House Republicans and members of the Freedom Caucus are calling on Attorney General William Barr to release his department’s findings from its investigations into allegations of fraud in the 2020 election.

What You Need To Know

  • Members of the House Freedom Caucus called on the attorney general to release the DOJ findings from its investigation into election fraud
  • On Tuesday, AG Barr said there is no evidence of widespread voter fraud

  • House Republicans called for transparency from DOJ, including any findings on even small instances of fraud

  • Many claims of fraud have been debunked, and judges have rejected the Trump campaign's legal challenges to the election results

President Trump has continued to claim evidence of blatant attempts to sway the election results in favor of Joe Biden, though nearly all of those claims have been debunked and his campaign’s legal challenges in various states have petered out.

 

On Thursday, members of the Freedom Caucus called for the Department of Justice to allow an “open, transparent” review of all records related to election fraud.

“Where there’s smoke, there’s fire,” said Republican Representative Ralph Norman of South Carolina.

For his part, Barr disputed the president’s claims on Tuesday, saying there is no evidence of widespread election fraud in an interview with the Associated Press.

Barr told the AP that U.S. attorneys and FBI agents have been working to follow up specific complaints and information they’ve received, but “to date, we have not seen fraud on a scale that could have effected a different outcome in the election.”

On Thursday, President Trump wouldn’t say whether he still had confidence in the attorney general when asked, pausing for several seconds before saying: "Ask me that in a number of weeks from now. They should be looking at all of this fraud.”

In front of the Capitol, House Republicans pointed to allegations made in sworn affidavits from election observers and called on the DOJ to produce any evidence of fraud, no matter how small.

“If somebody attempts murder, we don’t say ‘Oh, you got away with it, so it’s all good,’” said Rep. Randy Weber (R-TX). “There’s credible evidence, there’s credible testimony that there are problems here. This is about the free and fair election in the United States of America.”

Attorney General Barr told the Associated Press any issues would not be enough to sway the results in a significant way.

“Most claims of fraud are very particularized to a particular set of circumstances or actors or conduct. ... And those have been run down; they are being run down,” Barr said. “Some have been broad and potentially cover a few thousand votes. They have been followed up on.”

Many complaints filed by election observers were not evidence of fraud but misunderstandings of the vote counting process in that state. And the swath of judges charged with ruling in the Trump campaign’s lawsuits have also overwhelmingly rejected those challenges.

On Thursday, members of the Freedom Caucus called the release of the DOJ’s findings “urgent,” pointing to the upcoming runoff elections for Georgia’s senate seats in early January.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.