Daily US Times: Democrats on the House oversight committee said that Richard Hopkins – the US postal service worker who claimed in a signed affidavit that a supervisor at the USPS in Erie, Pennsylvania, instructed staff to tamper with mail-in ballots by backdating ones that arrived late – had recanted the allegations in an interview with investigators for the USPS Inspector General.
The committee wrote in a statement that investigators told the committee that Hopkins “did not explain why he signed a false affidavit”.
Citing three officials, the Washington Post reported on Tuesday that Hopkins admitted to fabricating his claims. The South Carolina Republican Senator Lindsay Graham called for a federal investigation after Hopkins submitted the affidavit.
The US attorney general William Barr yesterday sent a memo to prosecutors approving federal investigations into voter fraud, despite a lack of evidence that such fraud was taking place.
In response, the top justice department lawyer Richard Pilger, who was in charge of voter fraud investigations, resigned, pointing to a 40-year department policy to refrain from intervening in elections and carry out investigations only after elections are certified.
News that the US postal worker had fabricated his claims came as the Trump campaign continued to pursue longshot lawsuits in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Nevada and Arizona that are not backed by credible evidence.
Among these lawsuits is an effort in Pennsylvania to push the United States supreme court to reject mail-in ballots that are postmarked by election day and arrived at election offices up to three days later.
You may read: Barr tells prosecutors to probe allegations of election irregularities
