On Tuesday, U.S. Attorney General William Barr upheld Donald Trump's unfounded allegations of electoral irregularities and allowed American lawyers to investigate "substantial" allegations of voter fraud before certifying the results of the presidential race, AP reported.
The election has not been accepted by Trump yet. Instead, without proof, he continues to claim that there has been a multi-state conspiracy by Democrats to rig the vote tally in favor of his opponent, President-elect Joe Biden. Although the counting of votes in the United States is still underway, in several battleground states, Biden holds a significant lead and so far there has been no indication of improperly counted votes that would shift the result.
Barr wrote in a memo to US lawyers that investigations "may be carried out if there are clear and apparently credible allegations of irregularities that could potentially affect the outcome of a federal election in an individual state, if true." But he warned that, according to The New York Times, "specious, speculative, fanciful or far-fetched claims should not be the basis for initiating federal inquiries."
"I authorize you to pursue substantial allegations of voting and voting tabulation irregularities prior to the certification of elections in your jurisdictions, given that voting in our current elections has now concluded," Barr wrote. States must resolve election disputes, including recounts and court disputes over the results, by December 8.
The Electoral College is scheduled to formally confirm the victory of Joe Biden on December 14, and the Democrat will take office in late January.
Barr's legal investigation directive is against the long-standing policies of the US Department of Justice aimed at preventing law enforcement from affecting the outcome of an election. As a "political act" that undermined the independence of the department, critics condemned his order. Richard Pilger, an official of the Justice Department who oversees voter fraud investigations, stepped down from the post within hours of issuing the memo.
Trump, meanwhile, continued his relentless criticism of the US media, the Democrats, and the voting process, claiming that their projections were so "inaccurate in the mainstream press" that it amounted to much more than suppression of voting and campaign finance. The incumbent president demanded that the media be called out for alleged interference with the election.
In a series of tweets, Trump said that all news publications and channels, including Fox News – which is pro-Republican – had tampered with the election. “They were so far off in their polling, and in their attempt to suppress – that they should be called out for Election Interference,” Trump said. "In Wisconsin, the day before the election, ABC / WaPo [Washington Post] had me down 17 points, and I WON! The polls had us four points down in Iowa, and I won by 8.2 percent!" Said he. "On everything, Fox News and Quinnipiac were wrong."
He called it "the worst polling ever," claiming that "in four years they will be back to do it again." "This is much more than suppression of voting and campaign finance," he said.
Trump's campaign filed a lawsuit earlier on Monday to block officials in Pennsylvania from certifying Biden's victory in the state, Al Jazeera reported. They claimed that by creating an "illegal two-tiered voting system" where voting in person was subject to more oversight than voting by mail, the mail-in voting system in Pennsylvania violated the US Constitution.
Since claiming that the election results were flawed, the Trump campaign has filed several lawsuits that were dismissed in Michigan and Georgia.
