US Attorney-General William Barr rejects Donald Trump’s claim that fraud decided the election

US President Donald Trump is lashing out at leaders from his own party, as one of his top allies pushes back on his claims about the election.

US Attorney-General William Barr has delivered another heavy blow to President Donald Trump’s claims that fraud robbed him of victory in last month’s election, saying the Justice Department has found no evidence to back him up.

In the lead-up to the election, Mr Barr repeatedly voiced support for Mr Trump’s suspicion that mail-in voting was vulnerable to fraud. Last month, he issued a directive to US attorneys across the country, authorising them to investigate any credible allegations of misconduct.

However, speaking to The Associated Press today, Mr Barr said investigators had discovered nothing that would overturn the President’s defeat to Joe Biden.

“To date, we have not seen fraud on a scale that could have affected a different outcome in the election,” he said.

“Most claims of fraud are very particularised 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.”

Barr at the WH from CNN. pic.twitter.com/GpGWFzCDoz

— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) December 1, 2020

In one eye-catching quote, Mr Barr appeared to take a veiled swipe at Mr Trump for repeatedly demanding the Justice Department launch investigations aligned with his political interests.

“There’s a growing tendency to use the criminal justice system as a sort of default fix-all, and (whenever) people don’t like something, they want the Department of Justice to come in and ‘investigate’,” he said.

The Attorney-General showed up at the White House shortly after The Associated Press published its story. An official said he had a pre-scheduled meeting and it wasn’t related to the article.

RELATED: Trump-appointed judge eviscerates his biggest election case

Attorney-General William Barr speaking to Mr Trump back in September. Picture: Mandel Ngan/AFP

PBS White House correspondent Yamiche Alcindor was told by sources the President’s team was furious Mr Barr gave the interview.

“Allies of President Trump have knives out for (Attorney-General) Barr who told the AP the Department of Justice has not uncovered voting fraud at a scale that could have affected the results of the election,” she wrote on Twitter.

“One source tells me Barr’s AP interview is a ‘complete betrayal’ and says Barr has been ‘a total failure’.”

Allies of Pres Trump have knives out for AG Barr who told the AP the DOJ has not uncovered voting fraud at a scale that could have affected the results of the election.

One source tells me Barr's AP interview is a "complete betrayal" and says Barr has been "a total failure."

— Yamiche Alcindor (@Yamiche) December 1, 2020

Among the states whose results Mr Trump is disputing, he is closest to Mr Biden in Arizona, with a deficit of about 10,500 votes.

To change the result of the entire election, he would need to flip the outcome in at least two other states, including either Pennsylvania or Michigan. He lost the former by about 82,000 votes and the latter by 155,000.

All of the states in question have already certified their final tallies.

So far, the Trump campaign’s legal efforts have gone nowhere. The President and his allies have suffered almost 40 defeats in court, with judges across the country repeatedly criticising them for failing to put forward any credible evidence.

Mr Trump and his personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, have repeatedly insisted they possess convincing proof of widespread fraud, but almost a full month after the election, that proof has still not been produced in court.

Nevertheless, the Trump team responded defiantly to Mr Barr’s remarks today.

“With all due respect to the Attorney-General, there hasn’t been any semblance of a Department of Justice investigation,” Mr Giuliani and his colleagues Jenna Ellis said in a statement.

“We have gathered ample evidence of illegal voting in at least six states, which they have not examined. We have many witnesses swearing under oath they saw crimes being committed in connection with voter fraud.

“The Justice Department also hasn’t audited any voting machines or used their subpoena powers to determine the truth.

“Again, with the greatest respect to the Attorney-General, his opinion appears to be without any knowledge or investigation of the substantial irregularities and evidence of systemic fraud.”

So Bill Barr emerges from hiding... to knife the President's fraud claims. Wow. https://t.co/W4yFWf9Mpz

— Justin Hendrix (@justinhendrix) December 1, 2020

So does Trump throw in the towel - or add Barr to the growing list of Republicans who he says are conspiring against him? https://t.co/i7x4vIbYJu

— Anthony Zurcher (@awzurcher) December 1, 2020

Trump tweet describing Bill Barr as a terrible AG, a washed-up dope that everybody hates, incoming https://t.co/BComFLBjPe

— Mark Gongloff (@markgongloff) December 1, 2020

A small number of the witnesses the pair mentioned have already featured in court cases, while affidavits signed by the rest – Mr Giuliani says there are “hundreds” of them – largely remain under wraps. Most of the people in question are Republican election observers.

Each time their testimony has been included in a filing so far, judges have dismissed it as uninformed or simply not credible.

In Michigan, for example, Judge Cynthia Stephens summed up one of the affidavits as “inadmissable hearsay within hearsay”.

In a separate lawsuit, Judge Timothy Kenny ruled that about half a dozen affidavits from Republican poll watchers in Michigan were “incorrect and not credible”, saying the people in question did not “have a full understanding” of the vote-counting process.

That is polite judge-speak for saying they had no idea what they were talking about. You can read Judge Kenny’s full decision here.

And in Arizona, another judge took Mr Trump’s lawyers to task for the, shall we say, less than rigorous way they solicited and screened their affidavits.

ICYMI:

A supercut of an Arizona judge examining the electronic form-letter affidavit collection process used by the Trump campaign to support one since-dismissed case.

It yielded lies and "spam."

Spoiler alert: He didn't let in the dodgy affidavits: https://t.co/iIy9SIIaxL https://t.co/dWOLCuJHdG pic.twitter.com/hse0Iyjprq

— Adam Klasfeld (@KlasfeldReports) November 20, 2020

As for the Trump team’s line about the Justice Department failing to audit voting machines or use its subpoena powers, Mr Barr addressed that in his comments to AP, which said he had stressed there “must be a basis to believe there is a crime to investigate”.

As things stand, there is no such basis. Mr Trump’s conspiracy theory that voting software provided by a company called Dominion changed votes cast for him to support Mr Biden instead has been repeatedly debunked, including by his own government.

One of the states where Dominion’s systems were used, Georgia, already conducted a full recount of its results by hand and found no significant discrepancy between the voting machines’ tallies and the trail of paper ballots.

Mr Barr’s point here is a simple one – the Justice Department can’t issue subpoenas or launch an audit without reason.

US President Donald Trump. Picture: Brendan Smialowski/AFP

The Attorney-General’s remarks today came a few hours after Mr Trump lashed out at leaders from his own party for certifying their states’ election results instead of backing up his claims of fraud.

The President was particularly annoyed with Georgia Governor Brian Kemp and Arizona Governor Doug Ducey. Both men are Republicans.

“Do something,” Mr Trump told Mr Kemp, accusing him of allowing his state to be “scammed”.

He said Georgia should call off two looming special elections, which will decide its two Senate races. The Republican candidate in each contest fell short of a 50 per cent majority on November 3, meaning they now faces run-offs against Democratic rivals.

Do something @BrianKempGA. You allowed your state to be scammed. We must check signatures and count signed envelopes against ballots. Then call off election. It won’t be needed. We will all WIN! https://t.co/UiJrlyBGiK

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 1, 2020

Why is he rushing to put a Democrat in office, especially when so many horrible things concerning voter fraud are being revealed at the hearing going on right now. @OANN What is going on with @dougducey? Republicans will long remember! https://t.co/XILGaHcyw7

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 30, 2020

Incidentally, when Mr Trump calls for Georgia to “check signatures” – it’s one of his most frequent complaints – he is asking for the impossible.

Under the state’s electoral laws, voters casting ballots by mail have their signatures verified twice – once when they request a ballot, and then again on the return envelope.

Those envelopes are then separated from the ballots and discarded to preserve voters’ privacy. They can no longer be matched to a specific ballot. As mentioned, however, each voter’s signature has already been checked twice already.

Over in Arizona, Mr Ducey posted a lengthy statement pushing back on the President’s rhetoric yesterday.

“I’ve been pretty outspoken about Arizona’s election system, and bragged about it quite a bit, including in the Oval Office. And for good reason,” he said.

“We’ve been doing early voting since 1992. Arizona didn’t explore or experiment this year. We didn’t cancel election day voting as some pushed for – we weren’t going to disenfranchise any voter.

“In Arizona, we have some of the strongest election laws in the country. Laws that prioritise accountability and clearly lay out procedures for conducting, canvassing, and even contesting the results of an election.

“We’ve got ID at the polls. We review every signature – every single one – on early ballots by hand, unlike other states that use computers. Prohibitions on ballot harvesting. Bipartisan poll observers. Clear deadlines, including no ballots allowed after election day.

“The problems that exist in other states simply don’t apply here. I’ve also said all along, I’m going to follow the law. So here’s what the law says. It requires the secretary of state, in the presence of the governor and the attorney-general, to canvass the election on the fourth Monday following the general election.

“This can only be delayed if counties decline to certify their results. All 15 counties in Arizona – counties run by both parties – certified their results.

“The canvass of the election triggers a five-day window for any elector to bring a credible challenge to the election results in court. If you want to contest the results, now is the time. Bring your challenges.

“That’s the law. I’ve sworn an oath to uphold it, and I take my responsibility seriously.”

You undoubtedly noticed the implicit message to Mr Trump towards the end there. “Bring your challenges” was a polite way of saying “put up or shut up”.

And that goes right to the heart of the problem.

The President and his legal team have thrown around all kinds of wild allegations in public. They have held televised events, giving Republican election observers a chance to air their claims of misconduct.

Mr Giuliani and Ms Ellis have repeatedly insisted they have bombshell evidence proving the election result was fraudulent, without ever producing it.

Meanwhile, as several exasperated judges have noted, Mr Trump’s lawyers have not put forward a single credible allegation of fraud in court.

In the campaign’s highest profile lawsuit, which sought to stop Pennsylvania from certifying its results, a panel of three conservative appellate judges threw out Mr Trump’s appeal over the weekend.

Judge Stephanos Bibas, who was appointed to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals by Mr Trump, wrote a withering judgment concluding the lawsuit had “no merit”.

“Charges require specific allegations, and then proof. We have neither here,” he said.