.com/2020/08/29/william-barr-trump-justice-department/ | work = The Intercept | date = August 29, 2020 | accessdate = September 1, 2020 }}