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Report: IG finds "no evidence" of Pa. voter fraud claims of postal worker cited by Trump

18 March 2021
Dan Ackermann

There is "no evidence" to support a Pennsylvania U.S. Postal Service worker's claims highlighted by leading Republicans of mail-in ballot fraud, the inspector general has found, per the Washington Post.

Why it matters: Letter carrier Richard Hopkins' baseless claims that ineligible mail-in ballots were being illegally backdated formed part of unsuccessful efforts by former President Trump and his allies to delegitimize President Biden's election Pa. win.

  • The Trump campaign alerted Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) to Hopkins' unfounded allegations in November. Graham then wrote a letter demanding a federal investigation into the state's election results, WashPost notes.

Driving the news: Hopkins worked with the right-wing Project Veritas to publicly release a sworn affidavit outlining his allegations last November.

  • Hopkins, who was hailed as "a brave patriot" by Trump for his action, recanted his allegations soon after.
  • He "revised his initial claims" during an interview with federal agents, "eventually stating that he had not heard a conversation about ballots at all — rather he saw the Postmaster and Supervisor having a discussion and assumed it was about fraudulent ballot backdating," according to the inspector general's report, posted to the blog 21st Century Postal Worker.
  • "Hopkins has been suspended without pay since Nov. 10," WashPost reports.

Worth noting: The Trump administration's Department of Justice found no evidence of widespread fraud in the U.S.

  • Representatives for the inspector general, USPS, Trump and Graham did not immediately respond to Axios' request for comment.

Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times

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Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.

Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.

The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.

  • The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.

What the transcripts say:

  • Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
  • The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
  • Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."

Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.