The US Attorney General William Barr has authorized federal prosecutors across the US to pursue "substantial allegations" of voting irregularities, if they exist, before the 2020 presidential election is certified, despite little evidence of fraud.
Barr’s action comes days after Democrat Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump and raises the prospect that Trump will use the Justice Department to try to challenge the outcome. It gives prosecutors the ability to go around longstanding Justice Department policy that normally would prohibit such overt actions before the election is formally certified.
Citing no credible evidence of voter fraud, Trump and his team have refused to concede the election as his campaign threatened to file lawsuits in Arizona, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Georgia to contest the results, claiming in legal challenges that Republican observers weren't allowed adequate access or that mail-in ballot rules were applied unfairly.
