A national coalition of prosecutors put President Donald Trump “on notice” Tuesday morning that if he dispatches federal immigration officials to polling places during the midterm elections – as he’s refused to rule out doing – those officials would be criminally investigated, charged and jailed.
“The right to vote without fear of armed government agents at the polls is not negotiable, and it is not subject to the whims of a president," said Mary Moriarty, a Minnesota-based county attorney, in a press release published Tuesday.
"Federal law makes voter intimidation a crime. Minnesota law makes voter intimidation a crime. If ICE officers are dispatched to polling places in Hennepin County to frighten voters away from the ballot box, my office will investigate, and we will charge.”
Last week, Trump refused to rule out deploying Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to polling places in November, vowing to “do anything necessary to make sure we have honest elections.” In response, the Project for the Fight Against Federal Overreach, the newly formed coalition of prosecutors, is now prepared to prosecute ICE agents should they engage in illegal voter intimidation.
"Anyone – federal agent or otherwise – who shows up at a polling place in Philadelphia to intimidate voters is going to find out what 'find out' means," said Larry Krasner, a district attorney in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
"A federal badge is not a license to violate the Constitution, and it is not a shield from state criminal law. We have prosecuted police officers who broke the law. We have prosecuted public officials who broke the law. We will prosecute ICE agents who break the law. There is no category of American who gets to operate above it."
