The Department of Justice has threatened to charge state officials if they find election fraud or unauthorized voting.
Posted by IHIP News, Checked
- Sources
- 5 support1 context
- Said
- 1 time·
- Confidence
- 65%
IHIP NewsSep 20, 2026
Multiple tier-1 and tier-2 sources report that DOJ sent letters threatening state and local election officials with prosecution over demands tied to alleged noncitizen voting, and a federal judge ordered the threats stopped.
This claim is about the present, so it is judged as of the day it was checked.
What was said
… I mean, all of our democracy is on the line now, all of it is up for grabs. I mean, these are not normal times at all. One of the things we failed to mention is that DOJ has called a lot of these states to and basically threaten to charge them, you know, if they find any election fraud or anyone voting they can't vote, so he's using DOJ to basically intimidate. It's his own police force that he's using to intimidate state officials anywhere. And then we covered, I think, a few days ago, the segment about whether Cash Patel is gonna try to have FBI officers at the polls. …
IHIP News · · from the transcriptPost →What we found
Supports. Reuters reports a federal judge ordered DOJ to stop threatening to prosecute state and local election officials who do not comply with Trump administration demands on alleged noncitizen voting.[1]
Supports. AP reports DOJ has used a list of alleged noncitizen voters to threaten prosecution of election officials, and that a judge rejected the demand as unconstitutional.[2]
Supports. BBC reports the DOJ demanded that California officials set aside ballots of about 20,000 voters alleged to be non-citizens, with threats of criminal charges if they did not comply.[3]
Supports. Politico reports DOJ letters to election officials in all 50 states threatened up to a year in prison and a fine for failing to preserve election records.[4]
Supports. Yahoo/AP coverage reports a federal judge ordered DOJ to stop threatening state and local election officials with criminal prosecution over disputes about voter qualifications.[5]
Context. The claim's 'if they find fraud' framing is looser than the sources, which describe threats tied to compliance with DOJ demands to segregate or sequester ballots of alleged noncitizen voters. The record still matches the post's 'anyone voting they can't vote' wording.[1][3][4]
Context. Most sources date the threats to October 2026, shortly before the midterms. None clearly establishes the threats were already in place on 2026-09-20, which limits how directly the sources confirm the claim as of the posting date.[1][3][4][6]
Sources
6 sources: 2 fact-checkers, 1 tier 1, 1 tier 2, 2 not rated
- 1Judge orders Trump administration to cease threats to prosecute election officialsreuters.com · fact-checker · cited for: supports, context
- 2DOJ list of alleged noncitizens on voter rolls rife with ...apnews.com · fact-checker · cited for: supports
- 3Judge orders Trump administration to stop election official ...bbc.com · tier 1 · cited for: supports, context
- 4DOJ dangles legal threats over state election officials days ...politico.com · tier 2 · cited for: supports, context
- 5Judge orders DOJ to stop threatening to prosecute election ...yahoo.com · not rated · cited for: supports
- 6Trump administration ramps up election cases days before voting endsusatoday.com · not rated · cited for: context
Where this claim was made
Said in 1 published post
Related claims
- The Justice Department sent letters to election officials in every state threatening them over non-citizen voting.True
- The Department of Homeland Security threatened states with fines and charges over election measures.True
- The Department of Justice under Donald Trump is threatening election workers to force them to put Trump's election changes into effect.True
- In July, Harmit Dillon, head of the Civil Rights Division in the DOJ, threatened state election officials with criminal prosecution if any non-citizens cast a ballot in their state.True
- The Department of Justice has pressured states to investigate allegations of illegal voting by noncitizens.True