President Donald J. Trump speaks on Election Night 2020 (Video screenshot)
A Department of Justice official who was responsible for investigating elections crimes abruptly resigned after getting instructions to review evidence when it exists of those offenses in the 2020 presidential race.
And Donald Trump Jr. immediately provided a reason for the departure from the DOJ of Richard Pilger, who had been director of the Election Crimes Branch.
Pilger sent a memo to others in the DOJ suggesting his quitting was linked to a memo from Attorney General William Barr authorizing federal investigators to look into "specific allegations" of vote fraud.
"Wait. Seriously? Isn't this the guy who was involved with the IRS and Lois Lerner in targeting conservatives and the Tea Party?" Donald Trump Jr. said on social media. "Maybe that's why he hasn't done ---- at the DOJ."
The facts are that there have been allegations regarding vote fraud or improper actions on the part of elections officials in multiple states following last week's election. They range from election officials coaching voters, to ballot harvesting, to computer software that it has been confirmed directed votes away from President Trump and toward Joe Biden, voter ID program failures, and more.
There have been sworn statements submitted by witnesses attesting to fraud, and witnesses on video describing how, for example, a postal supervisor instructed workers to back-date mailed ballots that missed the deadline in order for them to be counted.
NBC reported Pilger quit as the president's team mounted challenges to networks' decision to announce Biden as the winner.
The network editorialized that the challenges were "baseless."
Pilger's statement said, "Having familiarized myself with the new policy and its ramifications, and in accord with the best tradition of the John C. Keeney Award for Exceptional Integrity and Professionalism (my most cherished Departmental recognition), I must regretfully resign from my role as Director of the Election Crimes Branch."
Barr's memo authorized prosecutors simply to "to pursue substantial allegations of voting and vote tabulation irregularities prior to the certification of elections."
It calls for review of situations when there is "clear and apparently credibly allegations of irregularities that, if true, could potentially impact the outcome of a federal election in an individual state."
The statement from Donald Trump Jr. referred to the scandal that erupted during the administration of Barack Obama in which IRS officials singled out and targeted conservative organizations like the Tea Party, and many Christian groups, for discrimination.
Their applications with the IRS were delayed, sometimes for years. They got unfavorable decisions. Their appeals were ignored, and more. The attacks on conservatives came at a time when Obama was running for re-election.
The Daily Mail reported, "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."
The report added, "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. In the exchange - which came shortly before the midterm elections - they spoke about the possibility of prosecuting groups for abusing their tax-exempt status. The pair also met around the same time - a meeting was later scrutinized in Congress. Lerner eventually pleaded the Fifth."
Barr's instructions noted that "it is imperative that the American people can trust that our elections were conducted in such a way that the outcomes accurately reflect the will of the voters."
He explained the normal process would be to wait for the conclusion of the election, but "such a passive and delayed enforcement approach can result in situations in which election misconduct cannot realistically be rectified."
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