• Attorney General William Barr sent a memo authorizing the Department of Justice to investigate voter fraud, despite the fact that there is no evidence of fraud. 
• The move also breaks precedent with DOJ policy to not investigate an election until the results are certified. Barr acknowledged this but said that is not a “hard and fast rule” and that a case-specific judgment had to be made. 
• Following this, the director of the Election Crimes Branch of the DOJ, Richard Pilger, resigned from his position citing Barr’s memo and the ramifications of it.
• Others, including Biden campaign officials and prominent Democratic senators, have either slammed Barr for making this choice or slammed members of the Republican party for backing Trump in his unfounded claims of voter fraud.

Barr Authorizes Voter Fraud Investigations

The Director of the Election Crimes Branch of the Department of Justice resigned Monday after Attorney General William Barr sent a memo authorizing the department to probe voter fraud, despite there being no evidence to support any wide-scale fraud in the 2020 election. 

Barr’s memo breaks standard DOJ policy, not just by encouraging an investigation based on unfounded claims, but by prompting an investigation before an election has been certified. 

“Overt investigative steps ordinarily should not be taken until the election in question has been concluded, its results certified, and all recounts and election contests concluded,” Barr acknowledged. 

“Such a passive and delayed enforcement approach can result in situations in which election misconduct cannot realistically be rectified,” he added. “Moreover, this Election Crimes Branch practice has never been a hard and fast rule, and case-specific determinations and judgments must be made.”

Barr said that most allegations of misconduct would not be big enough to actually impact the results of the election, but that this is not always the case. As far as fears about the potential of the department inadvertently impacting the results of the election, Barr said that risk is small after voting is concluded, even if the election has not yet been certified.  

“Given this and given that voting in our current elections has now concluded, I authorize you to pursue substantial allegations of voting and vote tabulation irregularities prior to the certification of elections in your jurisdictions in certain cases, as I have already done in specific instances,” Barr wrote. 

Barr has been repeatedly criticized for politicizing his department in favor of the White House. In his memo, he encouraged attorneys to maintain a commitment to neutrality and not investigate “specious, speculative, fanciful or far-fetched claims.” 

Election Crimes Director Resigns

Currently, there is no merit to the claims President Donald Trump and those in his circle have made about voter fraud in the election, which was declared for President-Elect Joe Biden on Saturday. Election officials on both sides of the aisle have said they have not seen any evidence indicating fraud.

Not long after Barr released this memo, Richard Pilger, the director of the Election Crimes Branch of the DOJ sent out a resignation email that was obtained by multiple news outlets. 

“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,” he wrote. 

“I have enjoyed very much working with you for over a decade to aggressively and diligently enforce federal criminal election law, policy, and practice without partisan fear or favor. I thank you for your support in that effort.”

Barr’s announcement comes just a month after the DOJ lifted constraints when it comes to election fraud inquiries and investigations. He also released the note not long after meeting with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who has been backing Trump’s efforts to not concede the election. 

According to sources from The New York Times, Barr himself has privately said that he thinks election disputes should be resolved within the courts. He also has said he has not seen anything indicating mass voter fraud. Still, he has cleared the path for claims to be investigated anyways. 

Responses to Barr’s Announcement

Biden campaign attorney Bob Bauer told the Associated Press that it is “deeply unfortunate that Attorney General Barr chose to issue a memorandum that will only fuel the ‘specious, speculative, fanciful or far-fetched claims’ he professes to guard against.”

“Those are the very kind of claims that the president and his lawyers are making unsuccessfully every day, as their lawsuits are laughed out of one court after another,” Bauer told the outlet. “But, in the end, American democracy is stronger than any clumsy and cynical partisan political scheme.”

Vanita Gupta, the former head of the Civil Rights division of the DOJ under former President Barack Obama, accused Barr of “scaremongering.” 

“Let’s be clear – this is about disruption, disinformation, and sowing chaos. Trump is furious, demanding all ‘his’ lawyers take action,” Gupta wrote. “They have no evidence so they’ll push  the PR. Doesn’t change the result.”

Even though Gupta has no faith that this effort will change the election’s outcome, she does think it will “play harm by seeking to undermine confidence, create fear and validate Trump’s lies.”

But leaders like McConnell are still pulling pages from Trump’s book and paving the way for legal battles and investigations into an election that, for all intents and purposes, still benefited them even though they lost the presidency. McConnell and other Republicans are not calling fraud on the House or Senate races their party won, even though those races were won on the same ballots Trump lost the presidency.

“In the United States of America, all legal ballots must be counted. Any illegal ballots must not be counted,” McConnell said on the Senate floor on Monday. “The process should be transparent or observable by all sides and the courts are here to work through concerns.”

“Our institutions are actually built for this. We have the system in place to consider concerns. And President Trump is 100% within his rights to look into allegations of irregularities and weigh his legal options.”

McConnell has faced backlash from Democrats for supporting the president in his baseless claims aimed at calling a fair election into question. 

“The American people made their voices heard in record numbers and chose  Joe Biden as their next president,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) wrote. “Rejecting that mandate in favor of political games and conspiracy theories is a dangerous attack on our democracy—even by Mitch McConnell’s standards.”

See what others are saying: (Associated Press) (New York Times) (NBC News)