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‘Insufficient Evidence’: Justice Department Closes Probe Into Pennsylvania Discarded Ballots
Epoch Times ^ | 01/16/2021 | Zachary Steiber

Posted on 01/16/2021 6:04:37 PM PST by SeekAndFind

The Department of Justice on Friday announced it closed an investigation into ballots that were discarded in Pennsylvania.

“After a thorough investigation conducted by the FBI and prosecutors from my office, we have determined that there is insufficient evidence to prove criminal intent on the part of the person who discarded the ballots,” acting U.S. Attorney Bruce Brandler said in a statement. “Therefore, no criminal charges will be filed and the matter is closed.”

Brandler recently replaced David Freed, the former U.S. attorney who last year revealed nine military absentee ballots had been tossed in Luzerne County. Freed resigned on Jan. 1. The U.S. attorney’s office declined to comment at the time about the investigation.

Luzerne County, with a population of about 317,000, sits in northeast Pennsylvania outside of Scranton.

The probe centered on who discarded the ballots, which were mostly for President Donald Trump. Freed also said investigators found four official, bar-coded, absentee ballot envelopes that were empty. Most of the material was found in a dumpster.

“The preliminary findings of this inquiry are troubling and the Luzerne County Bureau of Elections must comply with all applicable state and federal election laws and guidance to ensure that all votes—regardless of party—are counted to ensure an accurate election count,” Freed wrote in a letter to Shelby Watchilla, director of elections for Luzerne County, in September 2020.

He said interviews revealed staffers were improperly opening nearly all envelopes received, even though they weren’t supposed to open military ballots until Election Day. Opening any absentee ballot before then “violates the controlling statutes and is contrary to Pennsylvania Department of State guidance,” Freed said.

Luzerne County Manager David Pedri’s office later said a contractor was to blame for the discarded ballots. The contractor was fired but not charged. Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar, a Democrat, told reporters what happened was “a bad error” and “not intentional fraud.” The county and state didn’t respond to requests for comment.

FBI agents worked with Pennsylvania State Police officers to conduct the investigation. County election officials cooperated with law enforcement, federal officials said.

Trump mentioned the probe several times. He told reporters in Washington last year: “We have to be careful with the ballots. The ballots, that’s a whole big scam. You know they found, I understand, eight ballots in a waste paper basket in some location. They found, it was reported in one of the newspapers that they found a lot of ballots in a river. They throw them out if they have the name Trump on them I guess.”


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Government; Politics/Elections; US: Pennsylvania
KEYWORDS: democratfraud; demswillbedems; doj; dojvsdonoj; electionfraud; evidence; fakeelection; fakepresidentelect; lolnocriminalintent; nineballots; notintentional; pennsylvania; realitysettingin; sedition; stopthesteal; tds; voterfraud
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To: SeekAndFind

Translation: Well, they didn’t mean it when they accidently, by mistake, totally by random threw out only Trump votes....


61 posted on 01/16/2021 8:44:06 PM PST by The Sentient Sheep
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To: SeekAndFind

As long as people who steal elections follow the theory of ... it’s easier to ask forgiveness than permission ... we will never have a legal election. This “intent” standard is horse plop.


62 posted on 01/16/2021 8:52:51 PM PST by Savage Rider
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To: SeekAndFind

This is a deliberate distraction. Proving the intent of the person who discarded the ballots is secondary and irrelevant to the fact that the election is illegitimate due to the deliberate loss of the ballots.

The FBI and prosecutors are yelling “look, squirrel!”


63 posted on 01/16/2021 8:54:25 PM PST by TigersEye (Everyone knows)
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To: SeekAndFind

This voter discussion reminds me that Trump voters who have questioned the obvious fraud in this election have been told over and over that any action proposed to legally object to the blatant and overwhelming fraud in the process could not be addressed by courts or congress for one reason or another. None of the elected congress persons who are dismissive of legal challenges will tell us what CAN be done about voter fraud. The only conclusion that citizens who want their vote not to be canceled by fraudulent votes can conclude is that there is nothing that can be done and therefore no need to bother voting in any future elections.Our leadership in both Senate and House have not led the way in supporting Pres Trump and the millions of voters who have been disenfranchised by the theft of this presidential election by the communist democrat party. They make excuses and tell us what is not possible without telling us what is possible to insure an honest election. We citizens have no apparent recourse and will have to sit out future elections which will simply be dead on arrival for any communist opponent.


64 posted on 01/16/2021 8:56:53 PM PST by mountainfolk (q!)
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To: FlipWilson
Ballots were discarded.

But the issue is the criminal intent. Pay attention to the criminal intent.

That is what matters NOT THE EFFING FACT THAT THE BALLOTS WERE DISCARDED IN THE FIRST PLACE.

Sounds a lot like they carved this out as a separate act with the object being to punish the individual, IOW, they diminished the entire matter down to little more than a misdemeanor - like littering. The DOJ never intended to look at the validity of the election.

May as well change the name of this site to FormerRepublic.com.

65 posted on 01/16/2021 8:58:20 PM PST by Charles Martel (Progressives are the crab grass in the lawn of life.)
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To: Charles Martel; FlipWilson

They are purposely focusing on the actions of the individual in order to deflect from the fact that the election itself doesn’t rise to a standard of legitimate competency worthy of certification.

The intent or lack of intent to commit a crime or skew the election by any individual or group of individuals is an entirely separate issue from whether or not the results are good enough to consider legitimate.

We all know they are not. #EveryoneKnows


66 posted on 01/16/2021 9:11:19 PM PST by TigersEye (Everyone knows)
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To: gtwizard

so apparently it woudl be perfectly legal for all red states to throw out liberal ballots because there would be no ‘criminal intent’ according to this finding i guess?


67 posted on 01/16/2021 9:11:23 PM PST by Bob434
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To: SeekAndFind

Discarding ballots is not evidence of Discarding ballots illegally???
Are you dumb in any other areas?


68 posted on 01/16/2021 9:12:16 PM PST by Pez149 (Time to stop saying a theory is fact....)
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To: SeekAndFind

well, of course hey dropped it, liberals are all over forum squawking “No evidence”

The identical phrases keep showing up, the talking points are clear.


69 posted on 01/16/2021 9:52:09 PM PST by doorgunner69 ("Those who vote decide nothing. Those who count the vote decide everything.." -Joseph Stalin)
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To: gtwizard

So - A criminal act is no longer prosecutable if you can’t prove the person had criminal intent?

More leftist B.S. Cover up.


70 posted on 01/16/2021 10:45:24 PM PST by Vlad The Inhaler (Rep. Matt Gaetz - Inside the chest of every digital woketopian beats the heart of an online tyrant)
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To: bray

Did they look into the 200,000 overcount?


The State argues that that is not a correct figure. They argue that their ballot total is simply off because the 4 largest counties STILL had not submitted their totals as of the end of December. As if that isn’t a major problem in its own right.


71 posted on 01/16/2021 10:56:03 PM PST by lepton ("It is useless to attempt to reason a man out of a thing he was never reasoned into"--Jonathan Swift)
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To: SeekAndFind

FBI DOJ.... 😂😂😂😂😂😜😜😜


72 posted on 01/16/2021 11:02:32 PM PST by antceecee
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To: antceecee

Forgot the clownfaces....🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡


73 posted on 01/16/2021 11:04:37 PM PST by antceecee
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To: SeekAndFind

Seal the steal.


74 posted on 01/16/2021 11:10:00 PM PST by Fresh Wind ("This claim about election fraud is disputed.")
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To: SeekAndFind

Instead of states seceding, we should just kick them out.


75 posted on 01/17/2021 12:36:23 AM PST by Bikkuri (If you're conservative, you're an "extremist." If you're liberal, you're an "activist.")
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To: Don W

Don’t forget the Military Absentee Ballots @ 100% Biden...


76 posted on 01/17/2021 12:39:05 AM PST by Bikkuri (If you're conservative, you're an "extremist." If you're liberal, you're an "activist.")
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To: SeekAndFind

What I take away from this is that there is OFFICIAL admission that there WAS wrong-doing - AND this wrong-doing MAY have been deliberate, but they just can’t prove it.

What we need now is for all the hundreds of other allegations and suspicious activity to be investigated. Hopefully this will result in hundreds more confirmations of wrong-doing - but hopefully of much larger numbers of ballots. Even if deliberate fraud can’t be proven in those cases, it would be a serious blow to claims that the Biden administration is legitimate.


77 posted on 01/17/2021 1:14:49 AM PST by Mr Information
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To: SeekAndFind

It’s against the law but it is not a crime. Welcome to “Alice in Wonderland” and “1984”, Pennsylvania style and DOJ babbleland.


78 posted on 01/17/2021 1:46:05 AM PST by MadMax, the Grinning Reaper
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To: SeekAndFind

It’s against the law but it is not a crime. Welcome to “Alice in Wonderland” and “1984”, Pennsylvania style and DOJ babbleland.


79 posted on 01/17/2021 2:08:26 AM PST by MadMax, the Grinning Reaper
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To: Dawgreg
I’m hoping the 26,000 National Guard aren’t there for the swearing in.....if you get my drift.

Well, if your hope ends up being fulfilled, they’ve already turned the Capitol area into a ready-made prison.

80 posted on 01/17/2021 2:12:20 AM PST by noiseman (The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.`)
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