Trump's Justice Department Breaks With Decades of Practice to Intervene Directly in the Midterms, Reuters Reports

President Donald Trump's Justice Department has shown a willingness to intervene directly in Tuesday's midterm elections, breaking with decades of practice meant to avoid the appearance that its law enforcement powers are being used to benefit a political party or candidate, Reuters reported on Monday, in a dispatch read in full by this desk.

In California, the department sought to set aside mail-in ballots from about 20,000 voters it alleges are likely noncitizens ineligible to vote, and it has also demanded records in a related criminal probe, Reuters reported. California has said it has implemented measures to prevent voting by noncitizens and argued the department does not have the authority to block votes. In Alaska, the department intensified a criminal investigation into whether a Senate candidate with the same name as Republican incumbent Dan Sullivan entered the race to confuse voters, and it sought to block certification if Sullivan narrowly loses — a lawsuit a federal judge dismissed on Sunday, finding Alaska could not conduct such a probe while preserving the secrecy of ballots. Courts have now rejected the department's lawsuits against both states, and the department has appealed the Alaska decision, according to the report.

Attorney General Todd Blanche says the department's efforts are lawful and aim to protect the integrity of the vote, Reuters reported. "The Department isn't helping any campaign. It's enforcing the law," department spokesperson Kiersten Pels said in a statement carried by Reuters. Critics quoted in the report see it differently. "It appears that the administration wants the department to have an impact that was previously prohibited," said Mark Blumberg, who previously led the department's election response to civil rights threats and has since founded the Rule of Law Project. Peter Keisler, acting attorney general under Republican President George W. Bush, told Reuters that for the department to be trusted, "it has to ensure that people understand it does not take sides in political partisan disputes."

Reuters reported the shift is also structural: the administration has slashed the size of the Public Integrity Section, the career-staffed unit that has often advised agents and prosecutors to wait until results are certified before intervening, and suspended a requirement that federal prosecutors consult it on election-corruption probes. Unresolved issues will instead be decided by Trump political appointees, according to three people familiar with the conversations cited by Reuters, with the Deputy Attorney General's Office mediating disputes — a direct role former officials told Reuters it has rarely played in election investigations. The midterms will determine control of Congress and the winners of dozens of governors' races; Essex County voters cast their own ballots Tuesday, with polls open from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m.