Former AG Bill Barr personally involved in decision to publicize details of 2020 mail-in ballot probe, DOJ watchdog find

[Eugene]

Source: CNN

Former AG Bill Barr personally involved in decision to publicize details of 2020 mail-in ballot probe, DOJ watchdog finds

By Hannah Rabinowitz and Tierney Sneed, CNN
4 minute read
Published 12:20 PM EDT, Thu July 25, 2024

(CNN) — A Justice Department watchdog has found that former Attorney General Bill Barr was personally involved in the decision to publicize an incident from the 2020 election – nine mail-in ballots for Donald Trump being discarded in a dumpster in Pennsylvania – that flamed the false narrative of widespread voter fraud.

But the department’s inspector general stopped short of finding that Barr violated any internal policies, concluding that he had wide discretion as attorney general to disclose details from criminal investigations. Investigators ultimately determined that the ballots were discarded in error by a contractor, and no charges were brought.

The inspector general looked at the decision to put out a press release about the incident from Justice Department prosecutors in the Middle District of Pennsylvania in September 2020. The release said investigators were looking into “potential issues with mail in ballots.”

Barr “encouraged and authorized” US Attorney David Freed to issue the statement – a move several DOJ attorneys called “unusual” – and he “specifically approved inclusion of the details about the discarded ballots, including that all the recovered ballots had been cast for President Trump,” according to the inspector general’s report released Thursday.

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Read more: https://edition.cnn.com/2024/07/25/politics/bill-barr-2020-election-fraud/index.html