I have thought about this subject for 36 hours, and done just a little bit of research.
This isn’t a “deep dive” into the law on this topic, but the issue needs to be raised and addressed before the window of opportunity begins to close.
Title 18, United States Code, Section 595 states:
Whoever, being a person employed in any administrative position by the United States, or by any department or agency thereof, or by the District of Columbia or any agency or instrumentality thereof, or by any State, Territory, or Possession of the United States, or any political subdivision, municipality, or agency thereof, or agency of such political subdivision or municipality (including any corporation owned or controlled by any State, Territory, or Possession of the United States or by any such political subdivision, municipality, or agency), in connection with any activity which is financed in whole or in part by loans or grants made by the United States, or any department or agency thereof, uses his official authority for the purpose of interfering with, or affecting, the nomination or the election of any candidate for the office of President, Vice President, Presidential elector, Member of the Senate, Member of the House of Representatives, Delegate from the District of Columbia, or Resident Commissioner, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than one year, or both.
Title 52, United States Code, Section 20511 states:
§ 20511. Criminal penalties: A person, including an election official, who in any election for Federal office—
….
(2) knowingly and willfully deprives, defrauds, or attempts to deprive or defraud the residents of a State of a fair and impartially conducted election process, by—
(A) the procurement or submission of voter registration applications that are known by the person to be materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent under the laws of the State in which the election is held; or
(B) the procurement, casting, or tabulation of ballots that are known by the person to be materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent under the laws of the State in which the election is held,
shall be fined in accordance with title 18 (which fines shall be paid into the general fund of the Treasury, miscellaneous receipts (pursuant to section 3302 of title 31), notwithstanding any other law), or imprisoned not more than 5 years, or both.Big city Democrat machine politicians and operatives will continue to fraudulently influence the outcome of elections if there is no price to pay for doing so.
The reality of the situation is that these remedies do not alter the outcome of elections as state government officials ultimately determine them to be. There is no mechanism that I am aware of that would allow some federal agency of department to direct a state officer such as the Secretary of State to certify the outcome of an election not in accord with that state officer’s independent decision on the question.
This is why beginning back in 2006 George Soros funded the Secretary of State Project, the goal of which was to elect progressive candidates to the positions of Secretary of State in battleground states. That puts the mechanism of the states’ election processes in the hands of liberal democrats marching together in lockstep to generate every possible vote for Democrat politicians no matter how dubious. The Secretary of State gives cover to the municipal officials by “certifying” the outcome of elections that are stolen at the municipal level because it means political power and patronage. But that is a different story.
The two federal statutes cited above both define criminal activity, and criminal activity provides access to the grand jury process. Attorney General Barr needs to step forward and appoint a Special Counsel to begin an inquiry into the cities where there is anecdotal evidence of ballot tabulation irregularities that shifted the outcome of the election in those states.
I believe there is good reason to suspect such scrutiny is coming. I think the first steps are probably awaiting the end of the first count in some of these contested jurisdictions. Once that is complete, and the Trump campaign seeks to have recounts conducted, it is likely we will see DOJ activity at that point.
In the early morning hours on Wednesday as big cities in battleground states were holding back their vote tabulations, an email went out to US Attorney’s Offices around the country from the office of Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen confirming that the statute which precludes armed federal officers from being at polling stations while voting is taking place does not apply to locations where votes are being canvassed and tabulated. The statute “does not prevent armed federal law enforcement persons from responding to, investigate, or prevent federal crimes at closed polling places or at other locations where votes are being counted,” said Richard P. Donoghue, the Principal Assistant Deputy Attorney General, told the U.S Attorneys in an email sent at 1:30 a.m. on Wednesday.
This issue would have only be answered in that fashion and at that time of the morning in response to one or more inquiries from U.S. Attorneys watching events unfold. The significance is that the US Attorneys Offices may take steps to seek to have prosecutors and FBI Agents present to observe the recounts as they take place, and to take note of any ballot irregularities that are uncovered. There have been reports from some jurisdictions that GOP election observers were made to leave election offices in some jurisdictions late on Tuesday evening, being told that the counting process was being halted for the night, only to have counting of ballots continue once they left.
Obviously, if Biden is ultimately declared the winner of the election, all the US Attorneys now in office will be removed and replaced with Democrat appointees — maybe. But in the 10 weeks that will pass between now and that time, the process of starting this investigation should begin with grand jury subpoenas for documents and testimony. It needs to be robust enough that when Attorney General Barr hands it off to a Special Counsel, there would be an enormous political price for the Biden Administration if they sought to stop the investigation.
The US Attorney in Philadephia is William McSwain, a highly capable and effective prosecutor with a background in white-collar crime. McSwain has been in a running years-long battle with the George Soros-funded new Philadephia District Attorney who has championed no cash bail, not drug crime prosecutions, and a variety of other ultra-left wing approaches to criminal justice.
The US Attorney in Detroit is Matthew Schneider, a very experienced guy who has been a senior official in the Michigan Attorney General’s Office before being named US Attorney. He’s also someone trusted by AG Barr. He might end up playing a leading role in any coordinated investigation among the offices involved.
The US Attorney in Milwaukee is Matthew Krueger, another former Assistant US Attorney in the same office. He’s a bit on the younger side and has only been in place for less than three years, having been confirmed in February 2018.
The big conflict of interest here is that the DOJ isn’t meant to be the president’s personal legal team, which it inarguably is.
Also, there needs to be some sort of indication of a crime, which it clearly isn’t.
@Ronald J. Ward: Project Veritas has uncovered a crime voter fraud, hand stamping votes to back date so the votes could be counted.
@Ronald J. Ward:
What if the President’s interests are the exact same as the nation’s interests? Barr isn’t acting as Trump’s “wing man”, as Holder did for Obama, running guns to Mexican cartels and ending prosecutions on New Black Panthers already convicted of voter intimidation. Trump wants Barr to enforce the law, not promote the left wing agenda. But, I understand how that concept is foreign to liberals.
@kitt: Impossible because, as we are told, voter fraud NEVER happens. As AJ points out, enforcing the law is a Republican conspiracy when Democrats are trying to usurp power.