Want to get away from the president? The US attorney publicly opposes Trump
Does the United States Attorney General Barr want to keep a distance from President Trump, or is it inaccurately reported by the “fake news media”? In an interview with the Associated Press on December 1, Barr said that the Department of Justice has not yet found enough evidence of election fraud to change the election results. In response, Trump said on Twitter on the 2nd that the “fake news media” did not report the statement of a spokesman for the Ministry of Justice. The statement said that some media reports on Barr’s statement were wrong.
Barr said in an interview with the Associated Press that U.S. prosecutors and FBI personnel have been following up on complaints and information they have received about the 2020 presidential election, but so far no evidence of election fraud has been found to change the election results. Regarding the claim that the voting machine was written with specific procedures to distort the election results, Barr said that the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice have investigated it, but found no evidence to support this claim. Barr stressed that some people don’t like things and want the Ministry of Justice to intervene in the investigation, but first of all, there must be evidence to convince people that there is a crime to investigate.
Barr is regarded as a loyal ally of Trump. According to the BBC, Barr is clearly on the same side with Trump on many controversial issues such as the “Russia” investigation. After the 2020 election, Barr authorized federal prosecutors to investigate allegations of voting violations, which was considered to “assist” Trump. But after about a month of investigation, Barr did not wait for the state lawsuits to end one by one. Instead, Barr chose to publicly say at this time that no evidence of fraud had been found to overturn the election results, which is a signal that Republicans, especially key Trump administration officials, are gradually distanced from the president. The Washington Post commented that Barr became the highest official in the United States who parted ways with the president on the question of whether there was fraud in the election, and his move may trigger Republicans to follow suit. Several media outlets said that Barr’s statement may anger Trump and become the next target of his dismissal.
After Barr’s interview, Giuliani, Trump’s personal lawyer, and the U.S. president’s campaign issued a harsh statement saying that the Department of Justice showed no sign of investigation. Giuliani claimed that they had collected sufficient evidence of illegal voting in at least six states, but the Department of Justice had not reviewed the evidence. Barr entered the White House on Tuesday afternoon, NBC reported. A White House official revealed that the Attorney General held a previously scheduled meeting with White House Chief of Staff Meadows that day.
The content of the meeting between Barr and Meadows is unknown, but a spokesman for the U.S. Department of Justice tried to clarify Barr’s position on Tuesday. According to Fox News, the spokesman said that some media reports that the Department of Justice has closed the investigation of election fraud and announced that there was no fraud in the election. These reports are inaccurate and not the statement of the Attorney General. The spokesman stressed that the Ministry of Justice will continue to receive and investigate all specific and credible allegations of fraud. Trump tweeted the statement of the Justice Department spokesman on the 2nd, saying that the “fake news media” refused to report the information.
In addition, according to American media reports, Barr has done something to satisfy Trump. The attorney general revealed on the 1st that he had appointed Connecticut Attorney Durham as the special prosecutor in October to continue to investigate the origin of the 2016 “Russia” incident after President-elect Biden took office, that is, why there was a 2016 “Russia” investigation. As a special prosecutor, it is difficult for the new government to fire Durham. Republicans generally praised Barr’s move, and Democrats thought the appointment was too political.
Trump has never admitted defeat. According to The Washington Post, the Trump camp filed a lawsuit in Wisconsin on the 1st to make a final move to overthrow the state’s election results. However, legal experts say that Trump’s chances of winning the lawsuit are very small. In addition, ABC quoted several sources as saying that from the election to now, the Trump campaign has raised about $170 million by promoting election fraud. However, most of the money was used by Trump to pay off election debts and flowed to his new political action committee. Before the 2024 election, Trump may use the committee to promote his political activities.
