This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

Former Attorney General Bill Barr parted ways with President Donald Trump, who appointed him, regarding many of the disputes about the 2020 election.

That election was impacted by several undue outside factors that never had influenced American elections before, including interference by the FBI and CIA when they falsely claimed Biden family scandals documented in Hunter Biden's abandoned laptop computer were "disinformation."

A survey showed that meddling probably changed the outcome, giving the White House to Joe Biden, while another outside influence was from the $400 million that Mark Zuckerberg gave to elections officials, who often used it to recruit voters in Democrat districts.

A lot of other claims about vote fraud were dismissed by judges, often on procedural grounds so there never was a ruling on the actual substance of claims that absentee vote procedures, ballot handling, and more were corrupted.

While Trump has argued that the election was stolen from him, Barr largely has been of the expressed opinion that nothing major was wrong.

Now, however, a report in the Washington Times points out that Barr was scolded by the inspector general for the Department of Justice.

He was described as stretching the rules to release information about an investigation into ballot irregularities during that election.

Barr, the report said, "released secret information to then-President Donald Trump, and David Freed, who was the U.S. attorney in central Pennsylvania, made a public statement about the case before charges were filed, the audit found."

The IG found that DOJ rules are too vague to determine any violation.

But the report said Freed broke several department guidelines to release investigation details. The issue now is at the Office of Special Counsel.

The report explained, "The rush to release information came deep in the 2020 campaign, as Mr. Trump was complaining that Democrat-led states and judges had rewritten the rules on casting ballots amid the pandemic, opening the door to fraud."

The specifics were that the FBI learned one election official in Pennsylvania "dumped seven returned military absentee ballots into the garbage."

All were identified as votes for Trump.

While the investigation still was developing, Freed announced an "inquiry" into the matter, wrongly reporting that there were nine ballots.

Eventually, the report said, that official was determined as "mentally impaired" and no charges were filed.

Democrats, at the time, proclaimed loudly that the case wrongly fueled election skepticism.