THREAD: During the campaign, Bill Barr emerged as a serial liar about "voter fraud." He pushed false narratives, cited debunked claims, and doubled down on the absolutely ridiculous conspiracy theory that foreign countries would flood the US with millions of forged ballots. (1/8)
June 22: Barr lied about mail-in voting and massively exaggerated the risks of fraud. For the first time, he also raised the possibility that foreign countries will send forged ballots to US voters. Trump picked up this baseless theory and ran with it. https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/22/politics/trump-voter-fraud-lies-fact-check/index.html
June 25: Barr recycled a bunch of debunked theories, false claims, and exaggerations about the supposed risks of mail-in voting. He said, "you can easily take things out of mailboxes," leading to massive fraud. Experts again panned his commentary. https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/25/politics/barr-mail-in-voting-election-fraud-npr/index.html
July 29: In testimony to Congress, Barr again pushed the ridiculous notion that foreign countries will print fake ballots and send them to tons of voters in the US. Pressed for proof, Barr admitted he had no evidence but said it was just "common sense." https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/29/politics/barr-voter-fraud-fact-check-foreign-countries/index.html
Sept. 3: Barr lied about "substantial fraud" in mail voting. He doubled-down on the conspiracy about fake ballots from overseas. He cited an incident about fraud in TX that did not happen. He distorted the US intel community's findings on Russian meddling https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/03/politics/william-barr-cnn-wolf-blitzer-interview-fact-check/index.html
Sept. 4: After Barr shamelessly cherry-picked a 2005 report on voting co-authored by Jimmy Carter, the 96-year-old former president felt compelled to speak out. He rebuked Barr, and reaffirmed that voting-by-mail is safe and secure. https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/04/politics/carter-vote-by-mail-safety-barr-white-house/index.html
Sept. 12: Barr invented a spooky and totally false narrative that mail voting deprives people of a secret ballot. He was lying. Experts called him out. There are safeguards in place — in fact, many ballots are rejected for not having a "secrecy envelope" https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/11/politics/barr-secret-vote-fact-check/index.html
Sept. 25: Barr briefed Trump about an incident in PA with 9 mail ballots. Breaking protocol, DOJ said they were Trump votes. Trump used the incident to falsely say the election was "RIGGED." Turned out the incident was a mistake caused by lack of training. https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/25/politics/trump-pennsylvania-ballots-fraud-fact-check/index.html