President Donald Trump has raised roughly $170 million since his Election Day defeat, a sum garnered through a nonstop stream of solicitations that have falsely claimed the election was stolen while requesting contributions for an “election defense fund.”

Most of the money was raised in the days after the 3 November election, according to a person familiar with Trump’s effort who requested anonymity on Tuesday to discuss details of the operation.

The amount, which approaches the sums Trump took in at the height of the campaign, offers yet another sign that he does not intend to leave the White House quietly and will remain a powerful force in Republican politics.

As Trump’s chances of reelection dwindled in the hours and days after the election, his campaign began bombarding supporters with hundreds of emails and text messages that made inaccurate claims about voter fraud and election irregularities, while requesting money to fight the outcome. – AP

Attorney general William Barr appointed US attorney John Durham as a “special counsel” to give him extra protections while investigating the origins of the Crossfire Hurricane investigation into Donald Trump.

Barr revealed the appointment, made before the election, in today’s wide-ranging interview with the Associated Press.

The practical effect of the “special counsel” designation – the same given to Robert Muller in the original probe – is that Durham can continue investigations without easily being sacked.

“I decided the best thing to do would be to appoint them under the same regulation that covered Bob Mueller, to provide Durham and his team some assurance that they’d be able to complete their work regardless of the outcome of the election,” Barr told the AP.

Barr’s order to Durham, obtained by AP, says he is authorized to “investigate whether any federal official, employee or any person or entity violated the law in connection with the intelligence, counter-intelligence or law enforcement activities” directed at the 2016 presidential campaigns or Trump administration.

Attorney General William Barr was seen entering the White House shortly after telling the Associated Press the Justice Department has found no evidence of the widespread voter fraud that Donald Trump and his legal team have alleged.

The Independent’s John T Bennett is following the story as it unfolds.

Rudy Giuliani, former New York City mayor and the man leading Donald Trump’s legal challenge to the 2020 election, is reported to have had discussions with the president about obtaining a pardon.

The New York Times reported Tuesday that Mr Giuliani is allegedly seeking a pre-emptive pardon from Mr Trump. The newspaper cites two unnamed people with knowledge of the discussion.  

The anonymous sources said it was no clear who broached the topic first, and it was not immediately clear if Mr Trump would follow through on the request.  

There were no immediate details regarding the crimes Mr Giuliani allegedly wants pardoned. Federal prosecutors were investigating him last summer for his involvement in Ukraine business dealings that eventually led to Mr Trump’s impeachment.  

The Independent’s Graig Graziosi has the full story.

Donald Trump Jr will release an ad in Georgia on Tuesday, ahead of January’s Senate runoff elections, as some Republican officials raise concerns about his family’s involvement in the campaign.

Mr Trump Jr, 42, who is the president’s eldest son, is featured in a new six-figure radio ad that is being released in Georgia today.

The commercial is in support of Republican senators Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, who will face Democratic challengers Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff on 5 January in runoff elections, after no candidate got more than 50 per cent of the vote in either race on 3 November’s election.

In the ad, Mr Trump Jr tells Georgia residents that the US Senate is “on the line” and his father’s accomplishments are “on your ballot”.

The Independent’s James Crump has the full story.

“I understand that — shockingly enough — there’s sometimes problems with the scoring, and whether he’s keeping track of his score,” Obama said.

Obama made the comments during an appearance on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert on Monday, as the two-term president was asked whether or not he would reach out to his successor when he leaves the White House next month to “tee up”.

The Independent’s Gino Spocchia has the story.

As news broke of his attorney general saying there hasn’t been evidence of enough fraud to have overturned the election, Donald Trump continued his call for whistleblowers to come forward.

The president has been tweeting out clips from his newly favourite network, OAN, of a hearing into Michigan’s handling of the election.

In his interview with AP, Barr said people were confusing the use of the federal criminal justice system with allegations that should be made in civil lawsuits.

“Most claims of fraud are very particularized to a particular set of circumstances or actors or conduct. They are not systemic allegations and those have been run down; they are being run down,” Barr said. “Some have been broad and potentially cover a few thousand votes. They have been followed up on.”

As Arizona Governor Doug Ducey certified the state’s 2020 election results on Monday, he got a call from an old friend. An old friend with whom he no longer wanted to speak.

Oliver O’Connell has the story.

The Independent’s Alex Woodward is going deeper on the breaking news from attorney general William Barr.

Trump’s AG William Barr said the Justice Department has not found enough fraud that it would have changed the outcome of the US presidential election.

In an interview with the Associated Press, Barr said the Federal Bureau of Investigations has been following up on specific complaints but have not uncovered fraud widespread enough to have made an impact.

“To date, we have not seen fraud on a scale that could have affected a different outcome in the election,” Barr told the AP.

While not directly mentioning Kraken-releaser Sidney Powell or her allegations of a Hugo Chavez Dominion conspiracy, Barr said they had also looked into those claims but found nothing to substantiate them.

“There’s been one assertion that would be systemic fraud and that would be the claim that machines were programmed essentially to skew the election results. And the DHS and DOJ have looked into that, and so far, we haven’t seen anything to substantiate that,” Mr Barr said.