Federal election monitors traditionally focused on protecting voter rights are tapped to tackle fraud.Police arrest an armed man suspected of lunging at an Ohio gubernatorial candidate.
And five people are dead after an Amazon-branded cargo plane crashes at Miami’s main airport.Here’s what to know today.DOJ civil rights unit retooled to focus on voter fraud A voter casts their ballot at a polling location inside Farewell Recreation Center in Detroit, Michigan, US, on Tuesday, Aug.
4, 2026.Emily Elconin / Bloomberg via Getty ImagesThe Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division has for decades sent election monitors to polling sites to protect voters from discrimination based on race, disability or language.Now, the Trump administration is giving it a new focus: voter fraud.
This is Morning Rundown, a weekday newsletter to start your day.Sign up here to get it in your inbox.Harmeet Dhillon, a Republican who co-chaired Lawyers for Trump during the 2020 election, helms the division.
She emailed employees asking them to serve among the 1,000 monitors she wants in place for the midterms, a person familiar with the matter said.The division has solicited staff lawyers to serve as monitors before.
But the number nationwide has never reached 1,000 and it’s unusual for fraud to be on the agenda.Many employees have also been replaced by conservative hires, some of whom back the president’s false claim that he won in 2020.
NBC News spoke with a half-dozen Justice Department veterans.Some worry the monitors could be used to help undermine confidence in elections if Trump is unhappy with the results.More about the concerns.
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