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Selasa, 01 Desember 2020

US attorney general finds 'no voter fraud that could overturn election' - BBC News

US Attorney General William Barr says his justice department has found no proof to back President Donald Trump's claims of fraud in the 2020 election.

"To date, we have not seen fraud on a scale that could have effected a different outcome in the election," said the top US law enforcement agent.

His comments are seen as a big blow to Mr Trump, who has not accepted defeat.

He and his campaign have filed lawsuits in states that he lost, as they begin certifying Joe Biden as the winner.

President-elect Biden defeated the incumbent Mr Trump by a margin of 306 to 232 votes in the US electoral college, which chooses the US president. And in the popular vote, Mr Biden won at least 6.2 million more votes than Mr Trump.

Since 3 November's election, Mr Trump has repeatedly made unsubstantiated claims of widespread voter fraud, and members of his legal defence team have spoken of an alleged international plot to hand Mr Biden the win. On Tuesday, after Mr Barr's statements were released, the president tweeted several times alluding to voter fraud, again without proof.

"There's been one assertion that would be systemic fraud and that would be the claim that machines were programmed essentially to skew the election results," Mr Barr, who is seen as a top Trump ally, told AP News on Tuesday, referring to the assertion that ballot machines were hacked to give more votes to Mr Biden.

Mr Barr said that the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Department of Homeland Security have investigated that claim, "and so far, we haven't seen anything to substantiate that".

Last month, the top lawyer issued an order to US attorneys, allowing them to pursue any "substantial allegations" of voting irregularities, before the 2020 presidential election was certified.

"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,'" he added. He also told the AP that he had appointed a veteran prosecutor to continue investigating the origins of special counsel Robert Mueller's probe into alleged election meddling.

Reacting to his comments, Trump campaign lawyers Rudy Giuliani and Jenna Ellis said in a joint 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."

Meanwhile, Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said of Mr Barr's statement: "I guess he's the next one to be fired."

Analysis box by Anthony Zurcher, North America reporter

It was getting late in the day for the US Justice Department to take action that would give life to Donald Trump's efforts to reverse the results of the 2020 presidential election. On Tuesday, however, Attorney General Bill Barr effectively ended even the slightest hope that federal investigators would provide the president with a political lifeline.

That the justice department did not find "fraud on a scale that could have affected a different outcome in the election" shouldn't come as a surprise. The president's own lawyers have yet to present any such evidence in their lawsuits challenging the voting results. What is noteworthy, however, is that Barr chose to comment publicly rather than stay silent and let the lack of any announced findings or charges speak for itself.

According to news reports, Trump has been complaining privately about the lack of support he's received from Barr and the FBI in his attempts to attribute his defeat to fraud. He is already feuding with Republican governors in Arizona and Georgia - two traditionally conservative states he lost to Joe Biden - for failing to echo his concerns.

Barr may be just the latest target of the president's anger.

In Mr Trump's first post-election TV interview on Sunday, he told Fox News that he would continue to pursue every legal challenge available.

"My mind will not change in six months," he said by phone, adding: "There was tremendous cheating here."

He also floated the idea of having a special counsel appointed to investigate the election. Any such special counsel would have to be approved by Mr Barr.

Mr Barr is not the first senior US official to declare the election free from tampering.

Chris Krebs, who headed the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, was fired last month after he disputed Mr Trump's fraud claims. The 2020 election "was the most secure in American history," he had said.

On Monday, Trump lawyer Joe DiGenova drew swift condemnation after he called for violence against Mr Krebs.

"Anybody who thinks the election went well," he told The Howie Carr Show podcast, "like that idiot Krebs who used to be the head of cybersecurity, that guy is a class A moron.

Georgia official: Trump inciting election violence

"He should be drawn and quartered. Taken out at dawn and shot."

That threat was condemned on Tuesday in a blistering tirade from Georgia's voting systems manager.

Gabriel Sterling, a Republican, said Mr Trump would bear ultimate responsibility for any violence that results from the election fraud claims the president has stoked.

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2020-12-01 23:43:00Z
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Janet Yellen calls for action to prevent US economic ‘devastation’ - Financial Times

Janet Yellen warned of “more devastation” in the economy if the US failed to address the fallout from the pandemic and its disproportionate toll on low-income families, after she was introduced by Joe Biden as America’s next Treasury secretary.

The former Fed chair, who was chosen by the US president-elect on Monday to take the top cabinet position on the economy, said the combination of lost lives, lost jobs and shuttered small businesses amounted to an “American tragedy” that needed to be quickly tackled.

Her comments were delivered amid doubts that Mr Biden will be able to implement his sweeping economic agenda, which calls for a big boost to government spending next year, partially funded by higher taxes on businesses and wealthy households.

Republicans are likely to retain control of the US Senate and many have signalled their opposition to Mr Biden’s plan, which risks curtailing the incoming Democratic president’s ambitions from the start. But Ms Yellen appealed for a “collective purpose” to relieve the “collective pain” experienced by the country.

“It’s essential that we move with urgency. Inaction will produce a self-reinforcing downturn causing yet more devastation,” she said. “We risk missing the obligation to redress deeper structural problems.”

One big economic question looming over the transition is whether Congress and outgoing president Donald Trump will agree on a narrow package, worth between $500bn and $1tn, as interim support for the economy while Mr Biden prepares to enter the White House on January 20.

If no deal is reached, Mr Biden has flagged his intention to press rapidly for additional spending on unemployment benefits and aid to businesses and state and local governments.

But Mr Biden’s economic agenda is more expansive than that, reflecting a leftward shift in the Democratic party that followed the financial crisis and has been reinforced by the pandemic.

Mr Biden is pushing for more government spending to tackle racial and income inequalities, and reverse under-investment in public goods, such as green energy. He is also seeking an increase in the federal minimum wage and action to forgive some student loans — two longstanding progressive policy wishes.

While implementing many of these policies could be tough in a divided Congress, Mr Biden’s economic team is expected to look more closely at what they can do by executive order rather than legislatively in the early stages of his presidency.

In her comments, Ms Yellen, 74, harked back to her childhood in working-class Brooklyn, New York, as her economic inspiration and said Mr Biden’s “team will never give up” on the “commitment” to give Americans an “equal chance to get ahead”.

She also nodded to a new approach on the international economic stage, saying she would work with Mr Biden’s national security and foreign policy team to “help restore America’s global leadership” — a contrast with the trade wars and “America First” rhetoric of Donald Trump.

But Wally Adeyemo, Mr Biden’s pick for deputy Treasury secretary, signalled continuity with the Trump administration’s hardline approach to economic sanctions and foreign investment rules.

“We must also remain laser focus on the Treasury department’s critical role in protecting our national security,” he said. “This includes using our sanctions regime to hold bad actors accountable, dismantling the financial networks of terrorist organisations and others who seek to do us harm and ensuring our foreign investment policy protects America’s national security interest.”

Ms Yellen is not expected to face trouble clearing Senate confirmation for the Treasury job, but Neera Tanden, Mr Biden’s selection to be budget director, has already faced a backlash from Republican senators and some activists on the left of the Democratic party.

Mr Biden on Tuesday described Ms Tanden as a “brilliant policy mind” who understood the “struggle that millions of Americans are facing”, given her experiences as the child of a single mother and immigrant from India who relied for a time on government assistance.

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2020-12-01 21:41:00Z
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US attorney general finds 'no voter fraud that could overturn election' - BBC News

US Attorney General William Barr says his justice department has found no proof to back President Donald Trump's claims of fraud in the 2020 election.

"To date, we have not seen fraud on a scale that could have affected a different outcome in the election," said the top US law enforcement agent.

His comments are seen as a big blow to Mr Trump, who has not accepted defeat.

He and his campaign have filed lawsuits in states that he lost, as they begin certifying Joe Biden as the winner.

Since 3 November's vote, Mr Trump has repeatedly made unsubstantiated claims of widespread voter fraud, and members of his legal defence team have spoken of an alleged international plot to hand Mr Biden the win.

"There's been one assertion that would be systemic fraud and that would be the claim that machines were programmed essentially to skew the election results," Mr Barr told AP News on Tuesday, referring to the assertion that ballot machines were hacked to give more votes to Mr Biden.