Richard Pilger resigned after Attorney General William Barr authorized federal prosecutors across the U.S. to pursue 'substantial allegations' of voting irregularities before the 2020 presidential election is certified, despite little evidence of fraud.
Pilger, director of the Election Crimes Branch of the Department of Justice since 2010, stepped down within hours of Barr's announcement, in an email he sent to colleagues that was obtained by The New York Times.
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President Donald Trump's son, Don Jr, was quick to criticize Pilger.
He wrote: 'Wait. Seriously? Isn’t this the guy who was involved with the IRS and Lois Lerner in targeting conservatives and the Tea Party? Maybe that’s why he hasn’t done s**t at DOJ. #deepstate'
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Trump Jr's tweet refers to a scandal known as the 'IRS targeting controversy', when the department began targeting new tax-exempt groups following a 2010 Supreme Court ruling that allowed them to funnel money into politics.
An investigation into the scandal revealed that groups with 'Tea Party' and associated terms in their names had been put on an IRS list that singled them out for extra scrutiny, leading to accusations of bias.
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Lois Lerner, then head of the tax-exempt division at the IRS, had spoken with Richard Pilger over email in 2010, during his first year as head of the election crimes branch of the DoJ.
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In the exchange – one that came shortly before the midterm elections - they spoke about the possibility of prosecuting groups for abusing their tax-exempt status.
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The pair also met around the same time - a meeting was later scrutinized in Congress. Lerner eventually pleaded the Fifth.
Pilger submitted his resignation Monday evening shortly after his boss, Barr, announced the unprecedented federal support for the election investigations - a move which would seemingly delight Donald Trump.
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In his resignation email, Pilger said Barr's memo was 'an important new policy abrogating the forty-year-old Non-Interference-Policy for ballot fraud investigations in the period prior to elections becoming certified and uncontested.'
He explained his resignation was 'in accord with the best tradition of the John C. Keeney Award for Exceptional Integrity and Professionalism (my most cherished Departmental recognition).'
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Barr's memo angered legal experts, who pointed out that any issues around voting are handled at the state level and should not be considered a federal matter.
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Barr's action comes merely days after Joe Biden defeated President Donald Trump and raises the prospect that Trump will use the Justice Department to try to challenge the outcome.
It gives prosecutors the ability to go around longstanding Justice Department policy that normally would prohibit such overt actions before the election is formally certified.
Trump has not conceded the election and is instead claiming without evidence that there has been a widespread, multi-state conspiracy by Democrats to skew the vote tally in Biden's favor.
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