Jenna Ellis, a former member of President Trump’s legal team in the wake of the 2020 election, said that Attorney General Bill Barr “sandbagged Trump’s effort to get to the truth” and that he “let the clock run out” on post-election challenges:
Buried deep in the Atlantic piece is this real gem.
To my knowledge, Barr never interviewed one witness or reviewed one affidavit.
He simply formed a conclusion, sandbagged Trump’s effort to get to the truth, and let the clock run out. pic.twitter.com/Xc7uEeM8wB
— Jenna Ellis (@JennaEllisEsq) June 27, 2021
This was in response to an article by ABC News’ Jonathan Karl based on reporting for his new book on the last days of the Trump administration.
"It was all bullshit."
That's what Bill Barr told me he thought of Trump's claims of election in an astonishingly candid interview for my upcoming book on the final days of the Trump Presidency – one of many on-the-record interviews for my book. https://t.co/dumKnmYhSg
— Jonathan Karl (@jonkarl) June 27, 2021
Karl also reported that Mitch McConnel asked Barr to speak out on Trump’s 2020 election fraud claims because he and fellow Republicans “cannot be frontally attacking him right now” with the upcoming Georgia special elections:
Last November, @LeaderMcConnell pleaded with Barr to publicly shoot down Trump's claims of election fraud.
“Look, we need the president in Georgia,” he told Barr, “and so we cannot be frontally attacking him right now…You are really the only one who can do it.”
— Jonathan Karl (@jonkarl) June 27, 2021
Both Barr and McConnell confirmed it:
This account was confirmed to me by both Barr and McConnell.
— Jonathan Karl (@jonkarl) June 27, 2021
This then led to the now-infamous interview Barr gave to the AP where he said, “To date, we have not seen fraud on a scale that could have effected a different outcome in the election”:
Four weeks after last November’s election, Attorney General Barr told an AP reporter that the Trumpists’ claim of a “steal,” as Barr now says to @jonkarl—“was just bullshit. It was all bullshit.” Right afterward, Trump called Barr into the Oval Office. https://t.co/1YTTqMigd9 pic.twitter.com/NiLn3tj5Ta
— Kurt Andersen (@KBAndersen) June 27, 2021
According to Karl, Barr also criticized Trump’s “clown” legal team in a meeting with the president.
“You may be right about that,” Trump reportedly said in response:
"No self-respecting lawyer is going anywhere near it," Barr said to Trump of the effort to overturn the election. "It’s just a joke. That’s why you are where you are.”https://t.co/JhxZRTiXiW pic.twitter.com/u3Fwmaz7Nh
— Jan Wolfe (@JanNWolfe) June 27, 2021
Barr, however, isn’t winning over any critics with this “reputation laundering”:
This is partially reputation laundering by Barr, but it’s good that he’s explicitly undermining the falsehood that the 2020 election was stolen by explicitly calling it bullshit, and also offering further documentation Trump tried to overturn the election https://t.co/JdZtQMhwKE pic.twitter.com/oWawiKMh7Z
— Adam Serwer 🍝 (@AdamSerwer) June 27, 2021
More collusion?
Few thoughts: Barr twice calls Trump’s claims of election fraud “bullish!t.” Barr provides sharply incriminating evidence of Trump’s corrupt intent relevant to the Georgia investigation. Barr colluded w/McConnell for Republican political advantage. #Shame https://t.co/8wHSSglZBM
— Glenn Kirschner (@glennkirschner2) June 27, 2021
Well, at least Russia isn’t involved — yet.
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