The US chief prosecutor for election crimes resigned after being ordered to investigate the election

The Director of Election Crimes of the United States Department of Justice, Richard Pilgrim, resigned Monday evening after the Attorney General William Barr’s order to investigate alleged presidential election fraud.

“Having become familiar with the new rule and its ramifications (…) unfortunately I have to resign from my position as director of the Electoral Crimes DivisionThis was announced by Pilger in an internal communication leaked to the US media.

This resignation comes after Barr criticized Pilger’s division role on Monday and instructed all Justice Department prosecutors to investigate alleged irregularities in past presidential elections before the results were final.

pilgrim regretted that Barr’s order “repealed a 40-year rule of (federal) non-interference in electoral fraud investigations during the run-up to election certification”.. Fraud investigations are usually the responsibility of states, which set their own rules.

The Department of Justice’s policy thus far has been to hope that the vote counts are certified, the count is completed, and that the elections are already over before we get involved. But Barr told prosecutors that this practice has never been such a tightly binding rule and that if they see anything that could reverse the November 3 election results, they should look into it.

“I authorize to investigate substantive allegations of irregularities in voting or voting tabulation prior to certification of elections in their jurisdictions in certain cases, as I have already done in specific casesBarr said in a note to his prosecutors.

“Such investigations and reviews can be done if there are clear and seemingly credible allegations of wrongdoing which, if true, could potentially affect the outcome of a federal election in a particular state“He added.

Trump, in an unprecedented position for a US president, continues to fail to acknowledge his rival’s triumph, insisting on allegations of fraud. But while his team went to court, no known evidence of significant irregularities.

The President’s Attorney General (Minister of Justice), Donald Trump, has also instructed his prosecutors to discard case complaints that, if true, would not affect the final outcome, as these can be resumed once the results are certified.

With this order, Barr put federal prosecutors at the service of Trump’s strategy. The campaign of the outgoing president and the Republican Party have filed more than a dozen lawsuits – some already withdrawn – in various states denouncing alleged irregularities, but even if these cases were true they do not seem enough to overturn the result.

To win the court election, Trump would have to flip the ballot in Pennsylvania, Georgia and Nevada or Arizona – all states where Biden has already been declared the winner or is clearly leading the vote.

(With information from EFE and AFP)

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