4 hours agoPost worker admits he has fabricated accusations of vote manipulation
Periskopi(6 years ago)
(6 years ago)An American post officer in Pennsylvania, whose claims were cited by the republican high rankings as possible proof of widespread irregularities at the polls, acknowledged that he had fabricated the charges, according to three officials informed of the investigation and a statement by a US House House of Representatives commission. [...]
Officer Richard Hopkins' claim that a post director in Erie, Pennsylvania, had instructed the mailmen to change the date in the envelopes of votes cast after the election file, was quoted by Republican Senator Lindsey Graham in a letter to the Department of Justice, demanding the opening of a federal investigation.
Prosecutor General William Barr later authorised federal prosecutors to open investigations into reliable allegations of irregularities and fraud at the polls, an unusual act by the Justice Department.
But on Monday, 32-year-old Hopkins told investigators of the Office of the General Inspector of the Postal Service that the claims were not true and he signed a statement giving up his claims, according to officials who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Republicans called Hopkins' claims among the most reliable because he had signed a statement saying he had heard an superior instructing colleagues to change the envelopes by votes posted after November 3rd.
Even Erie Post Director Rob Weissenbach called the charges “100% false in a Facebook post, and said they became “from an employee who had been disciplined many times recently”. /voa/
