DOJ Moves to Secure Elections
In a renewed bid to dismantle the “Deep State” — the entrenched bureaucracy accused of running a shadow agenda at odds with the elected president — President Trump has launched “election integrity” initiatives that have energized Republicans and angered Democrats.
One of these moves was rolled out by the DOJ last week, as voting day approaches for a handful of states that hold elections in odd-numbered years.
The DOJ announced it plans to send federal election watchers to several counties in California and New Jersey to help monitor their November elections, following requests from Republican officials in these states.
“In recent elections, we have received reports of irregularities in these counties that we fear will undermine either the willingness of voters to participate in the election or their confidence in the announced results of the election,” California GOP Chairwoman Corrin Rankin wrote in a letter to the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division.
The New Jersey GOP sent a similar letter about Passaic County, which is heavily Latino and once favored Democrats, but voted for President Donald Trump in 2024. The state GOP alleged a “long and sordid history” of vote-by-mail fraud.
The plan to send election monitors to these states has drawn fire from Democrats. LA Governor Gavin Newsom slammed the move, accusing the administration of trying to “intimidate” voters.
“They have no business doing that,” Newsom said of the DOJ’s monitoring effort. “This is about voter intimidation. This is about voter suppression, period. Full stop.”
Attorney General Pam Bondi brushed off those allegations, insisting the goal of the election observers in Passaic County, New Jersey, as well as Los Angeles, Orange, Kern, Riverside and Fresno counties in California, is to “ensure transparency, ballot security, and compliance with federal law.”
“Transparency at the polls translates into faith in the electoral process, and this Department of Justice is committed to upholding the highest standards of election integrity,” Bondi said.
New Jersey will be electing a new governor as Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat, prepares to leave office.
But the real focus of Trump’s efforts in on Proposition 50 in California, where voters will decide on a ballot measure aimed at redrawing the state’s congressional map and redistricting the counties to tilt toward a Democratic majority.
If the proposition passes, it will alter the balance of power in the U.S. House of Representatives, adding up to 5 additional Democratic seats to the chamber.
Advocates of the Proposition argue it is meant to counter states like Texas that has redrawn its map to help boost its Republican population, pushing the needle toward greater GOP representation in the House.
Democrats Fume Over “Election Deniers” Winning Gov’t Posts
While DOJ assistance on election security is not in itself unusual, its focus on California is coming in a politically charged context. Democrats have been fuming over President Trump’s installment of so-called “election deniers” into influential federal posts in recent months, a NY Times article makes clear.
Under the headline “Trump Empowers Election Deniers,” the article spent more than 2,000 words assailing Trump’s appointees and warning that their placements are groundwork for an eventual power grab.
“The president has placed proponents of his false claims into government jobs, raising fears that he aims to seize authority over elections ahead of next year’s midterms,” the article’s subheading railed.
One of these appointees, Heather Honey, was installed as HHS’s Deputy Assistant Secretary for Election Integrity; another Marci McCarthy, accepted the post of Director of Public Affairs at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA).
A third, Kurt Olsen, was tasked by President Trump with examining the 2020 election and other election matters.
Trump’s new election officials, the NY Times article complained, are all “rightwing activists” who are now “government insiders, who could wield their newfound power to discredit future results to argue for a federal intrusion into voting systems.”
To put it another way: For anyone who may have entertained thoughts of cheating at the polls, the administration’s campaign to make elections more secure is very bad news.
Accountability for Biden-Era Abuse of Power
What seems to most rattle Democrats is not the election moves but a far bigger headache: a Trump-appointed Interagency Weaponization Working Group (IWWG) staffed by senior figures from ODNI, the CIA, FBI, DOJ and other intelligence and security departments.
Reuters underlined the “danger” with a blunt headline: “Exclusive: Wide-ranging group of US officials pursues Trump’s fight against ‘Deep State.’”
The Reuters coverage carried an unmistakable note of alarm that the task force not only exists but has been meeting frequently and for months without the press catching wind of it.
To make matters worse, IWWG’s ranks reportedly include “Covid-mandate dissenters” and backers of Trump’s “election-fraud claims,” the article said.
Led by National Security Director Tulsi Gabbard, the IWWG has been charged with “ending the weaponization of government” and “undoing some of the abuses committed under the Biden administration,” Gabbard said in a statement.
The task force was formalized almost a year ago as Executive Order 14147, signed into existence by President Trump on his first day in office. It is not “news” except in the sense that Reuters and other media apparently just noticed it.
The IWWG has been meeting twice a week— for months—and until now the media has for unknown reasons completely overlooked it. Possibly they thought it was just another blue-ribbon commission with impressive sounding names that does little but collects extravagant salaries.
Political Attacks Against Opponents
The article quoted a spokesman for ODNI (Office of the Director of National Intelligence,) who said the group’s mission “is to uncover past misuse of federal authority and recommend reforms to prevent it from recurring.”
The spokesman cited concerns ranging from DOJ and FBI investigations of parents who attended school board meetings to protest curriculum content, to government pressure on social media companies and the suppression of the Hunter Biden laptop story.
“IWWG is simply looking at available facts and evidence that may point to actions, reports, agencies, individuals, etc. who illegally weaponized the government in order to carry out political attacks,” the article quoted a White House official as saying.
The spokesman singled out the claim that Biden aides “had coordinated with 51 former intel officials to interfere in the 2020 presidential election” by writing off Hunter Biden’s incriminating laptop as “Russian disinformation.”
The group is also going to investigate the TSA’s “Quiet Skies” program that secretly monitored Tulsi Gabbard’s every movement when flying.
Gabbard convened biweekly meetings of the IWWG starting in April to coordinate the working group’s response, with a final report to be delivered to the president at a later date.
“The American people made a clear choice when they elected President Trump — to stop the Biden administration’s prolific and dangerous weaponization of government agencies against the American people and the Constitution,” Gabbard said in a statement.
“I stood up this working group to start the important work of interagency coordination under President Trump’s leadership to deliver accountability,” Gabbard said. “True accountability is the first step toward lasting change.”
Trump Demands Probe Into 2020 Election
Seizing on news of a federal probe into a gambling ring with ties to professional basketball, President Trump on Sunday renewed his demand for a DOJ investigation into the 2020 election, calling it “a major scandal.”
“What’s worse — NBA players cheating at cards and probably much else, or the Democrats cheating on elections?” he wrote on his social platform.
Trump reiterated his position that “mail-in ballots” and early voting should be cancelled. He reissued his call for voter identification—legitimate proof of American citizenship—to be implemented as a universal requirement in every election, reported HuffPost and other media.
“The 2020 presidential election being rigged and stolen is a far bigger scandal,” Trump insisted, arguing that the country is now paying the price for having an “incompetent” Joe Biden at its helm.
“I hope the DOJ pursues this with as much gusto as befitting the biggest scandal in American history,” Trump continued, warning that if not exposed, “[rigged elections] will happen again, including the upcoming Midterms,” the president wrote.
He alleged that millions of ballots are being “shipped” into California ahead of the voting for California’s Proposition 50, rendering the election “totally dishonest.”
“Get smart Republicans, before it is too late,” Trump warned.
‘DOJ Unleashed Government Power’
As headlines erupted over the “just-discovered” IWWG — senior intelligence officials tasked with probing Biden-era abuses — Sen. Chuck Grassley released an April 2022 memo signed by three top FBI officials that appeared to exemplify those very excesses.
The memo reveals that the DOJ “unleashed unchecked government power” on Trump associates, the Iowa senator told Fox News.
The document was signed by then-Attorney General Merrick Garland, then-Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco, and then-FBI Director Christopher Wray. It authorized the FBI’s Washington Office to open an investigation into alleged efforts by Trump’s campaign team to obstruct Congress’ certification of the 2020 election.
Grassley posted the four-page memorandum online, saying it proves top Biden administration officials “personally approved” the case — which he referred to as “Arctic Frost” — and that it “unleashed unchecked government power at the highest levels.”
The executive summary of the top secret Arctic Frost document alleges that ‘Following the 2020 presidential election, fraudulent certificates of electors’ votes were submitted to the electoral college, professing to represent the actual elector votes from the states of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, and Wisconsin.’
“Your authorization is required before the Washington Field Office may initiate this full investigation,” the document continued.
Then-Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco Monaco wrote at the bottom of the document, “Merrick- I recommend you approve,” before initialing and dating it 4/5/22. Garland ultimately signed off on the investigation on the same day.
The memo, with its summary of the Justice Department’s examination of the so-called “fake electors” effort later became the basis of the probe conducted by former special counsel Jack Smith, whom AG Garland appointed to oversee the criminal investigations into Trump.
In 2023, Smith went for the jugular: he subpoenaed phone records belonging to eight Republican senators and one House member, covering a four-day period — Jan. 4 to Jan. 7, 2021 — to examine call activity around the Capitol riot.
The targeted senators included Republican Sens. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, Josh Hawley of Missouri and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. No evidence supporting the allegations about fake electors or illegal activity by the spied-upon senators was ever produced.
Grassley excoriated the FBI over its handling of Arctic Frost, calling the revelations about lawmakers’ phone records “disturbing and outrageous” and part of a pattern of “weaponization” that was “worse than Watergate.”
Moment of Reckoning for Those Who Spied on GOP Senators
Just days after revelations about Arctic Frost surfaced, the moment of reckoning came for many FBI officials who directed or took part in the investigation.
FBI Director Kash Patel announced he had terminated employees and abolished the entire CR-15 “public corruption” squad, after learning of the “baseless monitoring” of Republican congressmen launched by the Biden administration.
“We are cleaning up a diseased ‘temple’ three decades in the making,” Patel said. “We’re identifying the rot, removing those who weaponized law enforcement for political purposes, and those who do not meet the standards of this mission—while restoring integrity to the FBI.”
“I promised reform, and I intend to deliver it,” the FBI director said in a statement to Fox News.
In addition to the eight senators who were spied upon by the FBI, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, told Fox News that he recently discovered Smith also attempted to subpoena his toll records but that his phone company, AT&T, did not hand them over.
Sen. Marsha Blackburn has since accused Smith of having “spied on duly elected members of Congress” and called for the DOJ ex-special counsel’s disbarment.
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Clash Over Voter ID
In March 2025, President Trump signed an executive order requiring proof of U.S. citizenship for voter registration on federal forms. The order also sought to give federal agencies access to state voter databases for verification purposes.
A federal judge blocked the March 2025 executive order in June, ruling that the mandate likely exceeded the president’s authority and was unconstitutional. Election laws are set by state legislatures and to some degree by Congress, not the executive branch, argued Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly.
“No statutory delegation of authority to the Executive Branch permits the President to short-circuit Congress’s deliberative process by executive order,” Kotelly, a Clinton appointee, wrote in her order.
In August 2025, Trump stated his intention to sign another executive order to require voter ID for every vote, “without exception.” The president also underscored his determination to ban voting by mail in all cases, “except for people who were very ill or far away military.”
These policies were announced via social media and will in all likelihood face similar constitutional hurdles as the March executive order.
The idea of voter ID and showing proof of citizenship resonates with most Americans. One has to show ID to buy alcohol, rent an apartment, purchase tobacco products, apply for welfare, fly on a plane and rent a car. It’s only common sense to require a photo ID to vote, most reasonable people would agree.
A Gallup found in late 2024 found that 84% of U.S. adults were in favor of requiring voters to show identification and 83% supported requiring proof of citizenship when registering for the first time.
Critics argue that voter ID laws disproportionately affect minorities, low-income individuals, and disabled voters, many of whom lack a qualifying ID.
As of 2025, 36 states require identification from voters at the polls. Still, states vary in their strictness. Some require photo identification, and some have exceptions for low-income voters, those who have religious beliefs against being photographed, or those who are victims of domestic abuse and require confidentiality.
Earlier this month, the House passed the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, which would require states to obtain proof of citizenship for those registering to vote in a federal election. Additionally, the act mandates that all non-citizens be removed from voter rolls. The Senate still needs to pass the measure before it can reach Trump’s desk.
Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, who sponsored the bill in the House, wrote, “In order to preserve this republic, we must uphold what it means to be able to vote in a U.S. election. I am grateful that my colleagues answered the call and passed the SAVE Act, as this serves as a critical first step to ensure that we maintain election integrity throughout our country.”
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“Redistricting” Wars on the Eve of Elections
A “gerrymandering” (redistricting) race is in progress across the United States as a handful of states are in the process of redrawing electoral district boundaries to favor one political party over another prior to the November elections.
Concentrating a group of voters into a small number of districts to weaken their voting strength in surrounding districts is one gerrymandering tactic. Another is spreading a group of voters across multiple districts so they are a minority in each and cannot elect their preferred candidate. Both tactics are being used in the current redistricting wars.
In August, Texas Republicans redrew their state’s congressional seats to create five more favorable districts for the GOP, which could help the party maintain control of the U.S. House.
Last month, Missouri’s new map gave Republicans one additional seat. Kansas and Indiana Republicans are currently debating drawing new maps in those states, and Ohio, with a Republican majority, is legally required to draw a new one this year.
The Democrats have tried to counter Republican gerrymandering by usurping California’s established Map Commission, and taking California’s redistricting plan directly to voters in Proposition 50. If it passes, a new map could produce up five additional “blue” (Democratic) districts.
According to an NBC article, Democrats in Maryland and Illinois are also considering redistricting.
“Proposition 50 in California would replace the maps drawn by the state’s independent commission with districts drawn by legislators, solely to gain or protect Democratic seats,” Jeanne Raya, former chair of California’s first redistricting commission wrote in Call Matters. “And that political protection will extend through three election cycles—whether good for the population or not.”
“We’ve seen for decades how partisan gerrymandering suppresses voters’ choice, undermining public trust and feeding cynicism,” the author wrote. “We know that once given power, politicians will fight to retain it with the confidence that a declaration of crisis is all the cover they need.”
