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A Justice Department watchdog has found that former Attorney General Bill Barr was personally involved in the decision to publicize an incident from the 2020 election – nine mail-in ballots for Donald Trump being discarded in a dumpster in Pennsylvania – that flamed the false narrative of widespread voter fraud.
But the department’s inspector general stopped short of finding that Barr violated any internal policies, concluding that he had wide discretion as attorney general to disclose details from criminal investigations. Investigators ultimately determined that the ballots were discarded in error by a contractor, and no charges were brought.
The inspector general looked at the decision to put out a press release about the incident from Justice Department prosecutors in the Middle District of Pennsylvania in September 2020. The release said investigators were looking into “potential issues with mail in ballots.”
Barr “encouraged and authorized” US Attorney David Freed to issue the statement – a move several DOJ attorneys called “unusual” – and he “specifically approved inclusion of the details about the discarded ballots, including that all the recovered ballots had been cast for President Trump,” according to the inspector general’s report released Thursday.
The inspector general found that Barr and Freed’s decision to issue the press release was contrary to DOJ rules, which limit public disclosure of ongoing criminal investigations and also discourage the department from taking public actions that can affect elections.
However, the report concluded, neither man committed any punishable misconduct because of ambiguity within those rules that allows an attorney general to publicly disclose information about an ongoing criminal investigation if he or she believes it is in the interest of justice.
Barr did not immediately respond to a CNN request for comment.
“I handled this investigation properly from start to finish and my public statements were explicitly approved by the AG or his senior staff,” Freed said in a statement to CNN. “I am very grateful for the opportunity I had to serve the public as U.S. Attorney.”
The press release on the Pennsylvania incident raised suspicions from critics at the time – particularly for its inclusion of details about whom the ballots were cast for – that the department was trying to boost the sensational claims of mass voter fraud being pushed by Trump.
Freed’s initial statement about the ballot probe suggested that people involved in the ballot disposal incident had likely committed criminally chargeable acts. But at the time, the inspector general wrote, “Department leadership was aware of information that substantially undercut this narrative.”
The watchdog also questioned Barr privately telling Trump details about the investigation – specifically whom the ballots were cast for – days before the press release. Trump revealed those details on a national radio show the next morning.
Still, the inspector general said that Justice Department policy also gives the attorney general wide discretion to tell the president about a criminal investigation.
The inspector general said that for its investigation, Barr submitted a three-page letter laying out his side of the story, but that it “did not address certain issues” that came up during the review. Both Barr and his chief of staff while he was attorney general declined the inspector general’s request for an interview in the probe.
The new report comes on the heels of a report released Wednesday examining another “highly unusual” episode at the Justice Department under Barr. That report looked at the extraordinary move by the DOJ to submit a second sentencing memo in the Roger Stone congressional obstruction case that watered down the department’s initial sentencing recommendation. The report found that Barr was deeply involved in that reversal, though the inspector general did not find evidence of political meddling. Barr also declined to be interviewed for that investigation.
As part of its review of the Pennsylvania ballot press release, the inspector general is recommending that the department make several clarifications about the internal policies implicated in the episode, calling for more clarity about what investigative details can be disclosed to the White House and whether DOJ protocols about public disclosures apply to the attorney general.
