Election-integrity-backing lawyer Sidney Powell said Biden Attorney General Merrick Garland should be required to recuse himself from any politically motivated investigation or legal attack the Justice Department launches into audits of the 2020 presidential election.
“I think he should be recused, yes,” she said during an interview with former White House adviser Steve Bannon. “I found his conduct absolutely appalling.”
Garland said on Friday that his Justice Department is preparing to investigate the election audits led by several Republican states.
“As part of its mission to protect the right to vote, the Justice Department will, of course, do everything in its power to prevent election fraud, and if found, to vigorously prosecute it,” Garland said.
“But many of the justifications proffered in support of these post-election audits and restrictions on voting have relied on assertions of material vote fraud in the 2020 election that have been refuted by law enforcement and intelligence agencies of both this administration and the previous one, as well as by every court, federal and state, that has considered them,” he added.
Contrary to Garland’s claim, supporters of former president Donald Trump have prevailed in 17 of the 24 total court cases (70%) decided on merit. The remainder of the 87 rulings, thus far, involving election-related vote fraud were dismissed on procedural technicalities such as lack of standing and laches (suggesting the plaintiffs waited too long to file them).
Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich responded to Garland and said that if the Biden administration attempts to interfere with Maricopa County‘s election audit, the state would fight back.
“My office is not amused by the DOJ’s posturing and will not tolerate any effort to undermine or interfere with our State Senate’s audit to reassure Arizonans of the accuracy of our elections,” he said in a statement.
Powell said Garland has no intention of investigating fraud, but she also blasted Trump administration officials for not doing more to crack down on it in 2020.
“They’re not going to investigate the election fraud—but, by the way, the Trump administration also stood down on investigating the election fraud,” Powell said.
“I don’t know what in the world happened there,” she added. “But all the election fraud investigations during the Trump administration were shut down after the election.”
