Barr Disputes U.S. Attorney’s Vote Fraud Claim

In recent weeks, former President Donald Trump has claimed at rallies that a U.S. attorney in Pennsylvania was precluded from investigating claims of voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election. And he's cast the blame on his former attorney general, Bill Barr.

Barr, for his part, flatly denies this. He points to a memo he issued on Nov. 9, authorizing U.S. attorneys around the country to "pursue substantial allegations of voting and vote tabulation irregularities."

This week, Deputy Managing Editor Robert Farley broke down what we know about the evolving he said/he said.

As Rob explains, the former U.S. attorney in Pennsylvania, Republican Bill McSwain, wrote a June 9 letter to Trump, seeking his support in the Pennsylvania governor’s race. In the letter, McSwain wrote that Trump was "right to be upset about the way the Democrats ran the 2020 election in Pennsylvania" and alleged he was "given a directive to pass along serious allegations to the State Attorney General for investigation." McSwain has said he was reluctant to pass along referrals to the state attorney general, Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, who is a likely candidate for governor.

McSwain's spokesman insists the former U.S. attorney made the referrals anyway. But Shapiro's office says it never received any such allegations of voter fraud from McSwain's office.

Barr told the Washington Post that when he spoke to McSwain this week, McSwain told him the "directive" to pass along serious allegations to the state attorney general involved a single allegation of "irregularities" in Delaware County, Pennsylvania. And per Politico, the allegation was that 47 USB drives — purported to be filled with votes — had gone missing. We addressed that claim in December and found it wasn't credible.

Read the full story, "Barr Disputes U.S. Attorney’s Vote Fraud Claim."

Reader: I just got covid and took the drug you claim doesn't work and went from feeling horrible to a lot better and very quickly. Not sure why you want to tell people things that are not true. This drug saved me and I am grateful I listened to other sources. Please seek truth and don't make medical things political. I have heard from countless people how much this has helped. Why do you ignore all those people?

FactCheck.org Director Eugene Kiely: I have no doubt that you are telling the truth about your experience. The question is: Was the drug you took responsible for your favorable outcome? To answer this question, researchers do clinical trials, which are considered the “gold standard” in evaluating whether treatments are effective. The antiviral drug remdesivir is the only FDA-approved treatment for COVID-19 patients requiring hospitalization. The FDA based its approval on randomized, controlled clinical trials that found faster recovery times and statistically significant odds of improving conditions among patients with mild to severe COVID-19 who received the drug, compared with those who got a placebo plus standard care.

We are not ignoring anyone. We are just trying to explain what treatments have been authorized or approved and why — as we do in “What treatments are available for COVID-19.”

I’m glad you are feeling better.

Wrapping Up

Here's what else we've got for you this week:

• "Greene’s Deceptive Claims of Forced COVID-19 Vaccinations and Vaccination ‘Deaths’": There is no evidence that a door-to-door campaign to encourage vaccinations against COVID-19 means President Joe Biden and Democrats “are coming to your front door to force you to take the vax,” as Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene tweeted. She also cited a figure for reported deaths after vaccination, which is not the same as deaths caused by vaccination.
   
• "CDC Data Thus Far Show COVID-19 Vaccination Safe During Pregnancy": Federal vaccine monitoring systems have identified no safety concerns with the COVID-19 vaccines for pregnant people. Preliminary Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data show that miscarriage is not more frequent than expected in vaccinated people. Online posts, however, falsely contend that such data, as reported in a CDC publication, show an 82% miscarriage rate.
   
• "Meme Spreads Falsehood About Vaccine Transfer Through Eating Meat": Livestock and poultry are not being vaccinated against COVID-19. But a meme is spreading the falsehood that those who eat meat from vaccinated animals will get “VAXXED” by consuming the meat. That simply isn’t possible, according to immunologists.
   
• "Baseless Conspiracy Theory Follows Deaths of Haitian President, Other National Leaders": Following the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse, social media posts baselessly suggest that he and other world leaders were killed or died because they opposed COVID-19 vaccination in their countries. All the leaders named in the posts, except Moïse, died of natural causes. At least one supported vaccination.  
   
• "Capitol Police Expected to Testify During House Committee’s Probe of Jan. 6 Riot": Members of the Capitol Police will be among the first to testify during the House select committee investigation into the Jan. 6 riot, according to Rep. Bennie Thompson, who will lead the panel. But social media posts have made the unfounded claim that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi “won’t let Capitol Police testify about what happened Jan. 6.”
   
• "Meme Trumpets Falsehood About Delta Variant": The delta variant of the virus that causes COVID-19 spreads more quickly than the original virus and has been classified as a “variant of concern” by the World Health Organization. It is now the dominant variant in the U.S. But a meme has been circulating on Facebook falsely claiming the delta variant is “fake news.”

• "Proteína pico generada por vacuna contra el COVID-19 es segura, contrario a declaraciones que circulan viralmente": Cientos de millones de dosis de vacunas contra el COVID-19 se han administrado en forma segura en Estados Unidos en los últimos seis meses. No hay evidencia para indicar que las proteínas pico generadas por las células humanas luego de una vacunación son toxinas o que circulan por el cuerpo y dañan tejidos, contrario a lo que dijo recientemente un inmunólogo canadiense.
   
• "Estudio erróneo sobre fallecimientos y vacunas contra el COVID-19 se propaga extensamente antes de ser retractado": Las vacunas contra el COVID-19 han mostrado ser seguras y efectivas en ensayos clínicos y en aplicaciones en el mundo real. Pero un artículo científico difundido extensamente en la red afirmó que las vacunas causan dos muertes por cada tres vidas que salvan. Los expertos dicen que el análisis malinterpretó los datos y fue erróneo, y ya ha sido retractado por la revista que lo publicó.
   
• "Un video hecho como broma le da nuevo impulso a la teoría de conspiración del microchip": La lista de los ingredientes utilizados en las vacunas contra el COVID-19 está disponible públicamente y los ingredientes no incluyen microchips. Sin embargo, continúan prosperando las teorías de conspiración afirmando que sí. Un video reciente supuestamente muestra un lector de microchips para mascotas detectando un chip en el brazo de una persona vacunada, pero el video original fue hecho a modo de broma.
   
• "Video viral cuestiona engañosamente la seguridad de los hisopos nasales": Los hisopos nasales para las pruebas de descarte del COVID-19 usan una sustancia química utilizada con frecuencia para esterilizar utensilios médicos. Pero un video viral sugiere erróneamente que los hisopos son peligrosos, porque la sustancia química causa cáncer y puede alterar el ADN. Los expertos señalan que el uso de esta sustancia en este contexto no representa amenaza alguna para la salud de las personas.
   
• "Información errónea sobre orientaciones de la OMS para vacunación contra el COVID-19 en niños": Un grupo asesor de la Organización Mundial de la Salud concluyó que la vacuna de Pfizer/BioNTech “es adecuada para el uso en personas de 12 años de edad y mayores”, y específicamente la recomienda para niños de entre 12 y 15 años con alto riesgo de contraer COVID-19 grave. La OMS no dijo “paren de darle la vac a los niños inmediatamente”, como algunos han dicho en las redes sociales.