一名司法部官员星期五告诉美国广播公司新闻，司法部长威廉·巴尔亲自向总统做了简报唐纳德·特朗普关于DOJ对宾夕法尼亚州少量选票的调查都被丢弃了周四下午，该信息被美国律师事务所公之于众。
特朗普总统在一份调查报告中首次披露了这一调查采访在没有证据的情况下，他认为这支持了他关于邮寄投票中普遍存在欺诈行为的毫无根据的说法。
“他们是特朗普的选票——昨天在一个办公室里的八张选票——但是在某个州，他们是——他们有特朗普写在上面，他们被扔进了垃圾桶。这就是将要发生的事情，”特朗普在采访中说。“这就是将要发生的事情，我们正在调查。”
2020年9月24日，华盛顿，唐纳德·特朗普总统在离开白宫前与记者交谈。
但是宾夕法尼亚中区美国检察官办公室在当天晚些时候的新闻稿中宣布了调查，该办公室的新闻稿没有明确提到“欺诈”该办公室表示，它“开始调查卢塞恩县选举委员会少量邮寄选票的潜在问题报告”，并在垃圾箱中发现了9张投给特朗普的选票。
该办公室后来将该数字更正为7，并表示另外两个被重新密封在适当的信封内。调查仍在进行中，但美国检察官办公室在给卢泽恩县选举委员会的一封信中提出了这样的担忧，即信封打开不当可能是行政错误的结果。
“我们的调查显示，选举办公室收到的所有或几乎所有信封都理所当然地被打开了，”美国律师大卫·弗里德说。“据调查人员解释，用于海外公务、军事、缺席和邮寄投票请求的信封非常相似，工作人员认为，遵守保存未开封信封的规定会导致他们错过此类投票请求。”
根据宾夕法尼亚州选举法，选票信封在拉票之前不能打开，各县有责任妥善储存和维护退回选票的安全。
2020年9月1日，唐纳德·特朗普总统和司法部长威廉·巴尔抵达马里兰州安德鲁斯空军基地后，离开空军一号。
这一系列事件引起了白宫批评者的警觉，他们指责司法部利用正在进行的调查在政治上推动特朗普总统。
“这是一项正在进行的调查，没有公共利益的理由来推翻不发表评论的通常政策——特别是不要说选票投给了谁。司法部公共事务办公室前主任马修·米勒在推特上说。
一名DOJ官员告诉美国广播公司新闻，该部门周四就调查事宜与白宫联系，记者们正在继续寻找总统在接受福克斯新闻采访时提到的信息。
在美国检察官办公室发布新闻之前，白宫新闻秘书凯莉·麦克纳尼在新闻发布会上预览了关于调查的更多信息。这位官员说，巴尔是在宾夕法尼亚州的一些当地媒体开始向美国检察官办公室寻求更多信息，并就如何应对寻求主要法官的指导后得知调查的。
“我可以为你确认，特朗普的选票，总统的选票在宾夕法尼亚州找到了，”麦克纳尼说。“我相信你很快就会得到更多的信息。在过去的24小时里，他们被发现被丢弃在一边。”
美国检察官办公室宣布后不久，白宫和特朗普总统的竞选团队就抓住了调查，认为这是邮寄投票容易受到猖獗欺诈的证据。
“民主党人试图窃取选举，”特朗普竞选团队通信和快速反应副主任马特·沃金(Matt Wolking)在推特上错误地说。
Barr briefed Trump on investigation into discarded Pennsylvania ballots
A Justice Department official told ABC News Friday that Attorney General William Barr personally briefed PresidentDonald Trumpabout the DOJ's investigation into a small number of ballots in Pennsylvania thatwere found to be discarded, prior to the information being made public by a U.S. attorney's office Thursday afternoon.
President Trump went on to first reveal the investigation in aninterviewwith Fox News Radio, where he, without evidence, argued that it bolsters his baseless claims of widespread fraud in mail-in voting.
"They were Trump ballots -- eight ballots in an office yesterday in -- but in a certain state and they were -- they had Trump written on it, and they were thrown in a garbage can. This is what’s going to happen," Trump said in the interview. "This is what’s going to happen, and we’re investigating that."
President Donald Trump talks to journalists before departing the White House, Sept. 24, 2020, in Washington.
But a press release from the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Middle District of Pennsylvania, which announced the investigation in a press release later in the day, made no explicit mention of "fraud." The office said it "began an inquiry into reports of potential issues with a small number of mail-in ballots at the Luzerne County Board of Elections," and discovered nine ballots in a dumpster which were cast for Trump.
The office later corrected that number to seven and said two others were resealed inside their proper envelope. The investigation remains ongoing, but the U.S. attorney's office in a letter to the Luzerne County Board of Elections raised the specter that the improperly opened envelopes could possibly be the result of an administrative error.
"Our investigation has revealed that all or nearly all envelopes received in the elections office were opened as a matter of course," U.S. attorney David Freed said. "It was explained to investigators the envelopes used for official overseas, military, absentee and mail-in ballot requests are so similar, that the staff believed that adhering to the protocol of preserving envelopes unopened would cause them to miss such ballot requests."
According to the Pennsylvania Election Code, ballot envelopes cannot be opened until the canvass is under way, and it is incumbent on counties to properly store and maintain the security of returned ballots.
President Donald Trump and Attorney General William Barr step off Air Force One upon arrival at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland on Sept. 1, 2020.
The series of events raised alarm among critics of the White House who accused the Justice Department of using an ongoing investigation to politically boost President Trump.
"This is an ongoing investigation where there is no public interest reason to override the usual policy of not commenting -- and especially not to say for whom the ballots were cast. An unprecedented in kind contribution to the president's campaign," Matthew Miller, the former director of the Justice Department's public affairs office, said on Twitter.
A DOJ official told ABC News that the department was in touch with the White House on Thursday about the investigation as reporters were continuing to seek information on what the president was referring to in his interview with Fox News.
Prior to the news release from the U.S. attorneys office, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany previewed in her press briefing that more information on the investigation would be forthcoming. Barr was made aware of the investigation after a number of local media outlets in Pennsylvania began reaching out to the U.S. attorney's office for more information and they sought guidance from Main Justice over how to respond, the official said.
"I can confirm for you that Trump ballots, ballots for the president were found in Pennsylvania," McEnany said. "I believe you should be getting more information on that shortly. Here in the last 24 hours, they were found cast aside."
Shortly after the announcement from the U.S. attorneys office, the White House and President Trump's campaign latched onto the investigation as proof behind the susceptibility of mail-in voting to rampant fraud.
"Democrats are trying to steal the election," Matt Wolking, the deputy director of communications and rapid response with the Trump campaign, tweeted falsely.
