Thread by @eliehonig

DOJ's announcement about the Pennsylvania ballot investigation is so deeply wrong, and telling, that I'm gonna do a rare thread:

1) DOJ never publicly confirms a criminal investigation, other than in extremely rare, emergency situations. It's a written rule (in the Justice Manual) and an unwritten norm that anybody who has ever worked a day on the line knows (that would *not* include Barr, I suppose)

2) And you sure as hell never publicly announce the *details* of an investigation. Here, the "fact" that nine ballots were for Trump is entirely irrelevant to any criminal charge. (Spoiler: they got this wrong). There's only one reason to include that (non-)fact: politics.

3) The reasons for this policy are as basic as they are sound. By going public, you undermine your own work - subjects can flee, tamper w/ evidence or witnesses. There's a reason we investigate in secret. You also unfairly damage the reputation of people who haven't been charged.

4) And it's not as if there was some great public clamor asking about this case. Nobody had heard of it until DOJ just popped off on its own. Wonder why?

5) If you are going to breach policy and make an announcement, get your sh*t straight. But DOJ muffed the facts here, including the number of ballots and number that were for Trump. They later had to issue a "Revised Statement" walking it back.

6) Funny how all the mistakes always go one direction. Barr yaps about some federal case involving 1,700 ballots in Texas that actually was a "little tiny case" involving isolated ballots, per the actual Texas prosecutor. Now this trumped-up number in PA.

7) PA officials have now confirmed this was an administrative error, not any kind of Matthew Broderick-in-Election type tampering. (Voters sent in ballots using the wrong envelope, meant for ballot *requests*, which led officials to open them).

8) Mark it down. DOJ will never bring criminal charges here, or even a civil case. (And if they do force it, they'll never prevail). That press release (and the "Revised Statement") is all we'll ever see, barring further potential releases.

9) But guess what? It did the trick. Because before (and after) DOJ could fix this and get its act together, Trump, McEnaney, and Meadows all waved the false and misleading announcement around as proof of their bogus mass-fraud theories. Hard to un-ring that bell.

10) If you can't see that Trump will contest this election if he loses, I don't know what to tell you. And if you can't tell Barr will weaponize DOJ to enable that, then I also don't know what to tell you. They've both shown us who they are and what they will do.

The end.

Apparently there were local inquiries. Which happens all the time and in no way justifies or necessitates any of what DOJ did.