(Reuters) – Former President Donald Trump thrust Duane Morris partner and former U.S. attorney William McSwain into the political spotlight this week, releasing a letter in which McSwain asked for Trump’s endorsement in the Pennsylvania governor’s race and blasted the state’s handling of the 2020 presidential election.

Duane Morris, which hired McSwain in February, declined to comment directly on his position on the 2020 election or whether he planned to take leave for a gubernatorial run this year.

In a statement, the firm said McSwain’s “exploratory political activities have been personal and don’t relate to the firm,” adding it views his position “as an apolitical, nonpartisan opportunity to serve our clients.”

McSwain, a Republican who served as U.S. attorney in Philadelphia for nearly three years until Trump left office, didn’t respond to a request for comment.

In a letter released by Trump’s Save America PAC Monday night and dated June 9, McSwain told the former president “you were right to be upset about the way the Democrats ran the 2020 election in Pennsylvania – it was a partisan disgrace.”

Trump has repeatedly falsely claimed that his election defeat to Democratic President Joe Biden was the result of widespread fraud – an assertion that has been rejected by multiple courts, state election officials and members of his own administration. Hundreds of his supporters launched a deadly assault on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 after Trump repeated those false claims in a fiery speech near the White House.

As a result, some large U.S. law firms shied away from representing Trump when he challenged Biden’s victory. Many more decried his behavior following the attack on the Capitol.

McSwain said in his June letter that as U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, he received “various allegations of voter fraud and election irregularities,” but was instructed by then-U.S. attorney general Bill Barr to not make any public statement about it.

“I disagreed with that decision, but those were my orders,” McSwain wrote.

McSwain said Barr told him to pass along serious allegations to Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro, whom McSwain identified in his letter as his most likely Democratic opponent in 2022.

McSwain called Shapiro “irresponsible” for having “declared” the election all-but unwinnable for Trump, apparently referencing an Oct. 31 tweet by Shapiro that said “If all the votes are added up in PA, Trump is going to lose.”

A spokeswoman for the Pennsylvania attorney general’s office said McSwain’s letter to Trump is the first time the office has heard his 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,” said spokeswoman Jacklin Rhoads.

Since the letter’s release, McSwain has doubled down on his criticism of Shapiro, calling him on Twitter a “fake prosecutor” who “preordained” the result of the presidential election in Pennsylvania.

While McSwain’s letter does not explicitly call Biden an illegitimate winner, it asserts Pennsylvania’s governor, secretary of the commonwealth and highest court “made up their own rules and did not follow the law.”

Rhoads said law enforcement has already determined there was no widespread voter fraud in Pennsylvania’s 2020 elections.

McSwain is a partner in Duane Morris’s trial practice group in Philadelphia. When he was hired in February, the firm touted his record on white collar enforcement, including the creation of a unit that targeted people who defrauded federal government health care programs.

McSwain wrote on Twitter Tuesday that he was “pleased” Trump shared the letter because he believes in transparency.

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