An internal Justice Department memo obtained by the Associated Press directed the agency’s unit tasked with enforcing voting rights laws to instead focus on investigating voter fraud. The new directive is aimed at supporting President Donald Trump’s continued assertion that his 2020 election defeat to Joe Biden was the result of widespread irregularities and illegal activity, despite no such evidence.
“The mission of the Voting Rights Section of the DOJ Civil Rights Division is to ensure free, fair and honest elections unmarred by fraud, errors or suspicion,” the new memo said.
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The Heritage Foundation found 252 instances of voter fraud across 407,929,198 ballots cast in seven swing states going back nearly four decades.
It added that the unit will “vigorously enforce” a recent Trump executive order that sought to change how U.S. elections are conducted. That executive order is already facing legal challenges as election procedures are dictated by states, not the federal government.
William Barr, Trump’s attorney general during his first term, has publicly stated there was no evidence of widespread fraud in the 2020 election. Barr’s statement was corroborated by numerous recounts, audits and court challenges in battleground states.
The Justice Department’s voting section is a civil unit that helps enforce laws ensuring American voters aren’t disenfranchised. As such, it does not investigate potential crimes. That falls to a separate unit within the Department of Justice’s criminal division, as noted by the Associated Press.
However, under the new guidance, the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division will now be tasked with making sure “only American citizens vote in U.S. federal elections,” a reference to Trump’s belief that noncitizens voted in large numbers during the 2020 election. Voting by noncitizens is already illegal and carries with it felony charges and potential deportation.
As the AP noted, noncitizen voting happens rarely. However, a previous proof-of-citizenship requirement in Kansas blocked 31,000 eligible U.S. citizens from registering to vote. Trump’s executive order includes a provision mandating proof-of-citizenship when registering to vote.
Meanwhile, the memo also stated that the DOJ’s voting division will “protect the right of American citizens to have their votes properly counted and tabulated” — another reference to theories about voting irregularities despite no evidence.
Whereas Barr largely refuted Trump’s claims of a stolen election, the president’s new attorney general, Pam Bondi, has championed his efforts. As has Harmeet Dhillon, who currently oversees the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division and voting section.
“The Civil Rights Division has always worked to make sure Americans have access to the polls and that their votes matter,” said Stacey Young, who spent 18 years at the DOJ before resigning her post days after Trump’s inauguration. “The division’s job is not to promote the politically expedient fiction that voting fraud is widespread.”
The Department of Justice did not return the AP’s request for comment.
