Ahead of the Midterm Elections, Warner, Durbin, Padilla & Peters Request Information From DOJ & FBI Regarding the Trump Administration’s Attempted Attacks on Our Elections

WASHINGTON – U.S. Sens. Mark R. Warner (D-VA), Vice Chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Dick Durbin (D-IL), Democratic Whip and Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Alex Padilla (D-CA), Ranking Member of the Senate Rules and Administration Committee, and Gary Peters (D-MI), Ranking Member of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, sent a letter to Attorney General Todd Blanche and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Kash Patel requesting information regarding the alarming series of actions the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the FBI have undertaken to target state and local governments’ election administration efforts—and to understand the extent of the agencies’ coordination with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the U.S. Intelligence Community, and the White House in these efforts. The senators wrote, “Under your leadership, DOJ and the FBI have sought to upend our federalist system by seizing ballots and election materials, seeking the personal information of election workers and volunteers, showing up at the homes of election officials for questioning, threatening election officials with prosecution, attempting to compel states to provide the federal government with unredacted voter rolls, and raiding the offices of a voting rights nonprofit—often at the apparent behest of President Trump and White House officials, including Stephen Miller. Director Patel has reportedly urged the FBI to persist in these fishing expeditions by exhorting agents to ‘look harder’ because ‘this is a push from 47,’ and senior DOJ officials have threatened to fire or override prosecutors who choose not to pursue election fraud cases that FBI or DHS agents bring them, in contravention of longstanding DOJ rules for prosecutors.” The senators continued, “These efforts have occurred as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) has taken unprecedented steps to investigate unfounded claims of widespread voter fraud and as the then-Director of National Intelligence took extraordinary steps to insert herself into an already-troubling FBI raid of a local election facility. Taken together, these actions constitute a disturbing, whole-of-government campaign that has weaponized federal law enforcement to relitigate the 2020 election that President Trump lost, attempting to undermine the constitutional election administration powers of states ahead of the 2026 midterm elections and seeking to sow confusion and fear among voters and state and local election officials.” In the letter, the senators outline the timeline of the Trump administration’s attempted efforts to undermine our elections. The weaponization of DOJ and the FBI as part of this effort became clear last year, when the head of the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division (CRT) began filing lawsuits against multiple states to demand they produce unredacted copies of their voter registration lists. CRT sued Fulton County, Georgia last December, seeking records related to the 2020 election. Following this lawsuit, on January 28, 2026, the FBI executed a search warrant at the Fulton County election office in Union City, Georgia. Additionally, the then-Director of National Intelligence inexplicably attended this raid—and escalated this breach of protocol the following day, when she met with FBI agents who had conducted the raid and called President Trump to address the agents. The letter continues to highlight various counties and states the FBI or DOJ has targeted for election-related investigations. These states include Michigan and Arizona—two states President Trump lost in the 2020 election. The letter also raises concerns that FBI Director Patel is refusing to rule out sending FBI agents to polling locations on Election Day—an illegal tactic that would inevitably intimidate voters. The senators continued, “The concern over this Administration engaging in intimidation tactics related to the election is not unwarranted. Just one month before election day, President Trump continues to float the idea that he has legal authority to declare a national emergency or invoke the Insurrection Act around the midterms. Moreover, DOJ has already sought to intimidate election officials across the country.” CRT’s abandonment of its historic mission to protect the right to vote has also bled into the election monitor program, which the Division has in the past used to deploy federal monitors at polling places and ballot counting locations to respond to “incidents of discrimination or interference with the right to vote.” This year, CRT is planning to deploy more than 1,000 election monitors across the country on Election Day, including individuals who helped challenge President Trump’s 2020 election loss. Just this week, DOJ attempted to escalate these efforts, laying the groundwork to potentially challenge ballots ahead of Election Day with a letter to California election officials, which demanded that they verify the citizenship of individuals listed in a DOJ-provided thumb drive within 48 hours and threatened legal action if they do not follow the Department’s instructions on handling the ballots of these individuals. The senators concluded, “Furthermore, it is impossible to ignore the brazen partisan intentions behind these actions—not just due to President Trump’s repeated, baseless accusations that Democrats must cheat to win elections, but in light of the unethical political actions you have each taken in recent weeks, including your appearances at an August campaign rally in New York, and Attorney General Blanche’s appearance at the Republican Party’s midterm convention in Texasand a campaign event in North Carolina for Republican Senate nominee Michael Whatley. It is our constitutional duty to conduct oversight over these unprecedented abuses of power to improperly meddle with state and local election administration in the midterm elections that are already underway. The American people deserve to know why federal resources are being diverted from mission critical work to ensure their safety and instead devoted to this costly and, should it further escalate, potentially criminal crusade.” The senators also noted that despite this brazen, partisan, and coordinated effort to undermine the constitutional structure of our democracy, the rule of law will prevail—countless patriotic Americans across the country are working tirelessly to combat this chaos and distrust and ensure that every eligible American is able to cast their ballot and that their vote is counted. Americans should have confidence that their voices will be heard in November and that these efforts by the Trump administration to weaponize federal law enforcement to meddle in the midterm elections will ultimately fail. In the letter, the senators request responses to a number of questions and materials related to the administration’s attempts to undermine our elections no later than October 29, 2026. The full text of the letter can be found here . ###