A bloc of 39 congressmen — including five Pennsylvania Republicans who were reelected Nov. 3 — lashed out at Attorney General William Barr in a letter expressing dismay at “the shocking lack of action” stemming from the Justice Department’s investigation of allegations of fraud in the election.
The letter was posted the same day Barr announced that Justice Department investigators had uncovered no evidence of fraud that would change the outcome of the election.
“To date, we have not seen fraud on a scale that could have affected a different outcome in the election,” Barr told The Associated Press.
U.S. Reps. John Joyce, R-Blair County, and Guy Reschenthaler, R-Peters Township were among those who urged Barr to take a closer look at what they claim are election irregularities. Both are staunch supporters of President Trump who appeared on stage with the president at campaign rallies in Western Pennsylvania.
Neither Joyce nor Reschenthaler responded to requests to detail what they believe threw the Pennsylvania election into question.
Tuesday’s announcement from Barr, who previously warned of the potential for fraud in widespread mail-in balloting, left many of the president’s supporters stunned.
The congressmen joined Trump and his attorney, Rudy Giuliani, in discounting Barr’s findings.
The president continues to claim he won and has repeated unfounded claims of widespread fraud and sweeping conspiracies to steal the election.
Like Joyce and Reschenthaler, Pennsylvania Republican Congressmen Fred Keller, R- Snyder, Scott Perry, R-York, and Dan Meuser, R-Luzerne, signed off on the letter.
All five of them were re-elected as Trump suffered an 81,000 vote defeat to Democrat Joe Biden in Pennsylvania.
“There are a number of anomalies, statistical improbabilities and accusations of fraud that bring the election results in several states into question,” the congressmen wrote. “Affidavits of irregularities in the voting and tabulation processes have been sworn in a number of jurisdictions. Threats of retribution by leftist groups with a history of violence have been made against election officials and attorneys for President Trump. And a number of last-minute changes in balloting and counting requirements raise questions about the overall integrity of federal elections.”
Although Pennsylvania Republicans have reported receiving numerous allegations of election irregularities, federal courts here have dismissed the Trump campaign’s legal challenges to the election as lacking in evidence.
“Free, fair elections are the lifeblood of our democracy. Charges of unfairness are serious. But calling an election unfair does not make it so,” Judge Stephanos Bibas, a Trump appointee to the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals wrote while rejecting the campaign’s most recent appeal in Pennsylvania. “Charges require specific allegations and then proof. We have neither here.”
Many of the allegations in Pennsylvania referred to issues with dates and signatures on mail-in ballots and complaints from poll watchers that they were not given adequate access to the count.
At a hearing in Gettysburg last week, Giuliani conflated primary election reports with general election returns to falsely claim Pennsylvania officials had counted 700,000 more mail-in ballots than they distributed. Sidney Powell, a lawyer for the Trump campaign who has since been dismissed, alleged voting systems were flipping votes.
Barr said Tuesday his office had looked into claims such as those Powell voiced.
“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. And the (Department of Homeland Security) and DOJ have looked into that, and so far, we haven’t seen anything to substantiate that,” he said.
Nonetheless, the president’s supporters continue to maintain their attacks on the election.
Congressman Mike Kelly, R-Butler, did not sign off on Tuesday’s letter, but is continuing his own attack on the outcome of the election in Pennsylvania.
Kelly, the lead plaintiff in a suit seeking to have Pennsylvania’s expansive 2019 mail-in ballot law ruled unconstitutional, is seeking a hearing before the U.S. Supreme Court.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court shot down the complaint Saturday and dismissed a lower court ruling halting the certification of the vote here. In its ruling, the state high court said the challenge was filed long after the expiration date for such challenges, and the plaintiffs had failed to prove a single ballot fraudulent.
In a new appeal filed Wednesday, Kelly asked the state Supreme Court to reinstate the lower court’s stay on election certification, pending the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision whether to hear his appeal.
Deb Erdley is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Deb at 724-850-1209, [email protected] or via Twitter .
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While I have no doubt the election was rigged. I do agree with Barr for one simple reason
One must keep in mind for fraud to exist a fact has to be misrepresented. Mail-in is nearly FACT FREE. Cannot misrepresent what did not exist in the first place
Can you see the dilemma?
The ballots will be fraud free because they are fact free
The fraud is not in the ballots but in the assumption mail-in for everyone can be trusted
Here is an example of why it cannot be trusted
Professor Paul Kengor’s study of the Pennsylvania results and his findings, testified at a hearing in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, on Nov. 25, to the Pennsylvania Senate Majority Committee that a batch of ballots recorded 570,000 votes for Joe Biden and only 3,200 votes for Donald.
99.4% of the votes going to Biden, and with that batch, he won the election.
It is also not an isolated incident. Michigan, Wisconsin, Georgia all had vote spikes, while not as extreme, for Biden in the early morning the day after the election
There are a whole bunch more reasons
The essential point
In a fact based system the facts must be disproven to overcome the conclusion
When the system is based on assumptions the whole thing comes crashing down proving the assumption is no longer true
That is mail-in, nearly fact free, existing because of an assumption it can be trusted with no way to verify much of anything about it
BARR, WRAY AND HARPEL SHOULD BE FIRED IMMEDIATELY. THEY ARE ALL INCOMPETENT AND NOT WORKING FOR AMERICA BUT FOR THE COMMIES/DEMS
“To date, we have not seen fraud on a scale that could have affected a different outcome in the election,” Barr told The Associated Press.
In a country where you can impeach a president on false documents, yet ignore voter fraud because it ‘does not affect the outcome of an election’, is a crime in and of itself.
Saying “not seen fraud on a scale that could have affected a different outcome” clearly indicates that he has in fact seen fraud. Why isn’t he pursuing these leftist criminals and prosecuting them ? Is that not his job ?
I truly wonder, WHEN THE HELL DID our so-called justice dept, get THIS INFILTRATED with traitors to our nation?
“Nonetheless, the president’s supporters continue to maintain their attacks on the election.”
Free and honest elections are vital to the health and longevity of the Republic. It’s wise for Patriots to err on the side of verification.
TO me, if you are NOT PUSHING for a full on re-vote, you are part of the traitor crowd OK WITH STEALING the election. PERIOD.