The Republican party had used the postal worker's case as evidence
An employee at the United States Postal Service (USPS) has admitted fabricating claims of ballot tampering in Pennsylvania, after being interviewed by USPS investigators.
Richard Hopkins' claims had been cited by Republicans backing Donald Trump's baseless claims of widespread voter fraud in the US presidential election, and the USPS worker had even been given close to $140,000 in donations from GOP donors.
He had alleged that a postmaster in Erie, Pennsylvania had told postal workers to backdate ballots which had arrived too late to be counted in the election.
However, while being interviewed by investigators, Hopkins quickly changed his tune, and recanted his allegations of ballot tampering, before signing an affidavit for the US Postal Services Office of Inspector General.
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His false allegations were cited by a number of prominent Republicans, including Trump loyalist Lindsey Graham, who referred to the case in a letter to the Justice Department.
More than a week after election day, president Donald Trump has refused to concede to Joe Biden, the president-elect who has been congratulated on his victory by a large number of world leaders.
Trump's refusal to do so is based on his false claim of voter fraud, which he says has lost him the election. His claim is that mail-in ballots which were counted after election day were illegal, when in fact all votes counted had been sent before election day: the only requirement for them to be valid.
This week, US secretary of state Mike Pompeo
sent shockwaves through the US political system with his reply to a question regarding how the administration plans to interact with Biden's transition team over a peaceful transfer of power.
"There will be a smooth transition," said Pompeo. "To a second Trump administration.
"We're ready. The world is watching what's taking place and we're going to count all the votes. When the process is complete there will be electors selected..."
