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AG Barr says he sees no need to appoint special counsels to investigate Hunter B...

 4 years ago
source link: https://www.businessinsider.com/barr-wont-appoint-special-counsels-for-hunter-biden-election-fraud-2020-12
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AG Barr says he sees no need to appoint special counsels to investigate Hunter Biden or the 2020 election

bill barr
Attorney General William Barr arrives in the Rose Garden before President Donald Trump introduces 7th U.S. Circuit Court Judge Amy Coney Barrett, 48, as his nominee to the court at the White House September 26, 2020 in Washington, DC. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
  • Attorney General Bill Barr said Monday that he will not appoint special counsels to investigate either President-elect Joe Biden's son Hunter Biden or the 2020 election. 
  • Trump has reportedly pushed for Sidney Powell, a conservative attorney who has promoted conspiracy theories about election fraud, as a special prosecutor to investigate the matter. 
  • "If I thought a special counsel at this stage was the right tool and was appropriate, I would name one, but I haven't and I'm not going to," Barr said of a potential special counsel into baseless claims of widespread election fraud. 
  • Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Attorney General Bill Barr said in a Monday press conference that he will not appoint special counsel prosecutors to investigate either President-elect Joe Biden's son Hunter Biden or the baseless claims of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election, another significant break with President Donald Trump. 

Hunter is already under a federal investigation over his tax affairs that is currently being pursued by federal prosecutors in the US Attorney's office in Delaware and in Manhattan, New York, Hunter announced through the Biden transition team on December 9. 

CNN reported that investigations into Hunter's taxes and foreign business dealings began as early as 2018 before Barr arrived at the DOJ. The outlet reported that the probe initially also looked into potential money laundering but is now solely focused on taxes due to lack of evidence to pursue other matters. 

Barr took deliberate steps to keep the investigation, which initially began in 2018, under wraps during the 2020 presidential election itself, the Wall Street Journal reported. Shortly after the news broke, the Journal also reported that Trump expressed a desire to select special counsels to investigate both Hunter Biden and his baseless claims of widespread election fraud.

Only the attorney general, not the president himself, has the authority to appoint a special counsel. And on Monday, Barr, who is set to leave the DOJ on December 23, threw cold water on the idea of naming a special counsel for either matter. 

"To the extent that there's an investigation, I think it's being handled responsibly and professionally currently within the Department. To this point, I see no reason to appoint a special counsel and I have no plan to do so before I leave," Barr said of the Hunter Biden investigation. 

Barr also said he will not appoint a special counsel to investigate Trump's baseless claims of widespread fraud in the 2020 election. 

Over the weekend, The New York Times reported that Trump floated Sidney Powell, a conservative attorney who has consistently pushed conspiracy theories and false claims of fraud in several court cases seeking to overturn the results of the 2020 election, as a special counsel for election fraud. 

"If I thought a special counsel at this stage was the right tool and was appropriate, I would name one, but I haven't and I'm not going to," Barr told reporters. 

The Times also reported that Powell raised the idea of Trump issuing an executive order to seize voting and vote tabulation machines in furtherance of the baseless conspiracy theory that machines were hacked or compromised to "switch" votes from Trump to Biden.

In reality, the vast majority of voters in the United States and all in key swing states voted on hand-marked paper ballots, ballot marking devices, machines that produce a paper ballot, or voting machines with a voter-verifiable and auditable paper trail. 

At Monday's press conference, Barr said he "sees no basis" for the federal government to seize any such machines. Outside the bounds of a criminal investigation, the federal government likely has little to no authority to seize or impound property owned by states and localities, like voting equipment, some legal experts noted over the weekend.

Barr also substantially broke with Trump in an interview with the Associated Press in early December, in which he said that the DOJ had not "seen fraud on a scale that could have effected a different outcome in the election" and found no evidence that voting machines were comprised. 

"There's been one assertion that would be systemic fraud and that would be the claim that machines were programmed essentially to skew the election results," Barr said. "And the DHS and DOJ have looked into that, and so far, we haven't seen anything to substantiate that."


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