From Katie Benner at The New York Times:
Armed Agents Are Allowed in Ballot-Counting Venues, Justice Dept. Tells Prosecutors
Former officials expressed fears that the department’s legal interpretation would allow federal investigators to intimidate vote counters or interfere with their work.
WASHINGTON — The Justice Department told federal prosecutors in an email early on Wednesday that the law allowed them to send armed federal officers to ballot-counting locations around the country to investigate potential voter fraud, according to three people who described the message.
The email created the specter of the federal government intimidating local election officials or otherwise intervening in vote tallying amid calls by President Trump to end the tabulating in states where he was trailing in the presidential race, former officials said.
A law prohibits the stationing of armed federal officers at polls on Election Day. But a top official told prosecutors that the department interpreted the statute to mean that they could send armed federal officers to polling stations and locations where ballots were being counted anytime after that.
Benner’s report does not indicate any agents have been deployed yet. This seems like a follow-up intimidation tactic, as the remake of the Brooks Brothers Riot fizzled.
It is a clear indication of several things:
1) Trump doesn’t believe he has the votes to win.
2) He is determined to steal the election any way he can.
3) He is getting more and more reckless.
4) Trump is following his time-tested playbook of using intimidation, threats, and chaos to get what he wants.
It remains to be seen if the threat will be implemented, how, and where. What Barr might intend as a follow-up, such as seizing ballots, is unknown. Whether there will be sufficient pushback to keep Trump and his toadies from carrying this out is the big question.
2020 is going to need multiple chapters in American history textbooks.