Barr authorizes probes of vote irregularities, DOJ's top election crimes lawyer quits

US Attorney General William Barr has asked federal prosecutors to look into "substantial" allegations of irregularities in the disputed presidential election held last week, prompting the Department of Justice's top lawyer overseeing voter fraud probes to resign in protest.

On Saturday and four days after the November 3 election, Biden surpassed the threshold of 270 Electoral College votes needed to win the race for the White House. He also received four million more popular votes than Trump’s.

The former vice president declared himself the winner after several news networks called him victorious on Saturday in Pennsylvania and Nevada.

Joe Biden elected 46th president of the United States

Joe Biden becomes the 46th president of the United States after winning the pivotal state of Pennsylvania.

President Donald Trump, however, has not yet conceded defeat and launched an array of lawsuits to press claims of election fraud in swing states without producing evidence. His Republican allies have also rallied around the president over his refusal to concede the election.

On Monday, Barr sent a letter to federal prosecutors telling them that they should examine allegations of voting irregularities before states move to certify results in the weeks to come.

However, he did not provide any indication that the Justice Department had evidence to support Trump's claim of fraud in the election.

In his letter, he noted that while "most allegations of purported election misconduct are of such a scale that they would not impact the outcome of an election and, thus, investigation can appropriately be deferred, that is not always the case."

"Furthermore, any concerns that overt actions taken by the Department could inadvertently impact an election are greatly minimized, if they exist at all, once voting has concluded, even if election certification has not yet been completed." 

Following the letter, Richard Pilger, director of the elections crimes branch in the Justice Department's Public Integrity Section, resigned in protest.

Pilger, in an email, told colleagues the attorney general was issuing "an important new policy abrogating the forty-year-old Non-Interference Policy for ballot fraud investigations in the period prior to elections becoming certified and uncontested."

Meanwhile, Biden's campaign said Barr was fueling Trump's unsubstantiated allegations.

"Those are the very kind of claims that the president and his lawyers are making unsuccessfully every day, as their lawsuits are laughed out of one court after another," said Bob Bauer, a senior adviser to Biden.

Barr’s letter came after earlier on Monday Trump's campaign filed a lawsuit to block Pennsylvania officials from certifying Biden's victory in the battleground state.

The suit alleged the state's mail-in voting system violated the US Constitution through creating "an illegal two-tiered voting system" where voting in person was subject to more oversight than voting by mail.

The lawsuit was lodged against Pennsylvania Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar and the boards of elections in Democratic-leaning counties which include Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.

The president’s campaign has filed several lawsuits ever since Trump claimed the election results were flawed. Judges, however, have tossed out lawsuits in Michigan and Georgia, with experts arguing his legal efforts stand little chance of changing the election result.

Trump refuses to concede as Biden calls for healing in victory speech

US President Donald Trump has refused to concede defeat after his Democrat rival Joe Biden was declared the winner of the highly controversial US election, insisting that he will carry on with his legal challenges as the president-elect called for unity and healing in his victory speech.

Jessica Levinson, a professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, said the latest suit in Pennsylvania was not likely to be successful and "reads like a rehash of many of the arguments the Trump legal team has made in and outside the courtroom."

Trump's re-election team called for patience on Monday to pursue allegations of voter fraud.

"This election is not over, far from it," White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany told reporters at a briefing in what she said was her capacity as a Trump campaign adviser.

Also on Monday, some Republican state legislators in Pennsylvania announced they would "call for a legislative-led audit of the 2020 election and demand election results not be certified, nor electors be seated, until the audit is complete."

Pennsylvania House Speaker Bryan Cutler, a Republican, has said the state’s governor certifies the results and the legislature does not play any formal role.

"The popular vote determines the electors, and it's the governor who certifies the vote, so lawmakers have no role to play," said Jason Gottesman, a spokesman for Cutler.

According to a senior Trump campaign official, however, the campaign has collected "hundreds" of affidavits from Pennsylvania voters which allege election violations. The campaign is, in the meantime, collecting evidence to help make the case that the state’s election was flawed, the official said.

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