On Friday, 16 assistant U.S. Attorneys wrote a joint memorandum to Attorney General William Barr saying that they had seen no evidence of widespread voter fraud, directly contradicting President Donald Trump’s false claims that he has won the election instead of President-elect Joe Biden. The federal prosecutors who penned the letter had been tasked with monitoring the presidential election for any interference, malfeasance, or fraud around the country. Barr issued a memo on Monday that seemed to give legitimacy to Trump’s lies, authorizing prosecutors “to pursue substantial allegations of voting and vote tabulation irregularities prior to the certification of elections in your jurisdictions in certain cases.” The federal prosecutors wrote that Barr’s directive, which reversed longstanding Justice Department policy, “thrusts career prosecutors into partisan politics.”