In an interview with the Associated Press on Tuesday, US Attorney General William Barr said that the Department of Justice (DOJ) has found no evidence of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election.
Barr, one of President Donald Trump’s strongest supporters in the lead-up to the election, said in the interview that the DOJ “[has] not seen fraud on a scale that could have effected a different outcome in the election.” Barr had earlier instructed the FBI and DOJ attorneys to pursue all claims of election irregularities, leading to widespread public backlash and criticism from career attorneys in the DOJ who said that Barr’s memorandum threatened to undermine the electoral system. Barr’s insistence on investigating claims of fraud was in line with the Trump campaign’s allegations of a widespread conspiracy that led to Trump’s defeat by President-elect Joe Biden. In the interview, Barr said that while the DOJ had uncovered evidence of “particularized” claims of voting irregularities that were being investigated further, there was no evidence of widespread fraud that the Trump campaign has alleged occurred.
Barr’s decision to break with the Trump campaign’s rhetoric comes on the heels of a series of high-profile court losses in Michigan, Wisconsin, Georgia, and Pennsylvania state and federal courts, none of which found credible claims of election fraud alleged by the campaign.