The Justice Department said armed federal officers can be sent to investigate fraud in state ballot counting, sending a potentially chilling message

• A Justice Department official has said it is possible for armed federal officers to investigate potential fraud at ballot-counting stations after Election Day, The New York Times reported.
• Armed federal officers are barred from being posted during an election, but a top official said this does not mean they cannot be posted after Election Day is over, The Times reported.
• The message came at a time of high tensions, just before President Donald Trump falsely claimed election victory and hours before his supporters began to gather in protest outside some vote count stations.
• One expert told The Times it seemed like a "messaging tactic" from Attorney General William Barr, a longtime defender of Trump.
• The Justice Department did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment.

Department of Justice said it is legal to send armed federal officers to ballot-counting stations to investigate potential fraud once the polls close, according to The New York Times.

Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General Richard Donoghue emailed prosecutors at around 1.30 a.m. Wednesday about the opinion, three people who saw the message told the paper.

Donoghue's message said that a law which prohibits armed federal officers from attending polls on Election Day does not prevent them from doing so after that, The Times reported.

It is not clear if it discussed what agency might dispatch armed officers or why, but appeared to deviate from the principle that states should handle their election process with total independence from the federal government.

The message came on the same day as President Donald Trump baselessly alleged voter fraud, and pro-Trump protesters gathered outside some polling count stations.

The law in question forbids members of the military or other armed federal officers from being sent to places where an election is taking place, by anybody.

Per the Times, Donoghue interpreted that narrowly to mean that such officers were banned only on Election Day itself, and that the process of vote-counting would not be covered.

The Times said he wrote that the law "does not prevent armed federal law enforcement persons from responding to, investigate, or prevent federal crimes at closed polling places or at other locations where votes are being counted."

Donoghue, an appointee of Attorney General William Barr, sent his message around half an hour before President Donald Trump held a press conference falsely declaring himself to have won the election before a significant portion of the vote had been counted.

A flurry of tweets alleging voter fraud — which Twitter labeled as misleading — followed from the president.

The law preventing armed federal officers at polling stations reflects the long-established hold that states have had over the management and policing of their elections.

Amid growing mistrust in the election process among Trump's supporters, experts told The Times that Donoghue's message risked sending a chilling message undermining this.

"This seems like a messaging tactic for the attorney general," Vanita Gupta, the acting head of the department's Civil Rights Division under former President Barack Obama, told the paper.

Barr has been an unwavering supporter of President Trump during his time as attorney general. In October 2019, he attempted to "muzzle" Fox News contributor Andrew Napolitano for being critical of the president, according to CNN Chief Media Correspondent Brian Stelter.

The Department of Justice did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment.