Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro’s office says former U.S. Attorney Bill McSwain never referred any reports of 2020 election wrongdoing to Shapiro, despite McSwain’s claim that he received “various allegations” and was ordered to send them to the top state prosecutor.

At issue is a June letter McSwain, now a Republican gubernatorial hopeful, sent to former President Donald Trump, who made the letter public Monday.

”On Election Day and afterwards, our Office received various allegations of voter fraud and election irregularities,” McSwain wrote to Trump in seeking his endorsement. “As part of my responsibilities as U.S. Attorney, I wanted to be transparent with the public and, of course, investigate fully any allegations. Attorney General [Bill] Barr, however, instructed me not to make any public statements or put out any press releases regarding possible election irregularities. I was also given a directive to pass along serious allegations to the State Attorney General for investigation.”

McSwain never explicitly said in the letter that he actually made those referrals to Shapiro, the early Democratic front-runner for governor who could end up facing McSwain in the 2022 general election. But McSwain suggested he would follow such orders.

“I disagreed with that decision, but those were my orders,” McSwain wrote. “As a Marine infantry officer, I was trained to follow the chain of command and to respect the orders of my superiors, even when I disagree with them.”

Shapiro spokesperson Jacklin Rhoads said late Monday that Shapiro had a “close working relationship” with McSwain and his staff, “including collaboration during the 2020 election.” But McSwain’s letter to Trump “is the first our office has heard” about his concerns, she said.

“We received and sent multiple referrals to local, state and federal law enforcement, but received no direct referrals from Mr. McSwain’s office,” Rhoads said. ”This personal note to President Trump, sent seven months after the election, is the first our office has heard of Mr. McSwain’s concerns. If he was aware of allegations of voter fraud, Mr. McSwain had a duty to report and, as he knows, our office investigates every referral and credible allegation it receives.”

In his letter, McSwain expressed distrust of Shapiro, citing statements he made before the election that Trump was likely to lose Pennsylvania. And while McSwain complained about the directive he said he received from Barr, his letter made no specific claims about fraud.

Instead, McSwain echoed a series of complaints made by Trump and his allies about how Pennsylvania conducted the 2020 election. Trump and his campaign litigated those issues in state and federal courts after the election and were repeatedly turned away by judges. There is no credible evidence of any significant fraud in Pennsylvania’s election results.

The back and forth underscores how calls for a new election review, and casting aspersions on the 2020 results, are now key elements of GOP primaries nationally and in Pennsylvania, where the state has critical elections for governor and U.S. Senate next year.

» READ MORE: Supporting Trump’s election lies is becoming a litmus test for Pennsylvania Republicans seeking higher office

McSwain has often appeared to be a reluctant player in Trump’s long-running efforts to undermine the election with misinformation and lies. McSwain has dodged previous questions about accepting the results and declined multiple interview requests to expand upon his views and respond to Trump, who highlighted McSwain’s concerns in two recent speeches. McSwain did not authorize a statement until after Trump released his letter. That statement confirmed the letter’s authenticity but said little else.

McSwain on Tuesday tweeted that he’s glad Trump shared his letter. “The more people who know the facts the better,” he said.

But the letter — and McSwain’s tweet — doesn’t offer context for its creation. Did McSwain write it solely seeking Trump’s support for governor? Did Trump request it for his arsenal of attacks on Barr, who recently told The Atlantic that the former president’s claims of a stolen election are “all bull—”?

Trump spokesperson Liz Harrington kept up the drumbeat Monday, using McSwain’s concerns to declare on Twitter that “Barr ordered McSwain to pass Voter Fraud investigations to the Democrat AG Shapiro —to cover it up!”

» READ MORE: A timeline of how Trump and his allies tried to overturn Pennsylvania’s election results

Trump first mentioned McSwain in a July 3 speech in Florida, declaring, “We have a U.S. attorney in Philadelphia that says he wasn’t allowed to go and check Philadelphia.” Trump promised to reveal at some point who allegedly held back McSwain.

He went further on Sunday at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Texas, disclosing the existence of McSwain’s letter but claiming he didn’t want to be the one to release it. Trump told the crowd McSwain “was not allowed to do his job.”

“And I saw that,” Trump said. “He was all enthused and then, all of the sudden, it was like he was turned off.”

McSwain stayed silent on the matter for a full day, until Trump released the letter.

This is a developing story and will be updated.