A postal worker from Pennsylvania, named Richard Hopkins, came out with allegations that his supervisors at the Postal Service backdated the ballots that were mailed after the election.
Trump and many Republicans cited this claim to support their allegations of voter fraud. A letter was also sent to the justice department for a federal investigation by Lindsey Graham, a Trump supporter as well as the senator for South Carolina and the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Hopkins shared his allegations through Project Veritas, which is a conservative group that has been criticized multiple times for propagating false claims and editing videos to mislead people and spread disinformation.
https://twitter.com/i/status/1324540647181815809
According to the House Oversight Committee, Hopkins was investigated by the federal investigators from the Postal Service Inspector General’s office and he denied making those claims and also proceeded to sign a sworn statement.
In a tweet posted by the House Oversight Committee, they announced that Hopkins has recanted his allegations, however, he has not explained why he initially made them. Two sources also informed the Washington Post that he had recanted.
BREAKING NEWS: Erie, Pa. #USPS whistleblower completely RECANTED his allegations of a supervisor tampering with mail-in ballots after being questioned by investigators, according to IG.
THREAD:
— Oversight Committee (@OversightDems) November 10, 2020
The Trump campaign was shocked by this news as a federal lawsuit was also filed because of these allegations, which meant Pennsylvania could not confirm the state’s election results. They went on to explain that Hopkins had signed an affidavit complete with names and a detailed account of what had happened.
Later, in a video posted by Project Veritas, he again denied renouncing the allegations. He continues to say that everyone will find out the truth tomorrow and then the Washington Post will have to recant their articles. His video was also retweeted by Donald Trump with the caption describing him as a ‘brave patriot’.
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1326347841476890627?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1326347841476890627%7Ctwgr%5Eshare_3&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fd-10250367911899755022.ampproject.net%2F2010302236001%2Fframe.html
The matter is still being investigated by the US Postal Inspection Service and the Office of Inspector General, however, they have not commented on the ongoing developments.
However, the outcome of this investigation will not affect the election results as Joe Biden leads by 47,000 votes in the state of Pennsylvania and after election day only 10,000 mail-in ballots were received.
