Group of House Republicans calls on AG Barr to investigate election fraud in Georgia

A group of House Republicans is calling on Attorney General William Barr to open an investigation into the Nov. 3 election in Georgia, following a pair of hearings before the state Senate on Thursday.  

The House Republicans, including 21 current members and four members-elect, signed a letter to Barr, who appears to have lost the support and confidence of President Trump and many Republicans in Congress. They say that he has been too slow and too lax in investigating voter fraud and corruption in the recent election.  

Earlier in the week Barr issued a statement saying that the Justice Department hasn’t seen enough evidence of fraud to change the results of the election. He told the Associated Press that the FBI and U.S. attorneys have been following up on complaints they had received, but, he said, “to date, we have not seen fraud on a scale that could have effected a different outcome in the election.”

President Trump expressed diminished confidence in Barr on Thursday. He was asked if he still has confidence in Barr after his statement about not having seen widespread fraud, and Trump replied, “Ask me that in a number of weeks from now. They should be looking at all of this fraud.” 

In the letter from House Republicans, they urged Barr to take steps to prevent fraud during the two Senate runoff races in Georgia scheduled for Jan. 5. 

“We strongly urge you to use your authority as Attorney General to issue a restraining order or temporary injunction preventing organizations from registering illegal and invalid voters in the upcoming election," they wrote. "Swift action is needed to ensure that illegal votes do not dilute the rights of legal voters.”

The driving force behind the effort is Alabama GOP Rep. Mo Brooks who has stated his plans to challenge state Electoral College votes in the House.

In a statement that he provided to the Washington Examiner, Brooks wrote, “No one should ever be allowed to bring an estimated 15,000 to 18,000 ballots to a vote-counting facility in suitcases; hide those suitcases under a table before the vote-counting facility opens; at roughly 10:30 PM at night, declare that vote tabulation is finished for the night and will resume at 8:30 AM the next day; order all poll watchers and media to leave the facility; and then, once the facility is reduced to a bare minimum of five co-workers (and possibly criminal co-conspirators), with no poll watchers present; roll out the suitcases from their hiding place, withdraw thousands of ballots, and stuff the vote-counting machines with what appears to be, by the conduct observed, illegal and fraudulent ballots. Yet that is exactly what a newly released video of a polling location reveals.” 

Here is the full letter from the House Republicans, including the names of the signatories: 

December 4, 2020

Dear Attorney General Barr,

Two pillars of a successful republic are election integrity and confidence in our democratic processes. As Georgia’s Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger revealed Monday, his office is investigating multiple organizations attempting to register illegal and invalid voters in Georgia. [1] As the Georgia Secretary of State’s office lacks prosecutorial power, we ask that the Department of Justice simultaneously investigate and prosecute this illegal behavior under federal law. Additionally, we ask that you use your authority as Attorney General to issue a preliminary order preventing any organization from registering illegal and invalid voters in the upcoming January 5th Georgia U.S. Senate Runoff Elections.

By way of background, these organizations stand accused of registering a deceased Alabama voter, encouraging illegal voting by out of state residents, as well as knowingly sending Georgia voter registration applications out of state - as far as New York.[2] Allegedly, Operation New Voter Registration Georgia encouraged college students to temporarily change their residency so that they could vote in the runoff election,[3] which is illegal under multiple federal statutes. See 252 U.S.C. § 10307(c) & 18 U.S.C. § 371. Reportedly, Vote Forward attempted to register a dead voter,[4] which is also illegal under federal statute. See 52 U.S.C. §§ 10307(c), 10307(e), 20511(2). America Votes and the New Georgia Project, founded by Stacey Abrams, both are accused of sending voter registration application to invalid addresses.[5]

Federal law gives the Attorney General the authority to issue preliminary relief when there are reasonable grounds to believe that any person is about to engage in any election offense. See 52 USC § 10308(d). [6] We strongly urge you to use your authority as Attorney General to issue a restraining order or temporary injunction preventing organizations from registering illegal and invalid voters in the upcoming election. Swift action is needed to ensure that illegal votes do not dilute the rights of legal voters.

Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter.

Sincerely,

Mo Brooks (AL-05), Jody Hice (GA-10), Randy Weber (TX-14), Ted Yoho (FL-03), Michael Cloud (TX-27), Paul A. Gosar, D.D.S. (AZ-04), Andy Harris (MD-01), Andy Biggs (AZ-05), Scott Perry (PA-10), Alex Mooney (WV-02), Tedd Budd (NC-13), Benjamin Cline (VA-06), Louie Gohmert (TX-01), Jason Smith (MO-08), Ralph Norman (SC-05), Tom McClintock (CA-04), Barry Loudermilk (GA-11), David Rouzer (NC-07), Russ Fulcher (ID-03), Fred Keller (PA-12), Bob Gibbs (OH-07), Majorie Taylor Greene (member-elect, GA-14), Lauren Boebert (member-elect, CO-03), Barry Moore (member-elect, AL-02), Andrew Clyde (member-elect, GA-09).