Attorney General Todd Blanche took an extraordinary step to shore up the Trump administration's discredited voter fraud claims in a key swing state.
Blanche personally signed off on misdemeanor charges against four people in Nevada, Adam Klasfeld of All Rise News reported Thursday, a move one former federal prosecutor said is nearly unheard of for the nation's top law enforcement official.
The Trump administration has struggled to defend its voter fraud push in the state since the Department of Homeland Security's early claim that close to 16,000 noncitizens were on Nevada's voter rolls fell apart. When state officials reviewed a list of 185 people the federal government said were improperly registered, they determined every one was a U.S. citizen.
Federal prosecutors have since brought cases against four people and pointed to them as proof that Nevada officials and the press had it wrong. But Klasfeld found that Blanche was listed as the lead signer on all four charging documents, with Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Anthony Lopez as the only other prosecutor to sign.
None of the cases went before a grand jury. Each was filed as a criminal information, a charging method commonly used for misdemeanors, and the dockets show no pleas entered and no defense attorneys listed.
"The Attorney General himself signing a criminal information is extremely rare if it has even ever been done before," Mimi Rocah, a former federal prosecutor who worked alongside Blanche in the Southern District of New York, told All Rise News. "It raises huge red flags about why he is doing so in any particular case."
Former Attorney General Pam Bondi drew scrutiny for personally signing the indictment of Don Lemon, and other top Trump Justice Department officials have taken control of politically sensitive cases the White House cares about.
All Rise News noted there's a reason Nevada's U.S. attorney didn't sign. Sigal Chattah, the state's top federal prosecutor, couldn't win Senate confirmation and instead took the title of first assistant, but the 9th Circuit ruled she has been unlawfully acting as U.S. attorney in all but name. She has stayed in the role while appeals play out.
Klasfeld reported that her signature could have jeopardized the cases. Last year, former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James got their indictments thrown out because they were brought by Lindsey Halligan, a former Trump aide unlawfully installed as a U.S. attorney in Virginia.
Chattah has not appeared in any of the cases but still took credit for them Thursday, warning in a press release that anyone trying to undermine elections through criminal conduct "will meet swift and decisive accountability."
The Justice Department did not immediately respond to All Rise News' request for comment.