The Justice Department is looking into whether it can bring criminal charges against election officials the Trump administration believes aren’t doing enough to safeguard their computer systems, The New York Times reports.
The agency’s inquiry is driven by an unsubstantiated belief among President Donald Trump and his administration that American elections are highly susceptible to widespread voter fraud and manipulation by other countries, the Times reports, citing sources familiar with these discussions.
The move would raise the stakes for election officials who are targeted by federal investigations and introduce unprecedented criminalization into the election process, the Times reports.
The agency’s criminal division has already reached out to at least two states about their information-sharing practices, the Times reports.
Two other states received letters from another Justice Department division with questions about their compliance with federal election laws, according to the Times. One question specifically asks about their safety measures around voting machines.
A Justice Department spokesperson told the Times the agency “will leave no option off the table when it comes to promoting free, fair and secure elections.”
Trump signed an executive order in March calling for “preserving and protecting the integrity of American elections.” The order mandates citizenship proof for federal election registration, introduces new regulations for equipment and requires officials to only count ballots received by Election Day. Some states have successfully sued to block certain parts of the order.
Legal experts told the Times they’re concerned about this potential heightened threat of criminalization, given Trump’s prior false claims about election integrity.
U.S. elections are already safe and secure, according to Dax Goldstein, program director of election protection at the States United Democracy Center.
“The tactics we’re seeing out of [Justice Department] right now are building on what we’ve seen from anti-democracy groups for years,” Goldstein told the Times. “They’re rooted in the same lies about elections, and they’re all meant to create noise and fear and concerns about issues with our elections that just don’t exist.”
“[The Justice Department] has the full power of the federal government behind it,” Goldstein added. “And under the guise of election integrity, they could end up using their unique tools to introduce new vulnerabilities to the system.”
When Trump lost the 2020 presidential election to Joe Biden, he repeatedly spread the false claim the election was stolen through widespread voter fraud.
Trump’s allies also spread an unfounded conspiracy theory that voting machines were hacked in 2020. Fox News even paid a $787.5 million settlement in a defamation lawsuit brought by a voting machine company after broadcasting similar conspiracies.
There is no evidence to suggest the 2020 election results were fraudulent.
Trump was charged in 2023 with conspiracy to overturn the election. However, those charges were dropped after he won his second term in office.
The Independent has contacted the Justice Department and White House for comment.
