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With less than 30 days left of his presidency, many are speculating what Donald Trump may do next especially as he refuses to accept the election results. With his continued claims of election fraud and pinning the blame elsewhere on the cyberattack, outgoing DOJ Attorney General William Barr continued to break with Trump.
In a news conference Monday, Barr echoed the comments made by outgoing Secretary of State Mike Pompeo regarding who may be responsible for the cyberattack on the government. Barr said that Russia is the likely culprit behind the cyberattacks that the government is facing. This is in contrast to Trump, who has avoided pointing fingers at Russia for the incident.
“I agree with Secretary Pompeo’s assessment,” said Barr during the conference. “It certainly appears to be the Russians, but I’m not going to discuss it beyond that.” Pompeo made the comments last week.
Barr was also pressed about Trump being keen to have a special counsel take over the investigations surrounding the financial dealings and taxes of Hunter Biden. Barr has also refuted Trump’s claims of election fraud in saying that there is no evidence of election misconduct during the elections. The outgoing attorney general said that he does not see a need to appoint a special counsel to look into president-elect Joe Biden’s son and he will not do so even as he steps down from his post as Attorney General in the Justice Department on December 23.
Trump previously suggested that China may be responsible for the cyberattack on the government. This is despite White House officials having already drafted a statement naming Russia responsible, but were told to stand down, according to people familiar with the matter.
As Trump prepares to depart the White House by January, his long-anticipated round of pardons were recently announced. Following his pardon of former national security adviser Michael Flynn, Trump granted pardons to 15 people while commuting the sentences of five others who have already been convicted for the charges made against them.
Some of those who were granted pardons include former campaign aide George Papadopoulos and Alex van der Zwaan. Trump also granted pardons to three Republican lawmakers: Chris Collins, Duncan Hunter, and Steve Stockman.
