washington the us justice department has been investigating a briberyforpardon scheme under which intermediaries of a federal convict offered white house officials large political contributions in exchange for release from prison according to court records revealed on tuesdaythe stunning disclosure came out of an unsealed court opinion in which all names and vital information was heavily redacted president trump denounced the investigation as fake news even though it emerged from court documents amid a swirl of other crime and punishment related developments in the final days of his administration there have been extensive reports of trump discussing with aides granting of preemptive pardons to a range of people including a selfpardon for himself and to his three children ivanka eric and don jr his soninlaw jared kushner and his personal lawyer rudy giuliani amid fears that they would be prosecuted by a vindictive biden administration legal experts and constitutional scholars have been debating the merits of a president granting himself a selfpardon and how much protection such pardons can provide for crimes prosecuted by states as opposed to federal charges the discussions have become animated amid as trumps effort to somehow stall a biden presidency is failing and an ignominious exit looks inevitable on tuesday trumps own attorney general bill barr seen as a loyal frontman for the presidents exertions declared the us justice department has uncovered no evidence of widespread voter fraud that could change the outcome of the 2020 barr told the associated press that us attorneys and fbi agents followed up specific complaints and information theyve received but to date we have not seen fraud on a scale that could have effected a different outcome in the election coming on top of embarrassing setback in courts and even republican officials and lawmakers certifying a biden victory the desertions have enraged trumps extremist followers some of whom urged the president to declare a limited form of martial law temporarily suspend the constitution and hold a national revote under military supervision trump loyalists are now turning ferociously against barr and other republican officials and lawmakers whom they see as traitors in one shocking episode this week trump lawyer joseph digenova said christopher krebs the head of the us cybersecurity agency who maintained there was no significant voter fraud in the 2020 elections should be executed anybody who thinks the election went welllike that idiot krebs is a class a moron he should be drawn and quartered taken out at dawn and shot digenova said in a podcast shown on youtube and the propagandist trumpallied newsmax tv after krebs spoke of suing him digenova claimed his comments were hyperbole in a political discourse such threats have put the fear of life into moderate republicans who want to accept the election results put country before politics and move on in an emotional outburst one republican official in georgia where trump failed to reverse his election loss virtually accused the president of inciting violence and warned someone could get killed on account