It has officially been four weeks since Election Day. Four weeks without the Attorney General of the United States saying one word for or against Donald Trump as Trump attempted to massively ratf–k his way into stealing the election. Four weeks where William Barr was silent as the grave as Trump peddled lie after lie, unhinged lawsuit after unhinged lawsuit, a barrage of conspiracies designed to delegitimize Joe Biden’s presidency, and delegitimize the republic itself. Well, on the eve of the four-week anniversary of Election Day, Bill Barr said words:

Attorney General William P. Barr told the Associated Press on Tuesday that he has “not seen fraud on a scale that could have effected a different outcome in the election,” undercutting claims that President Trump and his allies have made — without evidence — of widespread and significant voting irregularities.

In an interview, Barr suggested the FBI and Justice Department have looked into some fraud claims, and seemed to take particular aim at one, by attorney Sidney Powell, who alleged a grand conspiracy involving election software changing voting tallies.

“There’s been one assertion that would be systemic fraud and that would be the claim that machines were programmed essentially to skew the election results. And the DHS and DOJ have looked into that, and so far, we haven’t seen anything to substantiate that,” Barr told the Associated Press, referring to the departments of Homeland Security and Justice.

Though, privately, Justice Department officials have for weeks said that there was not evidence to substantiate the claims of Trump and his allies, Barr’s publicly breaking with the president is particularly significant.

Before the election, Barr had warned repeatedly and forcefully about possible fraud that might come with mass mail-in voting, echoing the president’s attacks on the practice. Afterward, he reversed long-standing Justice Department policy and authorized prosecutors to take overt steps to pursue allegations of “vote tabulation irregularities” in certain cases before results are certified — drawing criticism that he was trying to magnify Trump’s claims of widespread voter fraud.

[From WaPo]

In retrospect, Barr’s lack of public statements and total inaction seems… suspicious (so sus). But it’s one of those situations where it could have been A LOT worse from the AG, and the fact that he’s saying this now, four weeks post-election, is basically like a last-ditch effort to save his reputation. He’d been acting as Trump’s personal mob lawyer for so long, the fact that he didn’t DO anything to ratf–k the vote is an interesting turn of events. In any case, Trump and his merry band of lunatics are BIGLY MAD at Barr.

Trump campaign now going after AG Barr.

Rudy Giuliani and Jenna Ellis say this: "With all due respect to the Attorney General, there hasn’t been any semblance of a Department of Justice investigation." pic.twitter.com/XVK6WImdvX

— Yamiche Alcindor (@Yamiche) December 1, 2020

“We have gathered ample evidence of illegal voting in at least six states…” then why have Giuliani and Ellis not presented this “ample evidence” in court? In fact, whenever the Trump legal team arrives in their clown car to court and a judge asks them to produce evidence of their outlandish claims, they only have supposition and hearsay. Or they say “well, isn’t it suspicious that all of these votes in Democratic strongholds went to Biden??” Or: “isn’t it weird that so many absentee ballots went for Biden, especially considering that Trump brainwashed his supporters into thinking that absentee ballots were ‘illegal’?” And that’s what they call evidence.

Meanwhile, Barr also gave extra protection/legal insulation to John Durham, the special counsel he appointed to look into the “origins of the Trump-Russia probe.” Basically, Barr is trying to make it harder for President Biden to shut down Durham and his investigation next year. Which… Jesus, these people really live in their own little conspiracy bubbles, right?

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid.