Mich-again?

This Week in Democracy

• The Justice Department sent a letter to Wayne County, Michigan, demanding that elections officials turn over ballots and other records from the 2024 election. The demand echoes the FBI’s raid of an elections office in Fulton County, Georgia, earlier this year. Both instances were based on debunked conspiracy theories about fraud in the 2020 election.

  Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel rebuffed the demands in a letter of her own. “The courts, our officials, and our legislature have all determined that these theories are baseless, and they certainly provide no support for a demand for 2024 election records,” she wrote. “Accordingly, Michigan stands ready to defend against these claims and any attempt to interfere in Michigan’s elections.”

  “More than 1,600 locally elected clerks across Michigan ensure that every citizen can vote and have their vote counted,” Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said in a statement. “This demand is a poorly disguised attempt to justify more doubt and misinformation about our elections as well as direct federal interference. Let’s keep working together to uphold the rule of law and protect voting rights.”

  ➡️ READ: Michigan Delivered an Accurate Election in 2020. DOJ Is Once Again Leaning on Disproven Claims.

• The Justice Department is continuing to focus on prosecuting President Trump’s political rivals.

  The department issued new subpoenas this week as part of its wide-ranging investigation into former federal officials who investigated or prosecuted Trump, going back as far as 2016. The latest target of the investigation—now led by a former lawyer for the Trump campaign—is John Brennan, the former CIA director who has been an outspoken critic of the president.

  Additionally, acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche announced that a grand jury indicted the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), a civil rights-focused nonprofit that has also been critical of Trump. A group of former federal prosecutors told CBS News that the charges against the SPLC are flawed, and others have pointed out that the FBI regularly engages in the same conduct that the indictment accuses the SPLC of.

  But the administration’s efforts have also continued to be thwarted by the checks and balances of other branches of government. U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis said he would block the confirmation of Kevin Warsh, Trump’s nominee to replace Jerome Powell as chair of the Federal Reserve, until the Justice Department ended the federal investigation into Powell. This week, U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro announced that the department was dropping the investigation.

  ➡️ READ: How Politicized Prosecutions Undermine the Rule of Law

• Common Cause, a nonpartisan pro-democracy organization, sued the Justice Department, seeking to block it from collecting voters’ private information from states. Trump’s election-focused executive orders directed the department to collect the data, even though the Constitution gives states the power to run elections, not the federal government.

  ➡️ READ: Sharing the Facts About Federal Efforts to Compile State Voter Data

State of the States

In California, an appeals court temporarily blocked state officials from enforcing a state law that requires federal agents to visibly identify themselves while on duty. Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the requirement into law in September alongside another bill that banned federal agents from wearing masks or other face coverings while on duty.

The Trump administration sued to block both measures. A judge blocked the mask ban from taking effect in February.

In Colorado, District Attorney Sean Murray charged a U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer with assaulting a 57-year-old woman protesting in Durango. Bystanders recorded videos of the incident, which show the officer grabbing the woman and throwing her to the ground. The woman says the officer put her in a chokehold. The Colorado Bureau of Investigations investigated the incident at the request of Durango Chief of Police Brice Current, who raised concerns about potential violations of state law.

The Colorado charges come after a county prosecutor in Minnesota last week brought felony assault charges against a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent.

➡️ MORE: Survey: Americans Disapprove of Federal Agents’ Enforcement Tactics

In Virginia, voters approved a referendum that allows the state to adopt new congressional districts that favor Democrats until 2030. The next day, Trump falsely claimed, without evidence, that the election was “rigged,” invoking many of the same conspiracy theories about election fraud as he has in the past.

Certification of the election results is currently on hold after a judge ruled that the referendum was unconstitutional. Virginia Attorney General Jay Jones said his office would appeal that decision.

Recommended Reading

In an op-ed for the Detroit Free Press, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel and Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson explain why they’re pushing back on the Trump administration’s demand for Wayne County’s 2024 election records.

“Free and fair elections are the cornerstone of our democracy,” the pair write. “We will stand with Michigan’s bipartisan, principled election officials to protect the integrity of our elections and the privacy of our voters.

“It’s what the law requires of us, and we will follow the law, even if the federal government refuses to.”