Trump loyalist Bill Barr says no evidence found showing voting fraud in US election

Bill Barr is usually a vociferous supporter of the president

Credit: REUTERS/Carlos Barria

The US attorney general on Tuesday said the justice department has not uncovered evidence of widespread voter fraud that would alter the outcome of the presidential election.

Bill Barr, a close ally of Donald Trump, made the comments as the president continued to maintain that the election was "stolen" and refused to concede.

Mr Barr said US attorneys and FBI agents had been following up specific complaints and information they had received.

But he said: "To date, we have not seen fraud on a scale that could have affected a different outcome in the election."

The development came as it was reported Mr Trump and Rudy Giuliani, had discussed a potential pre-emptive pardon for the former New York mayor.

Rudy Giuliani speaking at a news conference in the car park of a landscaping company last month

Credit: BRYAN R. SMITH/AFP via Getty Images

Mr Giuliani, who has not been charged with any crime, vociferously denied the New York Times report.

Before the election, Mr Barr repeatedly raised the idea that postal ballots could be especially vulnerable to fraud during the coronavirus pandemic.

Last month, he issued a directive to justice department lawyers across the country allowing them to pursue any "substantial allegations" of voting irregularities.

In response to that directive the department’s top elections crime official announced he would step aside. On Tuesday Mr Barr said: "Most claims of fraud are very particularised to a particular set of circumstances or actors or conduct. They are not systemic allegations. And those have been run down; they are being run down.

"Some have been broad and potentially cover a few thousand votes. They have been followed up on."

He added: "There’s a growing tendency to use the criminal justice system as sort of a default fix-all, and people don’t like something they want the department of justice to come in and ‘investigate’."

Elie Honig, a former federal prosecutor, said: "This should be a death blow for the conspiracy theories."

Mr Giuliani and Mr Trump pictured here in 2016

Credit: AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File

Following his comments Mr Barr was seen entering the White House to see the president. Mr Trump’s campaign team, led by Mr Giuliani, has been alleging a widespread conspiracy by Democrats to dump millions of illegal votes into the system.

They have filed legal cases in various states, which have been repeatedly dismissed by judges.

Mr Giuliani and Jenna Ellis, a Trump legal advisor, said on Tuesday in a statement: "With the greatest respect to the Attorney General, his opinion appears to be without any knowledge or investigation of the substantial irregularities and evidence of systemic fraud"  

The New York Times reported that Mr Trump and Mr Giuliani discussed the possibility of a pre-emptive pardon last week.

Such a pardon would insulate Mr Giuliani, the president’s personal lawyer, from any potential future legal entanglements.

Mr Giuliani said it was "not true" and "fake news".

He wrote on Twitter: "NYT lies again. Never had the discussion they falsely attribute to an anonymous source. Hard to keep up with all their lies."

Presidential pardons are usually issued to people who have been convicted. Pre-emptive pardons, for people who have yet to be convicted or charged with any crime, are rare but have happened.

In the most famous example President Gerald Ford pardoned Richard Nixon after he resigned following the Watergate scandal. At the time Nixon had not been charged. President Jimmy Carter also issued an unconditional pardon to hundreds of thousands of men who evaded the Vietnam draft.

According to the New York Times it was not clear who raised the pardon issue, and Mr Trump had not indicated what he would actually do.

In response to the suggestion of a pre-emptive pardon Robert Costello, a lawyer for Mr Giuliani, told the New York Times that his client "didn’t do anything wrong". A spokeswoman for Mr Giuliani added: "Mayor Giuliani cannot comment on any discussions that he has with his client [the president]."