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Former President Donald Trump reacted to the fourth January 6 committee hearing Thursday by resharing a letter sent to him last summer by a Pennsylvania official who was trying to get his endorsement for governor.
The June 2021 letter, from former Pennsylvania gubernatorial hopeful Bill McSwain, suggests election fraud wasn’t fully investigated in the commonwealth thanks to former Attorney General Bill Barr.
‘On Election Day and afterwards, our Office received various allegations of voter fraud and election irregularities,’ said McSwain, who was then serving as the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
Former President Donald Trump (left) reacted to the fourth January 6 committee hearing Thursday by resharing a letter sent to him in June 2021 by former U.S. Attorney Bill McSwain (right) of Pennsylvania alleging that ‘election irregularities’ weren’t investigated
Former President Donald Trump included a copy of the letter in a statement Thursday saying: ‘To the Unselect Committee – Have you seen this letter? Why wouldn’t the Justice Department act?’
McSwain said he wanted to ‘investigate fully any allegations’ but charged that was put to a stop by Barr, who referred him to the state’s Attorney General Josh Shapiro – a Democrat who’s now the party’s 2022 nominee for governor.
Barr, McSwain alleged, ‘instructed me not to make any public statements or put out any press releases regarding possible election irregularities.’
‘I disagreed with that decision but those were my orders,’ McSwain said. ‘As a Marine infantry officer, I was trained to follow the chain of command and to respect the orders of my superiors, even when I disagreed with them.’
McSwain then transitions to making the pitch to Trump as to why he should be the ex-president’s choice for Pennsylvania governor.
The letter goes on to ask former President Donald Trump for his endorsement as Bill McSwain was campaigning to be governor. In April, Trump gave McSwain an anti-endorsement telling Republicans not to vote for him because he didn’t do enough to prop up the ‘big lie’
‘I would be honored to have your support,’ McSwain said.
The ex-president sent out a copy of the letter along with the statement – ‘To the Unselect Committee – Have you seen this letter? Why wouldn’t the Justice Department act?’ – as the hearing was winding down Thursday.
Barr previously said in an interview that McSwain wasn’t being truthful.
‘Any suggestion that McSwain was told to stand down from investigating allegations of election fraud is false. It’s just false,’ Barr said in July 2021, after Trump released the letter publicly.
The claims ‘appeared to have been made to mollify President Trump to gain his support for McSwain’s planned run for governor,’ Barr said.
Previous January 6 committee testimony had Barr saying that the Justice Department did look into election fraud claims and found nothing that would have overturned the results of the 2020 election, including in Pennsylvania.
In Barr testimony that was shown at Thursday’s hearing, Barr explained why it was important for the DOJ to look into those allegations.
In a taped deposition, Barr said he was ‘not sure we would have had a transition at all’ – suggesting he feared Trump would have refused to leave office.
In a taped deposition, former Attorney General Bill Barr said he was ‘not sure we would have had a transition at all’ – suggesting he feared Trump would have refused to leave office
‘I sort of shudder to think what the situation would have been if the position of the department was: We’re not even going to look at this until after Biden’s in office,’ Barr said.
Overall, Thursday’s hearing included blockbuster testimony about Trump’s campaign to pressure DOJ officials into reversing President Joe Biden’s win in key swing states.
As for McSwain, the letter Trump reshared Thursday didn’t do enough to earn the ex-president’s endorsement.
In April, the former U.S. attorney earned an anti-endorsement from Trump for not doing enough to help him win Pennsylvania in 2020.
‘Do not vote for Bill McSwain, a coward, who let our country down,’ Trump said in a statement then.
Trump went on to endorse state Sen. Doug Mastriano just days before Pennsylvania’s May primary, with Mastriano – who peddled the ‘big lie’ – already poised to win, which he did.
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