Former Department of Justice officials who served under both Democratic and Republican administrations denounced an effort by Attorney General Bill Barr to interfere with the results of the 2020 presidential election.
“The voters decide the winner in an election, not the President, and not the Attorney General.” the former DOJ officials wrote in a statement Tuesday declaring the elections, which took place last week, “fair and secure.”
The statement, by advisory board members of the Voter Protection Program, follows an effort by Barr to sow doubt about the legitimacy of a Democratic win on Monday when he issued a new Trump-friendly memo that allowed investigations into unfounded allegations of mass voter fraud before the election results are certified.
“We have seen absolutely no evidence of anything that should get in the way of certification of the results, which is something the states handle, not the federal government,” the group wrote. “The American people spoke clearly, and now the country needs to move forward toward a peaceful transfer of power.”
The rebuke of Barr’s political efforts to interfere in elections results, comes as President Trump has refused for more than three days to concede to President-elect Joe Biden who was declared the projected winner in the presidential race on Saturday.
The six signatories to the statement includes former deputy attorney general under the Bush administration, Don Ayer, as well as Greg Brower, a former Assistant Director and Deputy General Counsel of the FBI. Brower was also once the U.S. Attorney for the District of Nevada — a state that has been a target of Trump’s battle to subtract ballots that favored President-elect Biden.
The statement by former DOJ officials, some of them serving under GOP administrations, sharply contrasts the complicity and even egging on by Republicans on Capitol Hill who have suggested that Trump is justified in efforts to contest the results of an election that he lost.
