Barr authorizes DOJ to probe 'substantial allegations' of voting irregularities despite little evide

[Saboburns]

Link to tweet

?s=20

[soothsayer]

1. Trying to make it look legit

[SheltieLover]

3. Yup

[mr_lebowski]

2. I would imagine that's a fairly standard order ...

And since it's highly unlikely there are 'substantial' allegations, we should be fine.

[soothsayer]

8. It's just like announcing Hillary's emails

Trying to make it look substantive.

They’re one-trick ponies

[Eid Ma Clack Shaw]

11. My bet is that a lot of this stuff is to placate Trump

As awful as Barr may be, his department has carried out other vanity probes at the behest of Adolf Griswold that ended up fizzling out.

These GOOPers are bastards, but their calculation might be that it’s better to be able to say “nothing of much going on here” than having a delusional madman blow up the entire world.

[angrychair]

23. Everyone is calm

and joking. When they don't need evidence or to win, they are just trying to get it before SCOTUS and give them ANY EXCUSE to even temporarily stop vote certification.
It end up in the House and trump stays president.

that isn't the scary part. Its what will happen once the American people realize trump is actively stealing the election. That is what I'm terrified of right now.

[BlueLucy]

4. They're trying for a coup.

This is frightening.

[Progressive Jones]

25. If they're trying for a coup, I hope it kills them. nt

[Dem2]

5. Clown show does clownish things

FFS.

[gratuitous]

6. What else does he have to do?

He's going to be out of a job in 10 weeks, too, and the only stuff for DOJ to work on has to do with Trump administration corruption.

Man, remember how Republicans use to just hate frivolous litigation and waste of government resources?

[Proud Liberal Dem]

33. They haven't hated frivolous litigation and waste of government resources.....

since about 1993, at least when it comes to investigating Democrats

[OAITW r.2.0]

7. He's all in.....

supporting Trump and the Republican Party, using the DOJ, is his last bluff.

[crimycarny]

9. Then every state Trump won needs to be investigated as well

I’m particularly interested in a manual recount of Florida and Ohio. Also, no one else gets seated (House especially) until any “investigations” are finished. Because if you are question ballots you can’t pick and choose which candidate on said ballot is going to be thrown out.

[Progressive Jones]

26. Kentucky. nt

[magicarpet]

10. Roy Cohn speaks from the grave,... projecting his voice through billy dis-barr-ed.

[pamdb]

12. Barrr

What a slimy piece of shit Barr is.

[liberalmuse]

13. He should start with DeJoy's USPS..

But we all know that Republicans will investigate backwards - they decide who committed what crime beforehand, then investigate the shit out of it until they get the result they want, which never happens. I'm starting to think that all these Republicans are scared shitless of Biden.

[mr_lebowski]

20. Could be Biden, but it could also be Kamala

She does have that Prosecutor background ...

[liberalmuse]

27. I should have thought of that.

She won't put up with their crap, either.

[mr_lebowski]

29. That's why we have each other here :) nt

[marmar]

14. There are still lots of professionals at the DOJ who take their job seriously.

Soon the bullfrog clown at the top will be a bad memory.

[TomSlick]

15. My suspicion is that Barr is trying to avoid being fired before January 20.

So long as Barr appears to be loyal to tRump, he will keep his job.

[moonscape]

22. And get a pardon. n/t

[TomSlick]

24. Good point, that.

Political appointees in the tRump administration will fall squarely in two categories. Those fired before January 20 and those pardoned in late hours of January 19.

[Abnredleg]

16. Key word is "substantial"

Excerpt from AP report

"In a memo to U.S. attorneys, obtained by The Associated Press, Barr wrote 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, they can only investigate allegations that will affect 10's of thousands of votes.

I suspect this more of an effort to placate Trump and his base.

[blogslut]

17. So, when they don't find any, he can say he told the look for them, i.e. "substantial allegations"

Is that it?

[central scrutinizer]

18. Didn't Barr meet with McTurtle today?

It’s all about the Georgia runoffs and how best to placate the MAGATs.

[Iliyah]

19. DOJ check out Florida first!

[crimycarny]

28. +1000!

That’s the state that I want to see the most!

[42bambi]

21. Well I guess he won't get fired ... for now anyway.

[LAS14]

30. Maybe I'm just being naive, but what stands out to me is that he doesn't...

... suggest that there ARE "substantial allegation." This could be read as "Don't waste your time on the allegations we've seen so far." Possible?

[ananda]

31. There are no substantial allegations, period.

This just a very scared Trump admin
trying to blow stinky smoke while
blaring an alarm siren hoping it
will mean someting.

You know, sound and fury.. signifying
nothing.

[budkin]

32. Waiting for Trump to tweet that "DOJ is investigating the election"

To make his claims look credible.

[GoCubsGo]

34. What a fucking waste of tax dollars.

Need to send the bill to the RNC.