Disgraced Demcorat operative Robert Creamer was seated at the front of the audience at President Barack Obama’s farewell speech in Chicago on Tuesday evening, despite his leading role in an effort to incite violence at Republican political events.

Creamer was exposed by James O’Keefe’s Project Veritas as the key figure in a complex scheme involving a tactic called “bird-dogging,” which involved planting trained activists at Donald Trump’s campaign rallies and other Republican events. The activists were trained to provoke members of the audience into reacting violently, and to provide footage to the media. The goal, as Creamer associate Scott Foval explained on hidden camera, was to create a sense of “anarchy” around Trump.

Although Creamer’s firm, Democracy Partners, apparently contracted directly with the Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee, the “bird-dogging” operations were reportedly set up so as to allow “plausible deniability.” Foval revealed that consultants used a system of text messages, which he called the “Pony Express,” to coordinate political activity between the campaign and an array of super PACs — in apparent contravention of federal campaign finance laws.

After his exposure by Project Veritas, Creamer resigned “from his responsibilities working with the [Clinton] campaign.”

Creamer is a convicted felon who went to federal prison in connection with a check-kiting scandal. He is married to Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), an early Obama supporters. (Full disclosure: the author ran against Schakowsky for Congress in 2020.) In the live broadcast of Obama’s farewell speech Tuesday, Creamer was seen standing and applauding next to Schakowsky.

In 2007, Creamer worked for the Obama campaign, training volunteers in the techniques of community organizing. He was a frequent visitor to the Obama White House, with 340 visits over several years, including 45 meetings with the president.

Several of Obama’s Chicago associates have been mired in controversy, including fundraiser Tony Rezko, from whom Obama bought a parcel of land even after Rezko was under federal investigation — a deal Obama later called a “boneheaded” mistake.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. He was named one of the “most influential” people in news media in 2016. His new book, How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.