Despite President Donald Trump’s regular warnings about electoral fraud and the vulnerabilities of mail voting, his Department of Justice has not set up its usual “command center” to address Election Day emergencies, according to a report.
While there are still five months to go until November’s midterms, NOTUS points out that it is unusual for the DOJ not to have taken steps to establish a center at FBI headquarters for local officials and the public to report irregularities and possible crime.
The center has, in the past, been a 24-hour operation staffed by public corruption prosecutors and investigators to guide law enforcement’s responses. It has been supplemented by an auxiliary team of specialized prosecutors at DOJ headquarters, on hand to address issues as they arise.
Insiders have also raised concerns about the department reportedly canceling election integrity training sessions for its prosecutors and FBI agents, deleting a 281-page guide to prosecuting election offenses from the DOJ website, and not replacing the head of the Election Crimes Branch Rob Heberle after his resignation in February 2025.
NOTUS says the DOJ’s actions and inaction have “alarmed” current and former personnel, who warn it is not in a fit state to address integrity issues with November fast approaching.
However, a spokesperson for the department has rejected those fears, telling The Independent: “Ensuring the integrity of U.S. elections and protecting Americans against voting fraud and civil rights violations are top priorities for the Department of Justice.
“Just as in previous election cycles, the department has appointed a District Election Officer in each U.S. Attorney’s Office who will be responsible for overseeing the district’s handling of Election Day complaints, which include voting rights concerns, threats of violence, and election fraud in consultation with Justice Department headquarters in Washington.
“We are and will continue to work together with our partner agencies to help safeguard every American’s right to vote.”
They point out that the DOJ has both Criminal and Civil Rights Divisions in place to handle election-related complaints and that federal prosecutors and agents in the field will be trusted to liaise with headquarters without the need for a centralized go-between.
But for Ryan Crosswell, a former public corruption prosecutor who recently ran for Congress as a Democrat, the decision to do without the command center is “really concerning.”
“Obviously, the command center and training are something that anybody who wants to protect election integrity would want,” he told NOTUS.
“And this just feeds into the fear that rather than protect elections, the DOJ may try to interfere with them. That’s pretty scary.”
The prospect of ICE agents being deployed to polling stations on Election Day was also raised as a concern by insiders.
However, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin recently moved to reassure senators on the issue by saying: “The only reason why my officers should be there is if there was a specific threat for them to be there, not for intimidation.”
Trump has already begun crying foul over last week’s elections in California, insisting they are “crooked” and claiming that Republican candidates are “being cheated” by Golden State Democrats, without providing evidence.
He angrily stormed out of an interview with NBC’s Meet the Press Sunday when host Kristen Welker suggested he had never produced evidence to back up his oft-repeated claim that the 2020 presidential vote was “stolen” from him.
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