22 state AGs join Keith Ellison in opposing Barr memo

In a Nov. 13 letter signed by 22 of his peers, Minnesota’s Attorney General Keith Ellison has asked U.S. Attorney General William Barr to rescind his memo authorizing U.S. attorneys to “pursue substantial allegations of voting and vote tabulation irregularities.”

Barr’s Nov. 9 memo, which separately drew a sharp rebuke from career federal prosecutors, has been criticized for thrusting the Department of Justice into presidential politics and giving credence to discredited vote-fraud conspiracy theories.

“Such inquiries may be concluded if there are clear and apparently credible allegations of irregularities that, if true, could potentially impact the outcome of a federal election in an individual state,” Barr’s memo said.

Any such investigations should commence as preliminary inquiries, Barr wrote, “so as to assess whether available evidence warrants further investigative steps.”

The memo was issued two days after most news organizations called the state of Pennsylvania for Democrat Joe Biden, pushing Biden past the 270 vote electoral college threshold needed to win election. But Donald Trump has refused to concede and has instead pursued a haphazard litigation strategy in hopes of eking out a victory.

Ellison’s co-signed letter expresses “deep concern” about the potential impact of the Barr memo.

“Your directive to U.S. attorneys this week threatens to upset that critical balance, with potentially corrosive effects on the electoral processes at the heart of our democracy,” Ellison writes.

Ellison said election-law enforcement is the province of the states and that any fraud, if found, would be prosecuted at the state level. But to date, he added, no plausible allegations have been found of widespread misconduct capable of affecting any state’s election outcome.

The federal government stepping in, Ellison wrote, overturns 40 years of Justice Department policy that recognizes states’ principal responsibility for election oversight.

“We write, therefore, to express our strong objection to your directive that U.S. attorneys may now pursue allegations of voter fraud without adhering to these long-established and important guardrails,” Ellison wrote. “This reversal of departmental policy will erode the public’s confidence in the election.”

John Stiles, Ellison’s deputy chief of staff and communications chief, said Monday that Ellison’s office has not received a reply from the Department of Justice to the letter.

Other attorneys general who signed the letter included Maryland’s Brian Frosh, California’s Xavier Becerra, Colorado’s Phil Weiser, Connecticut’s William Tong, Delaware’s Kathleen Jennings, Hawaii’s Clare E. Connors, Illinois’ Kwame Raoul, Iowa’s Tom Miller and the District of Columbia’s Karl A. Racine.

Also signing were Maine’s Aaron M. Frey, Massachusetts’ Maura Healey, Michigan’s Dana Nessel, Nevada’s Aaron D. Ford, New Jersey’s Gurbir S. Grewal, New Mexico’s Hector Balderas, New York’s Letitia James, Oregon’s Ellen F. Rosenblum, Rhode Island’s Peter F. Neronha and Vermont’s T.J. Donovan.

Rounding out the list were Virginia’s Mark R. Herring, Washington’s Bob Ferguson and Wisconsin’s Joshua L. Kaul.