Blumenthal condemns Barr authorization of DOJ election fraud investigations: ‘Deeply troubled’

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) criticized Attorney General William Barr for his decision to allow the Justice Department to investigate instances of voter fraud that occurred in the 2020 election. 

Blumenthal said he was “deeply troubled, as my colleagues are, by the statements made by Attorney General Barr, who again is acting apparently as a puppet of the president rather than a lawyer for the American people.” 

During a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Tuesday, Blumenthal continued, “He is throwing gasoline on the fires of false claims of fraud, fueling doubts and undermining faith in the integrity of our election process. There are no facts or evidence that justify investigation. He knows it. But he is giving a patina of credibility to baseless and destructive accusations.” 

Late on Monday, Barr sent a memo to Justice Department staff authorizing them to conduct investigations into any potential “clear and apparently-credible allegations of irregularities that, if true, could potentially impact the outcome of a federal election in an individual State.”

Barr stated that “nothing here should be taken as any indication that the Department has concluded that voting irregularities have impacted the outcome of any election.” 

Still, Blumenthal called Barr’s statements “a new low” for the attorney general, suggesting the “ramifications” of his memo “are profound and dangerous for our country” and that the memo gives false credibility to unfounded claims of widespread voter fraud. 

On Saturday, Democratic nominee Joe Biden was projected the winner of the presidential election by major news networks. President Trump has refused to concede the election and has alleged, without evidence, that massive voter fraud led to a large number of illegal ballots being cast against him. 

The Trump campaign has sued in several key battleground states to either invalidate or stop the counting of late-arriving mail-in ballots, a record number of which were cast this year due to the public health concerns stemming from the coronavirus pandemic. 

Biden on Tuesday told reporters he has already begun the transition process and called Trump’s refusal to concede the election “embarrassing” while predicting it would have a negative impact on his legacy. 

Some Senate Republicans have either outright parroted Trump’s claims about voter fraud or declined to recognize Biden as the president-elect. 

“The president wasn’t defeated by huge numbers. In fact, he may not have been defeated at all,” Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) said on Tuesday. 

Barr has taken steady criticism from congressional Democrats since he began serving as attorney general, with Trump’s critics accusing Barr of politicizing the department and inappropriately protecting Trump’s executive authority instead of allowing oversight and transparency. 

“This kind of scaremongering is no substitute for the truth. The fact is, the votes have been counted, and some are being counted. And they have shown and will continue to confirm that former Vice President Biden is, in fact, our president-elect,” Blumenthal said. “But in the meantime, the litigation challenging the integrity of our election process will continue, frivolous and baseless though it is, and now apparently given more credibility by the Attorney General of the United States, regretfully and unfortunately.”