Free Republic

The special counsel named by the Biden administration to investigate Donald Trump oversaw a Justice Department unit rebuked by the Supreme Court for its prosecution of a prominent Republican and was linked by Congress to the IRS scandal that targeted conservative groups. Jack Smith, a war crimes prosecutor in The Hague and former chief of the DOJ public integrity section, was named Friday by Attorney General Merrick Garland to take over two investigations of Trump related to Jan. 6 and classified documents found at Mar-a-Lago. In 2014, the House Oversight Committee concluded that during Smith's earlier stint at DOJ he...

A senior Justice Department official recently flagged by a U.S. senator in an FBI whistleblower probe into alleged politicization of prosecutions played a key role in the Lois Lerner IRS scandal a decade ago in which conservative Tea Party groups were improperly targeted for scrutiny, government emails and congressional evidence shows.Richard Pilger, the current chief of the DOJ Elections Crime Branch of the department's Public Integrity Section, engaged in discussions in 2010 and 2013 with Lerner and other IRS officials about ways to pursue criminal prosecutions of conservative nonprofits, the records show.The discussion led the FBI, with Pilger's direct help,...

"Highly credible" whistleblowers have come forward to a senior Senate Republican alleging a widespread effort within the FBI to downplay or discredit negative information about President Joe Biden's son, Hunter Biden, according to letters reviewed by CBS News. "The information provided to my office involves concerns about the FBI's receipt and use of derogatory information relating to Hunter Biden, and the FBI's false portrayal of acquired evidence as disinformation," GOP Sen. Chuck Grassley wrote FBI Director Christopher Wray and Attorney General Merrick Garland on July 25. "The volume and consistency of these allegations substantiate their credibility and necessitate this letter."...

It is no mere coincidence that the once highly regarded FBI has become a malevolent force, a cancer on the body politic. Like any cancer, it needs to be cut out, and destroyed as an institution. Harsh words, but the shameful, partisan conduct of the FBI during the past 7 years conjurers up images of the Soviet’s KGB or East Germany’s Stasi. Let me be clear, especially for any FBI thugs monitoring me, I am calling for the lawful action of Congress to defund the Bureau and create a new, professional Federal police force. This is not a call for...

As claims of election voter fraud continue, DOJ’s Richard Pilger has reportedly quit his role as Head of Election Crimes. On November 9th, emails from Pilger were released that outlined plans to resign from his role at the US Department of Justice. “Having familiarised myself with the new policy and its ramification, I must regretfully resign from my role as director of election crimes branch,” he wrote in the email, which was obtained by The New York Times and shared on social media after. **SNIP** As Head of Election Crimes in the DOJ, his role consists of supervising all federal...

Mr. Barr’s authorization prompted the Justice Department official who oversees investigations of voter fraud, Richard Pilger, to step down from the post within hours, according to an email Mr. Pilger sent to colleagues that was obtained by The New York Times. […] Mr. Barr said he had authorized “specific instances” of investigative steps in some cases. But he made clear in a carefully worded memo that prosecutors had the authority to investigate only “substantial allegations” of irregularities, warning that “specious, speculative, fanciful or far-fetched claims should not be a basis for initiating federal inquiries.” Mr. Barr’s directive ignored the Justice...

"Having familiarized myself with the new policy and its ramifications... I must regretfully resign from my role as director of the Election Crimes Branch."

Richard Pilger, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) Director of the Election Crimes Branch, has resigned following Attorney General William Barr's authorization earlier today for federal prosecutors to investigate allegations of voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election. Pilger reportedly tendered his resignation within hours of Barr's green-lighting of investigations into allegations of fraud that have yet to be substantiated, The New York Times reported. The re-election campaign of Republican President Donald Trump and various Republican political leaders on the federal and state level have alleged that fraudulent ballots swung the contentious presidential race into the favor of Trump's opponent,...

In multiple embassies around the world, particularly those staffed entirely by career Foreign Service officers, no portrait of President Trump or Vice-President Pence has been hung. Up until last week, the swamp had an excuse – there was no official portrait and the swamp refused to go to the trouble to find unofficial ones. But it’s not just the entrances to embassies where it seems the 2016 election never happened. All throughout the government, Obama-holdovers who rabidly oppose President Trump and his policies still hold positions of extraordinary power. The swamp is alive and well. Consider the National Security...

Imagine this: Amidst a close election, a partisan government lawyer with questionable authority investigates a conservative nonprofit supporting a political candidate. The government theorizes the candidate and organization are communicating too much—”coordinating” in legal parlance. A court eventually exonerates the group finding the government’s theory onerous. But it does so only after a years-long investigation that clouds the group’s operations, impedes its fundraising efforts, and ultimately negates its ability to influence voters during the election. The above scenario indeed happened. But it was not, as the reader may suspect, the recently terminated ‘John Doe‘ investigation, which targeted Wisconsin Club for...

On Wednesday Darrell Issa demanded Attorney General Eric Holder answer new questions about the Justice Department’s role in the IRS’s targeting of conservative groups. In a letter sent to Holder, Issa sought answers about a newly released email between former IRS official Lois Lerner and DOJ official Richard Pilger in which Pilger asks Lerner “When you have a moment, will you call me? I’ve been asked to run something by you” and requests who at the IRS “DOJ folks could talk to” about ways to target politically involved non-profit groups. So far none of the broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, NBC)...

According to new IRS emails obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request from Judicial Watch, former head of tax exempt groups at the IRS Lois Lerner contacted the Department of Justice in May 2013 about whether tax exempt groups could be criminally prosecuted for "lying" about political activity. "I got a call today from Richard Pilger Director Elections Crimes Branch at DOJ ... He wanted to know who at IRS the DOJ folk s [sic] could talk to about Sen. Whitehouse idea at the hearing that DOJ could piece together false statement cases about applicants who "lied" on their...