Fears grow for voting rights as Trump plots to reshape US justice department
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Experts warn that incoming president could direct DoJ officials to scale back enforcement of Voting Rights Act. Donald Trump could use a second term atop the justice department to gut enforcement of US federal voting laws and deploy an agency that is supposed to protect the right to vote to undermine it, experts have warned.
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Trump has made no secret of his intention to punish his political enemies and subvert the American voting system. His control of the justice department could allow him to amplify misleading claims of voter fraud by non-citizens and others, as well as investigate local election officials.
It could also cause the department’s voting section to largely scale back its enforcement of the Voting Rights Act, returning it to the approach that it took under Trump’s first term. Trump’s pick to lead the department could give an indication of its future direction. Pam Bondi, the former Florida attorney general, assisted Trump’s efforts to try to overturn the 2020 election results, echoing false claims of fraud. Trump has also picked Harmeet Dhilon, a staunch loyalist who supported his effort to overturn the 2020 election, to lead the civil rights division at the department. Her law firm has also been involved in several cases arguing in favor of voting restrictions.
Trump plans to use the department to hunt for evidence of fraud in the 2020 election, the Washington Post reported earlier this month. Numerous audits and investigations have shown he lost in 2020. Trump himself has suggested he will not do this. “I have the right to do that but I’m not interested in that,” he said during a December interview on NBC’s Meet the Press.
