Attorney General Bill Barr says he won’t provide special counsel protection for a Hunter Biden investigation or to designate a special counsel to probe alleged election fraud – in another blow to Donald Trump’s claims of a ‘rigged’ election.
Barr spoke to reporters today days before he is to leave office following his resignation and ouster.
On his way out the door, the attorney general pegged by Democrats as a Trump henchman managed to part ways with his soon-to-be former boss on election fraud, Hunter Biden, a conspiracy theory about voting machines – and the touchiest issue for Trump: Russia.
Barr said it ‘certainly’ appears that Russia was behind a massive hack of the U.S. government – directly contradicting the president after he sought to raise doubts about the claim.
Barr was asked about voter fraud after weekend reports of an explosive meeting between Trump and election lawyer Sidney Powell.
The former Trump lawyer has filed ‘Kraken’ lawsuits and wants the government to seize voting machines to inspect them amid her own claims of a conspiracy involving Venezuela, Cuba, China, and machines that allegedly ‘flipped’ votes from Trump to Biden.
Here, Barr gave no credibility to the idea despite Trump retweeting a slew of claims linked to Powell and meeting with her over the weekend about her ideas to overturn the vote.
‘If I thought a special counsel at this stage was the right tool and it was appropriate I would name one but I haven’t and I’m not going to,’ Barr said at the Justice Department.
With Barr resisting the special counsel idea, Trump has reportedly looked into designating a special counsel himself – desperate to keep his claims of fraud alive even after the Electoral College met.
Barr’s comment sets up a potential clash between Trump and Barr’s successor, Jeffrey Rosen, who will become acting attorney general during a period when the sore-loser incumbent is intently focused on his own claims of fraud in the election.
Powell was spotted at the White House last night, two days after Trump floated the idea of naming his former campaign lawyer as a special counsel to probe alleged voter fraud.
She has been pitching the idea, also favored by Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani, for the president to issue an executive order to seize voting machines.
Trump is not likely to be persuaded by Barr’s arguments about Hunter Biden, the son of President-elect Joe Biden.
Trump demanded probes of Hunter throughout the campaign, asked the president of Ukraine to look into him in his infamous July 25, 2019 call, and accepted Barr’s resignation after it was revealed Barr took steps to keep the probe from being made public before the election in keeping with DOJ policy on not interfering in elections.
Hunter Biden revealed he has received a subpoena in a tax investigation, and he has reportedly been under investigation since 2018.
But Barr didn’t get behind a special counsel there either, even amid the potential for conflict under a Biden administration.
‘I have not seen a reason to appoint a special counsel and I have no plan to do so before I leave,’ Barr said.
‘I think to the extent that there’s an investigation I think that it’s being handled responsibly and professionally currently within the department.’
Asked whether he was concerned that the incoming Biden administration would seek to scuttle either a Hunter Biden probe or the ongoing John Durham probe of alleged FBI misconduct, Barr noted that before the election he designated Durham as a special counsel to provide ‘assurance’ he could finish his work.
‘I’m hoping that the next administration handles that matter responsibly,’ Barr said, when asked about the Hunter probe.
Barr also spoke against Powell’s idea of using federal power to seize voting machines.
‘I see no basis now for seizing machines by the federal government – you know wholesale seizure of machines by the federal government,’ Barr said.
Trump has personally tweeted unfounded claims about Dominion voting machines – even as conservative networks have begun airing walk-back statements about Dominion and Smartmatic software amid the potential for lawsuits.
The New York Times reported over the weekend that Trump met with Powell, along with former national security advisor Mike Flynn, who Trump pardoned in November and who has called for martial law where the military would oversee a revote in six states Trump lost.
Barr said there was fraud in most elections but referenced his earlier claim, saying he hasn’t seen ‘systemic or broad-based fraud that would affect the outcome of the election.’
‘I stand by that statement,’ Barr said – contradicting Trump, who claims he won, despite Biden winning the electoral college 306 to 232 and besting Trump by 7 million votes in the popular vote.