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In the midst of the dispute over the US election result, Attorney General William Barr has submitted his resignation to incumbent President Donald Trump.

In a resignation letter published by Trump on Twitter on Monday evening, it was said that Barr would leave office on December 23.

Trump wrote on Twitter that Barr had done an "excellent job".

His deputy Jeff Rosen will take over the office.

Trump had expressed sharp criticism of Barr last Saturday.

The "Wall Street Journal" had previously reported that the attorney general had been aware of an investigation against the son of US President-elect Joe Biden, Hunter Biden, since the spring.

Barr wanted to keep the investigation out of the election campaign, the newspaper said.

"A big disappointment!" Wrote Trump.

"Why didn't Bill Barr reveal the truth about Hunter Biden to the public before the election?"

The Republican Trump still does not recognize the election victory of the Democrat Biden and presents himself as a victim of massive election fraud. He and his lawyers have not presented any reliable evidence for this.

Barr had also said that he knew of no evidence of massive election fraud.

Trump continues his efforts to overturn the outcome with legal action despite dozens of setbacks in courts in various states and the Supreme Court in Washington.

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Hunter Biden announced last Wednesday that he was being investigated at the federal level for “tax matters”.

During the election campaign, he was regularly the target of attacks by Trump, who raised allegations of corruption against the Biden family.

The background to this is Hunter Biden's questionable foreign business in Ukraine and China.

Between 2014 and 2019 he held a lucrative position on the supervisory board of the Ukrainian gas company Burisma.

During his tenure as US Vice President, Joe Biden was in charge of Ukraine.

Last Sunday, the New York Times and CNN reported that Barr was considering his resignation before the end of the year.

Trump had previously been publicly disappointed with the minister, who is actually considered his close ally.

The reason for this was his statements in an interview in which he had commented on the election result, which Trump had questioned.

Barr said he has not yet seen evidence of fraud to the extent that could have resulted in a different election result.

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Trump then left it open whether he wanted to hold on to Barr, and called the Justice Department a "disappointment".

When asked by a reporter whether he still trusts Barr, Trump said, "Ask me that in a few weeks." Trump nominated Barr as attorney general in December 2018 after the incumbent Jeff Sessions resigned at Trump's request.

Barr (70) has shown himself to be extremely loyal to Trump since he took office and has also regularly received praise from him.

At the beginning of the year, however, there was tension between the two because Trump repeatedly commented on ongoing legal proceedings via Twitter.

At the time, the Justice Department rejected speculation about Barr’s alleged resignation plans.