US attorney in battleground Pennsylvania investigating small number of mail in ballots discarded

White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany holds a news conference in the Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House on Sept. 24, 2020, in Washington, D.C. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

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As mail-in voting begins in many states, and President Donald Trump continues to question its validity, one of battleground Pennsylvania's three pivotal counties has been thrust into the national spotlight after a small number of mail in ballots were found in a trash dumpster outside a board of elections office.

The U.S. Attorney's Office of the Middle District of Pennsylvania and the FBI's Scranton Office earlier this week said they began an inquiry into reports of potential issues with a small number of mail-in ballots at the Luzerne County Board of Elections. At this point we can confirm that a small number of military ballots were discarded. Investigators have recovered nine ballots at this time. Some of those ballots can be attributed to specific voters and some cannot.

The U.S. Attorney's Office in the Middle District of Pennsylvania first announced in an initial press release that all nine ballots were cast for Trump, but later corrected that number to seven and said two were resealed inside the envelope. Pennsylvania utilizes secrecy envelopes that cover cast ballots in addition to the larger mailing envelope. Of the nine ballots that were discarded and then recovered, 7 were cast for presidential candidate Donald Trump. Two of the discarded ballots had been resealed inside their appropriate envelopes by Luzerne elections staff prior to recovery by the FBI and the contents of those 2 ballots are unknown.

The situation was cited by White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany before the U.S. attorney’s statement during Thursday's White House press briefing when she was asked about the president's criticism of mail-in voting. She said, I can confirm for you that Trump ballots, ballots for the president, were found in Pennsylvania and I believe you should be getting more information on that shortly. Here In the last 24 hours, they were found cast aside.

Former Department of Justice official Justin Levitt criticized the nature of the Justice Department statement, writing on Twitter, an investigation here may be reasonable. But there is no legit reason for a DOJ press release on a pending investigation, that announces a partial list of unconfirmed facts including the identity of one of the candidates on specific ballots.

Thus far, Freed wrote, the FBI has recovered a number of documents showing military ballots that had been improperly opened by elections staff and had the ballots removed and discarded or removed and placed separately from the envelope containing confidential voter information and attestation. Of the nine military general election ballots discovered that were discarded, seven were outside of their envelopes and had been cast for Trump. The other two were previously recovered by staff and reinserted into what appears to be their appropriate envelopes, which is why they are unable to determine which candidate the ballots were cast for. Three of the nine ballots the office said can be potentially attributed to specific voters, but the other six cannot at this time.