Republican surrogates for President Donald Trump resumed their legal fight Monday to challenge the vote count in key battleground states, including Pennsylvania and Michigan, but faced long odds given the Electoral College tally and recent court rulings that found no evidence of widespread vote fraud.
Also on Monday, Attorney General William Barr authorized federal prosecutors across the U.S. to pursue "substantial allegations" of voting irregularities, if they exist, before the election is certified.
The decision gives prosecutors the ability to go around long-standing Justice Department policy that prohibits such overt actions before an election is certified.
Adding to the sense of uncertainty, the General Services Administration held off on formally beginning the transition, preventing Joe Biden's teams from gaining access to federal agencies. An agency spokesperson said late Monday that an "ascertainment" on the winner of the election had not yet been made. Citing what the agency did during the extended 2000 electoral recount, it signaled that it may not do so until Trump concedes or the Electoral College meets next month.
Across government, there were signs of a slowdown. White House officials and Trump political appointees informed career government staffers that they were not to begin acting on transition planning until the General Services Administration approved it, according to officials familiar with the matter.
A senior administration official said presidential personnel director John McEntee has sent word to departments that they should terminate any political appointees seeking new work. Another official said the warning was not seen as likely to result in any firings but rather was meant to reinforce to staffs that they should not act counter to Trump while he contests the election results. Those officials and others requested anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss internal policies or describe private discussions.
But some elements of the federal government already were mobilizing to prepare for Biden to assume power. The U.S. Secret Service and Federal Aviation Administration extended a flight restriction over Biden's Wilmington, Del., home through Inauguration Day. His security detail has been bolstered with agents from the Presidential Protective Division.
GOP CHALLENGES
While some Republican officials invoked the Trump mantra that only "legal votes" should be counted, others emerged to urge voters, and perhaps the president, to support the results.
"The process has not failed our country in more than 200 years, and it is not going to fail our country this year," said Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, who has congratulated Biden on his victory.
Still, Trump lawyers soldiered on six days after the election, just as personal counsel Rudy Giuliani had promised they would during a weekend news conference in Philadelphia. Giuliani denounced the city's vote count -- which fell about 4-1 for Biden, leading news outlets to project his victory in both Pennsylvania and the U.S. election -- as "extremely troubling."
Across the country, Republicans have complained about problems with the signatures, secrecy envelopes and postal marks on mail-in ballots; the inability of their poll watchers to scrutinize them; and the extensions granted for mail-in ballots to arrive. They filed another lawsuit Monday evening in federal court in Pennsylvania.
However, judges have largely rejected the Republican challenges over the past week, when the campaign sought to interrupt the vote count as it leaned toward Biden.
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At the U.S. Supreme Court, 10 Republican state attorneys general filed an amicus brief Monday to support a challenge to Pennsylvania's decision to count mail-in ballots that arrived through Friday. Among them is Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court had unanimously upheld the three-day extension set by Democratic state officials concerned about Postal Service delays and the covid-19 pandemic. The attorneys general say the court usurped a power reserved for state lawmakers.
The U.S. Supreme Court had declined to fast-track the challenge, but the vote was 4-4, and three justices expressed reservations. Republicans now hope to try again with new Justice Amy Coney Barrett on the court. The attorneys general believe the extra time meant "unscrupulous actors could attempt to influence a close Presidential election."
But it's far from clear that enough ballots came in after Election Day to change the results of the race in Pennsylvania.
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, asked Monday for any tangible evidence of wrongdoing, said Republicans were trying to gather affidavits from witnesses.
"All we are asking for is truth, transparency and sunlight here," McEnany said.
In Georgia -- where Biden has a small lead over Trump but the race remains close -- an election official pledged Monday to investigate any ballot problems that are found.
"When the margins are this tight, every little thing matters," said Gabriel Sterling, who led the state's implementation of a new voting system for the secretary of state's office. But he expressed frustration over efforts to shake the public's faith in the electoral system.
"The facts are the facts, regardless of outcomes," Sterling said.
[RELATED: Full coverage of elections in Arkansas » arkansasonline.com/elections/]
BARR'S MEMO
In a memo to U.S. attorneys obtained by The Associated Press, Barr wrote that Justice Department investigations "may be conducted if there are clear and apparently-credible allegations of irregularities that, if true, could potentially impact the outcome of a federal election in an individual State."
Barr does not identify any specific instances of purported fraud in the memo.
"While it is imperative that credible allegations be addressed in a timely and effective manner, it is equally imperative that Department personnel exercise appropriate caution and maintain the Department's absolute commitment to fairness, neutrality and non-partisanship," Barr wrote.
States have until Dec. 8 to resolve election disputes, including recounts and court contests over the results. Members of the Electoral College meet Dec. 14 to finalize the outcome.
Generally, Justice Department policy is "not to conduct overt investigations, including interviews with individual voters, until after the outcome of the election allegedly affected by the fraud is certified."
But Barr argues in the memo that concerns that such acts could inadvertently affect an election are minimized once voting has concluded and that, in some cases, investigations could not be delayed until the election is certified.
QUESTIONING RESULTS
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Monday that Trump is "100% within his rights" to question the election results.
The Republican leader's remarks were his first public comments on the subject since Biden was projected as the winner.
Most Republicans are refusing to congratulate Biden or declining to push Trump to accept the outcome.
"Our institutions are actually built for this," McConnell said. "We have the system in place to consider concerns, and President Trump is 100% within his rights to look into allegations of irregularities and weigh his legal options."
McConnell said the process will play out and "reach its conclusion."
Privately, Republicans say they are in a tough spot, wary of crossing Trump and his most ardent supporters. The president's refusal to accept the results means the election disputes could continue for weeks as states certify their tallies. And those disputes could push to mid-December.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said he would encourage the president "not to concede."
With the Senate majority on the line, Republicans aren't alienating Trump or his supporters ahead of the Jan. 20 inauguration. In Georgia, where Trump is trailing, both Republican senators are being forced into a Jan. 5 runoff that will determine control of the chamber.
Many Republicans have signaled a December deadline, pointing to the time it took to resolve the disputed 2000 race before Democrat Al Gore conceded to Republican George W. Bush.
Senate Democratic leader Charles Schumer said Monday that the Republicans' refusal to stand by the election results is "extremely dangerous, extremely poisonous to our democracy."
Schumer said election lawsuits can be valid but that they must be based in evidence and facts. He dismissed Trump's challenges as "frivolous."
"Joe Biden won the election fair and square," Schumer said.
Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, said it was time for the transition to proceed unimpeded. "At this stage, I think the transition should be underway, even though it's not finalized," he said. "We want to make sure that the interests of national security and smooth transition" are carried out.
Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., offered congratulations to Biden.
Election officials from both political parties have publicly stated the election went well.
CAMPAIGN SUITS
The Trump campaign's strategy to file a barrage of lawsuits challenging Biden's win is more about providing Trump with an off-ramp for a loss and less about changing the election's outcome, according to senior officials, campaign aides and allies who spoke to The Associated Press.
The AP spoke with 10 Trump senior officials, campaign aides and allies who were not authorized to discuss the subject publicly and did so on condition of anonymity.
Trump has promised more legal action, making an aggressive pitch for donors to help finance any court fight. But aides and allies acknowledged privately that the legal fights would -- at best -- forestall the inevitable, and some had deep reservations about the president's attempts to undermine faith in the vote. They said Trump and a core group of allies were aiming to keep his loyal base of supporters on his side even in defeat.
Trump's refusal to accept the election results is being reinforced in pockets of supporters nationwide, but the anger continues to fall short of a resistance movement that would threaten to overturn the vote.
Yet many elected Republicans and GOP voters called for the continuation of efforts to challenge the results, which in Pennsylvania give Biden a roughly 45,000-vote margin of victory.
Small clusters of Trump supporters gathered on several Philadelphia street corners Sunday to condemn a vote-counting process in which the president lost an early lead to Biden over several days. No evidence of improper counting procedures or any type of voter fraud has been presented.
"If he won and you want to go communist, knock yourself out," said Joe Mullica, 56, a truck driver who grew up in south Philadelphia and demonstrated with a handful of others. "But when you consider Trump increased the Black vote, the Hispanic vote, and yet you're gonna tell me Biden won more than Obama? Hello? That don't send up red flags?"
Information for this article was contributed by Maryclaire Dale, Michael Balsamo, Kevin Freking, Patrick Whittle, Kate Brumback, Jacques Billeaud, Marc Levy, Colleen Long, Zeke Miller, Lisa Mascaro, Meg Kinnard, Mary Clare Jalonick and Jonathan Lemire of The Associated Press; and by Robert Klemko, Annie Gowen, Holly Bailey, Scott Wilson and Kayla Ruble of The Washington Post.
