Justice official leaves election crimes division after Barr authorizes fraud investigations

The official will stay at the Justice Department in a non-supervisory post.

By Sophie Mann

A Justice Department official overseeing investigations into voting-related crimes resigned from his post after Attorney General William Barr announced Monday that U.S. attorneys across the country will be authorized to investigate alleged election fraud.

The official, Richard Pilger, has been the director of the agency’s Election Crimes Branch for a decade. He will now work for the agency in a “nonsupervisory role related corruption prosecutions,” according to The New York Times.

In an email to his colleagues, Pilger wrote that Barr’s decision is “abrogating the forty-year old Non-Interference Policy for ballot fraud investigation in the period prior to elections becoming certified and uncontested.”

Pilger’s decision follows President Trump refusing to concede the 2020 presidential election to Democrat Joe Biden. Several  news agencies on Saturday declared Biden the president elect, based on election results. The Trump campaign and others are alleging widespread voter fraud across the country changed the results of several key battleground state’s in favor of Biden. The Trump campaign has begun a series of litigation battles across the nation.