Katherine Dailey, Michigan Advance

Republican staffer baselessly claims Capitol Police instructed against town halls

Barrett staffer claims Capitol Police instructed against town halls, no evidence of such guidance

by Katherine Dailey, Michigan Advance
November 17, 2025

U.S. Rep. Tom Barrett (R-Charlotte) has been repeatedly criticized for having never hosted an in-person town hall since being elected to Congress in Michigan’s 7th Congressional District last year.

That has drawn additional scrutiny after Barrett’s district director, Keith Lane, said that the U.S. Capitol Police instructed members of Congress not to host those events due to safety concerns, although there is no evidence of such guidance.

In a video posted by Distill Social, Lane says, “Capitol Police, who are in charge of protecting all the members, are advising not to have in-person town halls due to almost double threats against congressional members,” noting that the guidance was given to lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.

Barrett’s office did not respond to requests for comment on the nature of this guidance from the Capitol Police, including when the guidance was given and what exactly it entails.

A spokesperson for U.S. Sen. Elissa Slotkin, who previously held Barrett’s seat before being elected to the Senate, said that her office was unaware of any new guidelines from the Capitol Police regarding safety at town halls.

U.S. Capitol Police did not respond to questions about whether or not such guidance had been issued, though they were closed for routine business during the federal government shutdown that ended on Wednesday.

Distill Social’s video was posted two days after a surprise appearance from Barrett at the Michigan March for Life rally outside the state Capitol building on Nov. 6, which gathered thousands of people — and had no formal security.

Congressional representatives from Michigan on both sides of the aisle have held in-person town halls this year — in August, Rep. Tim Walberg (R-Tipton) hosted one in Dowagiac, while Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Detroit) hosted one in Livonia.

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Michigan Advance is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Michigan Advance maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jon King for questions: info@michiganadvance.com.

'We will not stand by': Trump DOJ accused of 'fishing expedition' by major organization

League of Women Voters of Michigan files motion to intervene in DOJ lawsuit for voter rolls

by Katherine Dailey, Michigan Advance
November 3, 2025

The League of Women Voters of Michigan has filed a motion to intervene on behalf of voters in the federal court case in which the U.S. Department of Justice is suing Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson and the state of Michigan for access to voter registration data.

“We will not stand by while a federal fishing expedition puts the information of millions of Michiganders at risk and encourages voter intimidation,” said Lynne Kochmanski, co-president of the League of Women Voters of Michigan, in a press release from the organization.

The case, currently in district court in the Western District of Michigan, argues that Michigan has violated the Civil Rights Act of 1960, the National Voter Registration Act and the Help America Vote Act by refusing to turn over detailed information about all registered voters in Michigan, including their driver’s license number, dates of birth, and the last four digits of their Social Security number.

The motion to intervene argues that, unlike the State of Michigan and Benson, the League of Women Voters of Michigan “is comprised of individuals who personally fear USDOJ accessing their data unlawfully,” giving them an important stake in the case.

Additionally, the motion states, the work of the League of Women Voters to encourage voter registration and education will be harmed if private voter registration information is given to the Department of Justice.

“[League of Women Voters of Michigan’s] interest in civic participation will be impaired if USDOJ can use this Court to compel Michigan to produce protected, sensitive voter data,” the organization wrote in their motion. “Michigan citizens may be more hesitant to register to vote for fear that their data will be released or used inappropriately.”

The League of Women Voters argues that the Justice Department has not sufficiently justified why they need access to this personally identifiable information, as opposed to the publicly available versions of the voter rolls, which have been sent.

“There is no reason for the federal government to seize control of voter data that they do not need and have no right to possess,” Kochmanski continued in the press release. “We are seeking to intervene to send a clear message to the administration and voters: we will fight to protect our members’ and voters’ data from unlawful seizure.”

“I’m required to follow the law. State and federal law include strict privacy protections that keep people’s personal data confidential and keep everyone safe from identity theft,” Benson wrote in a statement on the lawsuit in September. “States can and must hold the line. Only state and local election officials – not the president, the DOJ, or any other federal agency – have the right to people’s private voter information. The people of Michigan have entrusted this department with their personal data, and I will stand up to this illegal and unconstitutional power grab.”

Brent Ferguson, director of strategic litigation of the Campaign Legal Center — who are among those representing the League of Women Voters — called the case by the Department of Justice “an act of federal overreach that risks violating voters’ privacy and potentially disincentivizing people from casting ballots.”

Eileen O’Connor, senior counsel of the Brennan Center for Justice, another part of the league’s representation, added in the press release, “This push is part of the administration’s campaign to undermine our elections. The department may manipulate the data in service of false claims about our elections or to pressure states to remove eligible voters from the rolls.”

Other statewide League of Women Voters organizations in Maine, New York, Pennsylvania, Minnesota and California have filed motions in similar cases brought against their respective states by the Department of Justice.

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Former Pentagon official warns Trump is ‘following the playbook of authoritarians’

U.S. Sen. Elissa Slotkin sounded an alarm bell, characterizing President Donald Trump’s actions as “following the same playbook as almost every authoritarian in history,” in a speech the Democrat from Holly gave at the Brookings Institution’s 2025 Knight Forum on Geopolitics on Wednesday.

Slotkin, herself a CIA officer and former Pentagon official, laid out how Trump had garnered so much power — running on a legitimate concern of cost of living, surrounding himself with those loyal to him, and accumulating influence.

She also laid out how in other authoritarian governments, there comes a “tipping point” where the person in power realizes they have to stay in power somehow to prevent that very power from being used against them. In this case, that could happen in two ways, Slotkin said.

The first would be a scenario where Trump invokes the Insurrection Act and tries to impose martial law, either cancelling elections or surrounding polling places with military. The second, she continued, would be labeling opposition groups as terrorists or criminals, undermining the competitive nature of an election.

“There’s more than one way to lose our democracy,” she said. “I’m popping a flare today because we’re in danger of that happening here at home.”

But Slotkin also found hope in the “internal barometer for things that sound and smell authoritarian” that she said Americans have.

“Here’s what Trump hasn’t planned for: the will of the American people,” she said. “I’ve seen this in Michigan, where even ardent Trump supporters don’t like what they’re seeing.”

Much of Slotkin’s criticism centered on Trump’s recent strikes on 14 ships in the Caribbean in which 57 people have been killed, allegedly part of cartels and carrying drugs to the United States.

Slotkin was clear that the alleged premise of the strikes was not something she inherently opposed — but that she did strongly oppose the fact that Trump, when pressed by the Senate Armed Services Committee, would not give the names of those groups being targeted.

“I’m actually sympathetic to going after these types of groups, given what drugs do to Michiganders every day,” she said. “But here’s what’s different about the strikes and what’s precedent-setting: the President and Secretary Hegseth are refusing to tell the American people who we are fighting.”

That lack of clarity on foreign targets led Slotkin to believe that the same kind of force — including lethal force — could be used against Americans who he deems enemies, especially as the National Guard has been deployed in cities such as Chicago. That idea, she said, “should chill every American to the bone.”

Department of Homeland Security police, along with other federal police, push protestors at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility south of downtown Portland on Sunday, Oct. 12, 2025. (Photo by Alex Baumhardt/Oregon Capital Chronicle)

Slotkin also referenced a policy enacted by the White House in late September, which she had previously criticized on the Senate floor, that gives the president and the Attorney General broad authority to investigate any person or group that they consider to be involved in domestic terrorism or political violence.

“It seems clear from his own order that Trump plans to see how far he can stretch the law before someone tells him no,” she said. “And if the administration won’t publicly name drug cartels in the Caribbean, you can bet that they’re not going to tell you the name of this new list of domestic terrorist organizations, only this time the secret lists are not made up of drug traffickers and international waters, it’ll be Americans on American streets and in American homes.”

“I never thought I’d have to lay this out about my own government,” she said. “The idea that intelligence officers could be asked to target Americans turns my stomach.”

Slotkin also told the crowd that she is introducing legislation to give Congress the ability to immediately end a military deployment in an American city, the No Troops In Our Streets Act.

This story was published by Michigan Advance in partnership with Creative Commons. Read the original story here.