Richard Pilger

Never heard of him?  You will.  He was the Director of the Electoral Crimes branch of the Department of Justice:

Richard Pilger resigned after Attorney General William Barr authorized federal prosecutors across the U.S. to pursue ‘substantial allegations’ of voting irregularities before the 2020 presidential election is certified, despite little evidence of fraud. 

Pilger, director of the Election Crimes Branch of the Department of Justice since 2010, stepped down within hours of Barr’s announcement, in an email he sent to colleagues that was obtained by The New York Times.

Go here to read the rest.  What makes this bleakly amusing is that this faithful apparatchik of the Deep State was up to his neck back in 2010 in the attempt by the Obama administration to weaponize the IRS against conservative groups:

The request comes after Smith’s subordinate, Director of DOJ’s Election Crimes Branch, Richard Pilger, told Committee investigators in a transcribed interview that the Justice Department met with Lois Lerner in October 2010, two and a half years earlier than previously known, to discuss potential criminal enforcement relating to political speech of nonprofit groups in the wake of the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision.

“The Committee’s transcribed interview of Richard Pilger presents further troubling information about the Department’s contemplated prosecution of nonprofit groups for false statements,” Chairman Issa and Chairman Jordan state in the letter.  “It is apparent that the Department’s leadership, including Public Integrity Section Chief Jack Smith, was closely involved in engaging with the IRS in wake of Citizens United and political pressure from prominent Democrats to address perceived problems with the decision.”

“According to Mr. Pilger,” the letter continues, “the Justice Department convened a meeting with former IRS official Lois Lerner in October 2010 to discuss how the IRS could assist in the criminal enforcement of campaign-finance laws against politically active nonprofits.  This meeting was arranged at the direction of Public Integrity Section Chief Jack Smith.”

The meeting occurred days before Lois Lerner spoke at a Duke University event about the immense political pressure on the IRS to “fix the problem” created by Citizens United before the 2010 midterm election.

Earlier this week, Chairman Issa issued a subpoena after Pilger declined to answer critical questions on the instructions of a Justice Department lawyer during a transcribed interview on May 6, 2014.  The subpoena followed an April 23, 2014 letter from 17 Members of the Committee requesting materials concerning the Department’s involvement in efforts to scrutinize tax-exempt applicants after emails surfaced between Pilger and the Internal Revenue Service’s Lois Lerner where they discussed singling out and prosecuting tax-exempt applicants, at the urging of a Democratic Senator.

Go here to read the rest.  So why was this obvious enemy left in charge of this important arm of the DOJ?  Because the Trump administration never got control of the bureaucracy and the men that Trump appointed, like Attorney General Barr, failed to do so, either through incompetence or with malicious intent.  Choosing subordinates has always been Trump’s weakness and this flaw was magnified when he became the head of a government whose “public masters servants” was and is filled with adversaries, happy to become active members of Team Resistance.