The Justice Department’s Office of the Inspector General on Thursday released a lengthy report on its review of former Attorney General Bill Barr’s involvement in a criminal investigation into allegations of election fraud in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania in September 2020 and it’s not a good look for Barr, though the IG’s office concluded he hadn’t actually violated any rules.
Stupid story as short as possible: That month then-president Trump was constantly screaming about how there was going to be a massive fraud in the election, specifically over mail-in ballots. He seized upon an instance of nine military absentee ballots being found in a dumpster in Luzerne County and – funny enough – those ballots, seven of which were for Trump had been invalidated specifically because the voters had failed to enclose them in “secrecy envelopes” that state Republicans had demanded. Details like that didn’t matter to Trump or his fans, and he screamed at Barr to do something about it immediately. The best he had was skewing the narrative.
The IG’s report found he did: “The selective details about the investigation included in the initial [Middle District of PA] statement and the letter suggested that the actions of the individual who engaged in the conduct were intentional and likely chargeable criminally; however, even at that early stage of the investigation, Department leadership was aware of information that substantially undercut this narrative – including that the subject of the investigation was mentally impaired, appeared to have discarded the ballots by mistake, and would likely not be criminally charged. Indeed, the Department determined before Election Day that no charges would be brought in the matter, although it failed to inform the public of that fact until well after the election.”
The IG’s “investigation also found that Barr briefed President Trump about the Luzerne County investigation the day before the statements were issued and specifically disclosed to the President that the recovered ballots were ‘marked for Trump,’ information that was not public at that time and that Trump revealed on a national radio show the next morning,” which was also improper.