A Justice Department task force created to prosecute threats against election workers has apparently gone dormant under the Trump administration as federal prosecutors pursue a growing number of cases against noncitizens accused of voting illegally.
From 2021 to 2024, the department's election threats task force received more than 2,000 reports of threats, opened more than 100 investigations and prosecuted 21 cases, reported The Guardian. One defendant was Solomon Peña, a failed candidate for the New Mexico statehouse who organized shootings at the homes of election officials.
Nikki Fisher, the former chief election security officer for the Oregon secretary of state, said both Democrats and Republicans faced prosecution for harassing and threatening election workers. That work, she said, has since stopped.
"While officials are being trained to handle threats, the federal deterrent meant to punish the people making them appears to have gone quiet," Fisher said. "To date, no new cases have been prosecuted, and the DoJ's election threats task force appears to be defunct in practice."
When The Guardian asked about the task force's status, the Justice Department did not address it directly and instead pointed to nine press releases from the past five weeks announcing indictments of foreign nationals on election fraud and identity theft charges.
Attorney General Todd Blanche said Wednesday that the department has charged more than 90 people with voter-related fraud offenses, including 50 noncitizens in the last five weeks. He compared that with 13 such cases brought under the Biden administration.
"What we do at Department of Homeland Security is not controversial; we're enforcing our nation's laws," Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said at the same event.
The shift comes after the administration dismantled several election security operations early in Trump's second term.
On her first day as attorney general, Pam Bondi eliminated the FBI's foreign influence task force, which investigated election meddling by China, Russia and other adversaries.
Staff at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency who worked on foreign interference were fired or reassigned. A CISA program that helped local officials share information about threats lost its funding.
Former officials warn that the cuts leave local election offices exposed with the midterms weeks away.
"This administration … has dismantled the entire apparatus that is responsible for detecting and holding these bad actors accountable," said Caitlin Durkovich, a former deputy homeland security adviser on the National Security Council.
Geoff Hale, a former CISA director, said the loss of coordination means local agencies may be unable to spot threats that span multiple jurisdictions.