US Election: No evidence of voter fraud, says US Attorney-General William Barr

US Attorney-General William Barr has directly rebuffed Donald Trump on election fraud.

US Attorney-General William Barr has directly rebuffed Donald Trump on election fraud, saying the Justice Department had not uncovered any wrongdoing which would have changed the poll result.

Mr Barr’s comments are the most senior repudiation yet of the president’s unsubstantiated claims that the election was stolen from him by mass fraud orchestrated by the Democrats.

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

“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 and DOJ have looked into that, and so far, we haven’t seen anything to substantiate that,” Mr Barr said, referring to the departments of Homeland Security and Justice.

Mr Barr’s comments will infuriate the president who tweeted out renewed claims of fraud just minutes after Mr Barr’s words were reported.

“People are coming forward like never before,’ Mr Trump tweeted. “Large trucks carrying hundreds of thousands of fraudulent (FAKE) ballots to a voting centre? TERRIBLE - SAVE AMERICA!”

Mr Barr is a close ally of Mr Trump, and his findings are especially relevant because he was critical of mail-in voting before the election, saying it was vulnerable to fraud. He also issued a specific directive to his attorneys at that time to pursue any “substantial allegations” of voting irregularities.

Mr Barr’s comments came amid the ongoing failure of Mr Trump’s legal team to prove election fraud across six states. Although Mr Trump has vowed to continue his legal bid to prove fraud and overturn Joe Biden’s victory, no court has yet found any evidence of fraud.

Mr Giuliani, who is leading Mr Trump’s legal team, hit back at Mr Barr’s comments.

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

“Nonetheless, we will continue our pursuit of the truth through the judicial system and state legislatures, and continue toward the Constitution’s mandate and ensuring that every legal vote is counted and every illegal vote is not. 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.”

Mr Barr is the first senior member of the administration to contradict the president on the issue of election fraud. No senior Republicans have yet done so although more junior members of the party have said that they believe Mr Biden won the election.

The government agency which approved presidential transitions, the General Services Administration, has also called Mr Biden as the winner. Despite Mr Trump’s refusal to concede the result, Mr Biden is proceeding with his transition and is currently in the process of appointing his Cabinet and key Whiter House positions.

Meanwhile it has been revealed that Mr Barr appointed Attorney John Durham as special counsel in his investigation into the origins of the Russia investigation.

Mr Barr made the appointment on October 19 but did not make it public so that it would not impact on the November 3 election.

The move elevates Mr Durham to the same status as Robert Mueller enjoyed during the Russia probe and gives extra protection to Mr Durham’s investigation after Mr Biden assumes the presidency in January. The move makes it more difficult for Mr Biden to sack Mr Durham.

Mr Trump was angry that Mr Durham’s report into the origins of the Russia investigation was not completed and released ahead of the election. Mr Trump believes the FBI launched the Russia investigation because of political bias against him.

The Durham investigation has examined Australia’s role in the Russia probe which the FBI initiated in July 2016 after learning of former Australian diplomat Alexander Downer’s meeting with then former Trump adviser George Papadopoulos in London.

Mr Durham has interviewed Mr Downer who is understood to have told Mr Durham that he was not part of any conspiracy to undermine Don­ald Trump’s election campaign.

(Cameron Stewart is also US Contributor for Sky news Australia)