Barr Shoots Down Proposal for Trump to Seize Voting Machines, Refuses to Appoint Special Counsel to Investigate Election Fraud

Attorney General William Barr said he sees no basis to seize and examine the voting machines used in the 2020 presidential election in a press conference Monday. He added that he would not be appointing a special counsel to investigate that election, in which Joe Biden defeated President Donald Trump.

“Does the president have the authority to order the seizure of voting machines around the country?” a reporter asked Barr.

“I see no basis now for seizing machines by the federal government. You know, wholesale seizure of machines by the federal government,” Barr said.

That question is based on a stunning New York Times report out Saturday that revealed an Oval Office meeting between Trump, his lawyer Rudy Giuliani, and the lawyer Sidney Powell, who was booted from Trump’s legal team last month after spreading conspiracy theories about American voting machines being manipulated by foreign powers.

Per the Times:

Part of the White House meeting on Friday night was a discussion about an executive order to take control of voting machines to examine them, according to one of the people briefed on the discussion.

Mr. Giuliani has separately pressed the Department of Homeland Security to seize possession of voting machines as part of a push to overturn the results of the election, three people familiar with the discussion said. Mr. Giuliani was told the department does not have the authority to do such a thing.

Also discussed, according to the Times, was the possibility of Trump appointing Powell to serve as a special counsel investigating voter fraud.

At his press conference, Barr was asked about the prospect of Trump appointing a special counsel — perhaps Powell — and shot down the idea.

“If I thought a special counsel, at this stage, was the right tool and was appropriate, I would name one,” he said. “But I haven’t and I am not going to.”

Watch above, via CNN.