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US Attorney General Barr says sees no sign of major vote fraud

WION Web Team
Washington, DC, United States of AmericaUpdated: Dec 02, 2020, 07:51 AM IST
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(File Photo) A person holds an "I voted" sticker as people vote in the U.S. presidential election on the first day of expanded California in-person voting, amid the global outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), at Dodger Stadium sports venue in Los Angeles, California, U.S., October 30, 2020 Photograph:(Reuters)

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The statement comes as President Donald Trump keeps up his flailing legal efforts to reverse his defeat.

US Attorney General William Barr said on Tuesday the Justice Department had found no evidence of widespread voter fraud in last month's election.

The statement comes as President Donald Trump keeps up his flailing legal efforts to reverse his defeat.

Democrat Joe Biden defeated Trump in the November 3 election by 306 to 232 in the state-by-state Electoral College that chooses the president - the same margin that Trump declared a "landslide" when he won four years ago - as well as by more than 6.2 million ballots in the popular vote.

"To date, we have not seen fraud on a scale that could have affected a different outcome in the election," Barr, a Trump appointee widely seen as loyal to the Republican president, told the Associated Press.

The Trump campaign's legal team responded to Barr's comments by saying the Justice Department did not do enough to investigate allegations of voter fraud.

Barr told federal prosecutors last month to pursue investigations into credible allegations of election fraud, but warned them to avoid probes into "fanciful or far-fetched claims."

Trump has, however, continued to claim loudly and largely without evidence that the election was marred by widespread fraud. Those claims that have been repeatedly rejected by state and federal officials.

Trump's campaign has had no success advancing election-fraud claims in court, but his continued complaints appear to have yielded political benefit as polls show a large percentage of Republicans now believe the election was not conducted fairly.

In Wisconsin, Trump's campaign asked the state's top court to consider throwing out 221,000 absentee ballots that allegedly lacked information. Biden won that battleground state by about 20,000 votes.

Biden, for his part, has focussed on setting up his administration before he takes office on January 20.

On Tuesday, he urged Congress to pass a coronavirus aid package that has been stalled for months, and promised more action to help the economy after he becomes president.

The United States is in the grip of a fresh wave of COVID-19 infections, with more than 4 million new cases and over 35,000 coronavirus-related deaths reported in November, according to a Reuters tally of official data.