HARRISBURG – A letter released by former President Donald Trump shows that an ex-federal prosecutor with future gubernatorial aspirations in Pennsylvania, expressed disagreement with former U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr over how the Justice Department oversaw investigation claims of voter fraud in the 2020 Presidential Election.
William McSwain, who served as U.S. Attorney of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania from 2018 until January 2021, penned a two-page letter to Trump on June 9, which sought the former president’s endorsement for McSwain’s expected run for the Pennsylvania governorship next year.
Trump released the letter publicly on July 12.
Notably, the letter detailed McSwain’s opposition with directives he said he received from former Attorney General Barr, concerning the investigation of voter fraud claims in Pennsylvania during the 2020 Presidential Election.
“On Election Day and afterwards, our Office received various allegations of voter fraud and election irregularities. As part of my responsibilities as U.S. Attorney, I wanted to be transparent with the public and, of course, investigate fully any allegations,” McSwain’s letter said.
“Attorney General Barr, however, instructed me not to make any public statements or put out any press releases regarding possible election irregularities. I was also given a directive to pass along serious allegations to the State Attorney General [Shapiro] for investigation – the same State Attorney General who had already declared that you could not win.”
McSwain said that he “disagreed with that decision”, but added that he had been an infantry officer in the U.S. Marine Corps and would follow orders from a superior, even if he did not agree with them.
The letter termed state Democrats’ handling of the 2020 Presidential Election as a “partisan disgrace” and included scathing criticism of Pennsylvania officials, including Governor Tom Wolf and State Attorney General Josh Shapiro.
“The Governor [Wolf], the Secretary of the Commonwealth [Veronica Degraffenreid], and the partisan state Supreme Court made up their own rules and did not follow the law. Even worse, the State Attorney General, Josh Shapiro – the very person responsible for the enforcement of state election law – declared days before Election Day that you could not win the election,” McSwain said to Trump.
“It would be hard to imagine a more irresponsible statement by a law enforcement officer, especially during a hotly contested election. In light of such statements, it is hardly surprising that many Pennsylvanians lack faith in our state’s election results.”
No evidence of widespread voter fraud was found to affect the 2020 Presidential Election in Pennsylvania or anywhere else in the country.
In Pennsylvania, President Joe Biden defeated Trump by 80,555 votes. Biden won the Electoral College with 306 votes to Trump’s 232, and received more than seven million more votes overall than Trump.
After his term as U.S. Attorney concluded earlier this year, McSwain became a partner at the Philadelphia office of law firm Duane Morris. An inquiry from the Pennsylvania Record to the firm on the contents of McSwain’s letter was not returned.
In an issued statement, Shapiro’s office said it had not heard of any election irregularity concerns from McSwain until it became aware of his letter.
“Our office has a close working relationship with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, including collaboration during the 2020 election with then-U.S. Attorney Bill McSwain. We received and sent multiple referrals to local, state and federal law enforcement, but received no direct referrals from Mr. McSwain’s office,” a Shapiro spokesperson said.
“This personal note to President Trump, sent seven months after the election, is the first our office has heard of Mr. McSwain’s concerns. If he was aware of allegations of voter fraud, Mr. McSwain had a duty to report and, as he knows, our office investigates every referral and credible allegation it receives. As law enforcement agencies at all levels of our government have already stated, there was no widespread voter fraud in the 2020 elections in our Commonwealth.”
In an interview with the Washington Post, Barr denied McSwain’s claims that he could not personally investigate alleged instances of election irregularity, and suggested the former federal prosecutor’s claims to the contrary were political posturing in advance of his gubernatorial run next year.
Meanwhile, McSwain remains undeterred by opposition to his letter.
“Everything in my June 9, 2021 letter to President Trump is 100% true. I have a lifetime reputation for honesty that is beyond reproach. If Bill Barr wants to run to the Washington Post to complain about me telling the truth, that’s OK – it doesn’t bother me,” McSwain said in a July 14 Twitter message.
“I have more important things to be concerned about than Bill Barr’s feelings. I’m concerned about the future of PA and of our country. We need change in our politics – badly. And it will come in 2022.”
Both McSwain and Shapiro are expected candidates for the Pennsylvania governor’s race next year to succeed Wolf, whose two consecutive terms served will prevent him for running for re-election in 2022.
From the Pennsylvania Record: Reach Courts Reporter Nicholas Malfitano at nick.malfitano@therecordinc.com