FBI Director Kash Patel warns of imminent arrests over 2020 election claims
Federal officials are deploying over 1,000 monitors to polling places this November while Justice Department subpoenas target local election workers in Los Angeles and Alaska.
By Bianca Herrera ·
Voters in 50 states will face more than 1,000 federal monitors at polling places on November 3. Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon called this the largest Justice Department election observer effort in history. She stated the agents will document potential violations of federal law without interfering with voting. Local election officials, including some Republicans, are preparing for these deployments as they near the midterms.
The federal government has intensified its review of voter rolls and election infrastructure. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin claimed in July that the Department of Homeland Security identified more than 250,000 noncitizens registered to vote in California, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Nevada. He also cited roughly 25,000 noncitizen registrants in more than a dozen Republican-led states. Some Republican officials warned that these DHS findings are misleading and dramatically inflated. Mullin told Fox News in July that foreign adversaries can change voter registration and votes.
The Justice Department has sued roughly 30 states that refused to provide unredacted voter rolls. The department has lost every ruling in those cases so far. Dhillon said on Fox Business in July that the department found hundreds of thousands of dead people on voter rolls. Despite these claims, the administration has publicly announced only a few dozen election-related prosecutions. Last week, the Justice Department issued federal grand jury subpoenas to local election officials in Los Angeles County.
In Alaska, the Justice Department filed a lawsuit to block the state from certifying the results of its Senate race if Republican incumbent Dan S. Sullivan loses to Mary Peltola. The lawsuit alleges that the campaign of retired teacher Dan J. Sullivan was designed to confuse voters. Alaska’s Supreme Court ruled in June that both candidates could remain on the ballot. The department has also opened a criminal probe into the matter.
FBI Director Kash Patel has amplified the administration’s focus on the 2020 election. In April, he told Fox Business anchor Maria Bartiromo that the FBI has all the evidence needed to investigate claims that the 2020 election was rigged. Patel said the agency is working with prosecutors and that arrests are coming soon. It is not clear what specific arrests Patel was referring to. The FBI seized 700 boxes of 2020 election materials from Fulton County, Georgia, in January based on an affidavit from Kurt Olsen.
Mullin and DHS have denied plans to widely deploy Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to polling places. Mullin said recently that agents will only appear if required by a specific threat. However, DHS internal records indicate federal agents will monitor the midterms to hunt for voter fraud. The department is also seeking to withhold grant funding from states that refuse to adopt manual paper-ballot counts.
The Justice Department sued in California after DHS identified roughly 20,000 likely noncitizens registered to vote. A federal judge rejected the department’s demand to segregate their ballots on Wednesday. The department has made similar demands in Washington State. Mullin warned that election officials who fail to secure the midterms could face fines, penalties, or prison.
