ProPublica: Trump's noncitizen voter prosecution effort yielded meager results
HSI tasked with proving election fraud claims found only one prosecution case after investigating 130 people in Minnesota alone.
What to know
- The Trump administration tasked Homeland Security Investigations with prosecuting noncitizen voters to support the president's unsubstantiated claims of rampant election fraud, but internal documents show the effort yielded minimal cases despite hundreds of leads.
- Career federal prosecutors and HSI insiders warned the operation violated privacy laws and used tools in ways they were not designed for, producing high rates of false positives.
- The government made inflated claims about noncitizens on voter rolls (DHS cited 250,000+ in four Democratic-led states) without explaining the methodology.
“Agents had deluged local election offices with calls and demands for voting histories, demonstrating "a complete lack of understanding" of illegal voting investigations.”
Joe Teirab, Deputy U.S. Attorney, Minnesota · ProPublica ↗
Donald Trump PresidentJoe Teirab Deputy U.S. Attorney, MinnesotaNick Davis Justice Department appointee leading election fraud crusadeHomeland Security Investigations (HSI) Federal law enforcement agencyProPublica Investigative newsroom
How it unfolded parsed yesterday, 5:24 PM
-
The story circulates across Bluesky and Mastodon. Users criticize the administration's effort as costly and privacy-invasive, with one commenter describing it as a "witch hunt for (non-existent) noncitizen voters."
“Must-read investigation by @propublica.org on the Trump administration's witch hunt for (non-existent) noncitizen voters. DHS has spent millions of taxpayer dollars while trampling citizens' privacy…”
anne-s-kim · Bluesky ↗ -
ProPublica reveals how the Trump administration repurposed HSI—an agency established to combat drug cartels and terrorism—to pursue the president's unsubstantiated claims of rampant noncitizen voting. Career staffers warned the effort could violate privacy laws; the results have been sparse despite large resource investment.
“To prove the president's claims of illegal voting, the government has harnessed the power of Homeland Security Investigations… So far, the effort has produced meager results.”
ProPublica · Mastodon ↗ - 20 weeks quiet
-
Nick Davis, a Justice Department appointee leading the election fraud effort, demands a status report within hours from Joe Teirab at the Minnesota U.S. attorney's office on cases involving noncitizen voters.
“Bottom line up front… After subpoenaing records on about 130 people, only one had been referred for prosecution.”
Joe Teirab · Mastodon ↗ -
Teirab responds to Davis with a blunt assessment: after subpoenaing records on 130 people, only one had been referred for prosecution. He characterizes the HSI task force as "disjointed and disorganized" with agents demonstrating "a complete lack of understanding" of election fraud investigations.
“The HSI task force has been disjointed and disorganized… The entire process… had been "dysfunctional."”
Joe Teirab, Minnesota U.S. attorney's office deputy · Mastodon ↗
The record 6 press and posts · last 24 hours presspostscomments
The conversation 5 comments and posts from 3 sites · verbatim · 32 claimed on the threads
Social media users sharing the ProPublica investigation largely focus on criticizing the administration's effort as wasteful, privacy-invasive, and based on false premises. The conversation emphasizes the contrast between the large resources deployed and the negligible prosecutorial results.
The administration wasted taxpayer money on a baseless witch hunt that trampled privacy rights.
-
“Must-read investigation by @propublica.org on the Trump administration's witch hunt for (non-existent) noncitizen voters. DHS has spent millions of taxpayer dollars while trampling citizens' privacy…”
anne-s-kim · Bluesky ↗
- Yesterday
-
NEW from ProPublica! How Trump’s Unprecedented Effort to Prosecute Noncitizen Voters Fell Apart by @peterelkind.bsky.social @jenafifield.bsky.social @dougbockclark.bsky.social @kbmorales.bsky.social & Andy Mannix @propublica.org
-
Must-read investigation by @propublica.org on the Trump administration's witch hunt for (non-existent) noncitizen voters. DHS has spent millions of taxpayer dollars while trampling citizens' privacy and perpetuating the lie of rampant voter fraud.
-
NEW: To prove the president’s claims of illegal voting, the government has harnessed the power of Homeland Security Investigations, a branch of DHS established to combat the worst cross-border crime. So far, the effort has produced meager results.
-
To prove President Trump's claims of illegal voting, the government has harnessed the power of Homeland Security Investigations, a branch of DHS established to combat the worst cross-border crime. So far, the effort has produced meager results. Read the full story →