The Justice Department’s top election crimes prosecutor resigned Monday in protest after Attorney General William Barr told federal prosecutors that they should examine allegations of voting irregularities before states move to certify results in the coming weeks.
Richard Pilger, director of the elections crimes branch in the Justice Department’s Public Integrity Section, told colleagues in an email that the attorney general was issuing “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.” Pilger also forwarded the memo to colleagues in his resignation letter.
While Trump trails Biden by tens of thousands of votes in several key states, AG Bill Barr has told prosecutors they could take steps such as interviewing witnesses during a period when they would normally need permission from the Election Crimes unit.
Read the memo here:
The memo came after weeks of internal discussions among Justice officials, during which senior officials told Barr changing the policy on fraud investigations would be a bad idea, according to a person briefed on the discussions. Barr issued the memo Monday to the surprise of senior officials, including Pilger, the person briefed on the matter said.
Full story is at CNN.
