Trump DOJ Answers Michigan Conservatives' Call for Wayne County Election Investigation

Federal ballot demand responds to years of grassroots pressure

Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon, head of the Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division. Photo credit: Department of Justice.

By Kristine Christlieb, MFEI News & Commentary Editor

April 20, 2023

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has demanded Wayne County turn over all ballots from the 2024 federal election, addressing calls from Michigan conservatives who have argued Michigan's election administration has never received the serious federal scrutiny it deserves.

The demand letter, dated April 14 and signed by Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon, head of the DOJ's Civil Rights Division, directed Wayne County Clerk Cathy M. Garrett to produce "all ballots (including absentee and provisional), ballot receipts, and ballot envelopes" from the November 2024 federal election within 14 days, warning that failure to comply could result in the federal government seeking a court order.

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel responded to Dhillon on April 17 refusing to comply and calling the demand baseless. State officials released both letters publicly on Sunday, April 19, the day of the Michigan Democratic Party's state endorsement convention in Detroit.

"Wayne County represents eight percent of the state's registered voters," said Patrice Johnson, founder and chair of Michigan Fair Elections Institute. "We have long been urging focused attention here, and we've backed it up by supplying critical research."

Years of Grassroots Pressure

The DOJ's action did not emerge from a vacuum. Michigan conservatives have spent years building the case for federal investigation of Wayne County elections.

At the grassroots level, no one in Michigan can forget the pizza boxes taped over the windows at Detroit's TCF Center (formerly Cobo Hall and now named Huntington Place) on 2020 election night.

Equally notorious were the bogus voter registrations flagged in Muskegon, Mich., in October 2020. Get-out-the-vote company GBI Strategies coordinated the Muskegon voter registration push. The Michigan State Police and members of the Attorney General's Criminal Investigation Division conducted a search of the company's offices, finding firearms, pre-paid phones (sometimes called "burner phones"), and gift cards.

Muskegon is a particular sore point because it is possible the statute of limitations has run on filing charges in that incident, meaning nothing will ever come of it. Key elected officials begged the FBI to act.

Rep. Rachelle Smit stated in early 2024: "I spent months asking our attorney general and FBI director [under the Biden administration] for answers, but they remain silent. Their inaction in the face of thousands of suspicious applications indicates a systemic voter fraud coverup exists in the 2020 election. These law enforcement leaders will likely allow the statute of limitations to expire, protecting the criminal enterprise." 

Michigan conservatives have long argued that investigation was never seriously pursued, that the federal government looked away when it should have looked hardest.

The DOJ's April 14 letter signals the Trump administration is no longer looking away.

What the DOJ Is Demanding and Why

Dhillon's letter invokes the Civil Rights Act of 1960, which empowers the Attorney General to request all records related to voting in federal elections. It cites a history of voter fraud convictions in Wayne County and raises concerns about election procedures, framing the demand as an election-law compliance review.

Michigan's case is unusual in that DOJ is demanding 2024 ballots while in Georgia and Arizona it seized 2020 ballots.

Separately, Dhillon announced Sunday that the DOJ is now suing 29 states and the District of Columbia for refusing to turn over voter rolls, citing the Civil Rights Act of 1960 as authority. Of the 60 million voter records already reviewed from cooperating states, she says the DOJ found at least 350,000 deceased people still on voter rolls and referred approximately 25,000 people with no citizenship records to the Department of Homeland Security.

The DOJ is working on two election-related fronts — reviewing state voter rolls and examining ballots from the 2020 election, and now, the 2024 election.

Today, Daily Beast called Dhillon a "goon," and "an avowed election denier." The outlet worries that Dhllion will be Pam Bondi's replacement as head of DOJ.

Where the Demand Runs Into Legal Trouble

For Michigan conservatives who want this effort to produce results, the details of the April 14 letter warrant attention. Federal courts have proven unforgiving of procedural errors in this campaign, and the Wayne County demand may have several.

The most immediate problem: the 2024 ballots are not in Clerk Garrett's possession. They are held by 43 local clerks across Wayne County, each supervising his or her own jurisdiction.

In its demand letter, the DOJ cited three Wayne County voter fraud cases as justification. But each was successfully prosecuted by AG Nessel, and none of the three cases were from the 2024 election, facts Michigan state attorneys will not fail to emphasize.

The letter also leans on the 2020 Costantino v. Detroit lawsuit alleging misconduct at the TCF Center. In that case, the court decided, "However, sinister, fraudulent motives were ascribed to the process and the City of Detroit. Plaintiff's interpretation of events is incorrect and not credible." So that citation may not be of much help.

The Political Backdrop

Michigan officials' decision to sit on the DOJ letter for five days before releasing it publicly on Democratic convention day was no accident. The timing could not have been better for Democrats who used the moment to rally their base against what they see as the Trump administration's interference in elections.

What Comes Next

The April 28 compliance deadline will almost certainly pass without Michigan turning over the ballots. If the DOJ pursues a court order, it will face tough judicial scrutiny.

The grassroots work of citizen investigators has established a foundation of documented concerns that deserve serious federal follow-through. The DOJ's willingness to act on those concerns marks a genuine shift from the prior administration that ignored them.

The DOJ is finally listening to Michigan. Now, DOJ lawyers must find a way to win.