William Barr boosts Trump's rhetoric of voting 'irregularities' — even though they can't find any
Trump's personal attorney general, the one American taxpayers are paying to pursue whatever legal actions are necessary to Not Make Donald Sad, is finally making his presence known after keeping a low, low profile in the days both before and after the election. The Associated Press reports William Barr has sent a memo to federal prosecutors "authorizing" them to pursue "substantial allegations" of voting irregularities—of which there are currently, nationwide, exactly zero.
Sounds ominous, yes? In fact, the actual memo obtained by the AP tells a less dramatic story. Barr tells prosecutors that investigations "may be conducted if there are clear and apparently-credible allegations of irregularities that, if true, could potentially impact the outcome of a federal election in an individual State." In other words, Barr is reiterating a power prosecutors already have to investigate, "if" credible allegations were to surface. Since Trump's collection of dildo-adjacent landscaping fetishists have, time and time again, made allegations about irregularities that they have been completely unable to find evidence of and which they cannot explain to federal judges, resulting in each would-be case getting laughed out of their still Zoom-based courtrooms, the statement is meaningless.
What it does mean is that William Barr is willing to put the weight of his crooked office behind Trump's anti-democratic, autocratic blabberings about supposed vote fraud against him. He's willing to put out a memo to please Dear Leader, using Dear Leader's terminology, to create a news cycle in which the Department of Justice is investigating nothing, for no larger apparent purpose than making sure Trump doesn't fire him for not doing it.
There are no fraud claims. None. Trump's quasi-legal teams have been able to produce no evidence of election-bending fraud, or even of election-inconveniencing fraud. The claims are entirely based on Trump's unwillingness to face reality, his sycophants' unwillingness to force him to do so, and the rampaging fascist tendencies of a Republican Party willing to delegitimize American democracy itself rather than accept election losses.
It's not surprising William Barr is willing use the powers of his office to add to that din of propaganda. That's why Trump hired him.
