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A Pennsylvania postal worker whose claims have been cited by top Republicans as potential evidence of widespread voting irregularities admitted to U.S. Postal Service investigators that he fabricated the allegations, according to three officials briefed on the investigation and a statement from a House congressional committee.

Richard Hopkins’s claim that a postmaster in Erie, Pa., instructed postal workers to backdate ballots mailed after Election Day was cited by Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) in a letter to the Justice Department calling for a federal investigation. Attorney General William P. Barr subsequently authorized federal prosecutors to open probes into credible allegations of voting irregularities and fraud, a reversal of long-standing Justice Department policy.

But on Monday, Hopkins, 32, told investigators from the U.S. Postal Service’s Office of Inspector General that the allegations were not true, and he signed an affidavit recanting his claims, according to officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe an ongoing investigation. Democrats on the House Oversight Committee tweeted late Tuesday that the “whistleblower completely RECANTED.”

Hopkins did not respond to messages seeking comment.

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The Trump campaign provided that affidavit to Graham, who in turn asked the Justice Department and FBI to launch an investigation.

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The Erie postmaster, Rob Weisenbach, called the allegations “100% false” in a Facebook post and said they were made “by an employee that was recently disciplined multiple times.”

“The Erie Post Office did not back date any ballots,” Weisenbach wrote.

The Postal Service inspector general’s office informed members of Congress in a briefing on Tuesday that Hopkins had recanted his allegations, according to a congressional aide. The investigators first interviewed Hopkins on Friday, the aide said.

Hopkins’s allegations, without his name, were first aired last week by Project Veritas, an organization that uses deceptive tactics to expose what it says is bias and corruption in the mainstream media. Hopkins agreed to attach his name to the allegations late last week. He was instantly celebrated by Trump supporters.

Project Veritas founder James O’Keefe on Saturday hailed Hopkins as “an American hero” on Twitter. A GoFundMe page created under Hopkins’s name had raised more than $136,000 by Tuesday evening, with donors praising him as a patriot and whistleblower.

“Your donations are going to help me in the case I am wrongfully terminated from my job or I am forced into resigning due to ostrizization [sic] by my co-workers,” the page states. “It will help me get a new start in a place I feel safe and help me with child support until I am able to get settled and get a job.”

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Originally posted by Piano*Dad:
I'm guessing that Lindsey Graham and Bill Barr will quickly apologize for letting their partisan instincts run so far ahead of the facts ...

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A letter sent Nov. 5 on behalf of President Donald Trump's reelection campaign to Attorney General William Barr alleges that 3,062 voters who do not live in the state of Nevada "improperly cast" absentee ballots in the 2020 election.

But the list that accompanies the letter of those accused of "criminal voter fraud" contains hundreds of overseas military post office boxes and more than 1,000 locations where military personnel are stationed, such as Minot, North Dakota; Edwards and Fort Irwin, California; Hill Air Force Base, Utah; Carlisle, Pennsylvania; and Yuma, Arizona.

To at least one military spouse whose residences of Henderson, Nevada, and Davis, California, are listed -- with their specific nine-digit ZIP codes (exact addresses are not included) -- finding herself and her husband, an Air Force major, on the list was "shocking."

"To see my integrity challenged, along with other members of the military to be challenged in this way, it is a shock. And to be potentially disenfranchised because of these actions, that's not OK," said Amy Rose, who votes absentee and claims Henderson as her home while the couple is stationed in California.