■ The AG said he sees no reason to name a special counsel to investigate Hunter Biden and the election.
Trump pushed for probe into Biden son, claims of vote fraud
WASHINGTON — Attorney General William Barr said Monday that he sees no reason to appoint a special counsel to look into President Donald Trump’s claims of election fraud or the tax investigation of President-elect Joe Biden’s son.
In his final public appearance as a member of Trump’s Cabinet, Barr also reinforced the belief of federal officials that Russia, not China, was behind a massive hack of U.S. government agencies. The president has suggested it was China.
Barr said that a two-year-old investigation of Hunter Biden was “being handled responsibly and professionally.”
“I have not seen a reason to appoint a special counsel, and I have no plan to do so before I leave,” he said, adding that there is also no need for a special counsel to investigate the election.
A special counsel would make it more difficult for Biden and his yet-to-be-named attorney general to close investigations begun under Trump.
Barr’s comments came at a news conference to announce additional criminal charges in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, an issue he had worked on in his previous stint as attorney general in the early 1990s. The 1988 bombing killed 190 Americans.
He’ll step down Wednesday and be replaced by acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen.
Trump has consulted on special counsels with White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, White House counsel Pat Cipollone and outside allies, according to several Trump administration officials and Republicans close to the White House who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized discuss the matter publicly.
Trump was interested in both a counsel to investigate the younger Biden’s tax dealings and a second to look into purported election fraud. He even floated the idea of naming attorney Sidney Powell as the counsel. Powell was booted from Trump’s legal team after she made a series of increasingly conspiratorial claims about the election.
Federal law requires that an attorney general appoint any special counsels.