On Monday, Trump Attorney General William Barr distributed a memo to federal prosecutors "authorizing" them to pursue any "apparently-credible allegations" of voting fraud in the 2020 elections. There currently are zero credible claims of such fraud, and it seems obvious that Barr was responding to pressure from delusional fascist Donald Trump to provide backup to Trump's false claims of fraud.
Barr has always proven himself willing to undermine this nation's democratic and governmental norms in service of Trump's desire to be treated like a king, so putting his office behind Trump's anti-democracy, anti-elections propaganda was nearly a given from the outset.
There is now a hint that Barr's actions have broader implications than merely placating Trump as Trump attempts to come to terms with his loss, however. Just hours after Barr's memo was distributed, reports NBC News, the Election Crimes Branch of the Department of Justice resigned, citing Barr's new policy as the reason.
Election Crimes head Richard Pilger wrote in a memo announcing his resignation that he did so after "having familiarized myself with the new policy and its ramifications," reports NBC. The network also says that Barr's apparent do-nothing memo will actually be doing quit a lot: Prior department policy barred "overt" investigations of an election until that election "has been concluded." Instead, Barr is "authorizing" prosecutors to do it immediately, while ballots are being counted.
While Barr was careful to say only "apparently-credible" allegations should be investigated, which are a far cry from the claims Trump's not-lawyers made in a press briefing sandwiched between a crematorium and sex toy shop, Pilger was outraged enough by the Barr's move to immediately quit his post. That suggests that he, at least, thinks Barr is preparing to engage in whatever fishing expeditions might be required to delegitimize the November vote.
That still requires Donald Trump's team of fascist deplorables to come up with any evidence of election fraud that is not based on asinine conspiracy theories, however, and so far Rudy Giuliani and other Trump allies haven't come up with anything that was not immediately (1) disproven and (2) laughed out of court. Barr may still be thinking that the memo is a cheap way to get Trump off his back, but he also might be laying groundwork in preparation for seizing on some future Trump claim and running with it. It's hard to say.
What we can't assume, though, is that there is a line Barr is unwilling to cross on Trump's behalf. Barr has helped hide evidence from Congress, has directly inserted himself into the prosecutions of Trump allies for Trump-serving crimes in order to sabotage those prosecutions, has traveled around the world looking for information to discredit his own department's conclusions on the scope and impact of Russian election manipulation, and is described as a true believer in ever-more-extreme Republican efforts to consolidate party power by whatever means necessary.