Report: Top DOJ official threatens to fire prosecutors who refuse to pursue voter fraud cases

A senior Department of Justice (DOJ) official warned federal prosecutors that they could be fired if they refused to pursue voter fraud cases brought to them by the FBI or Department of Homeland Security (DHS), according to an MS NOW report, citing two people familiar with the call.

The revelation comes as the Trump administration aggressively expands its efforts to investigate alleged noncitizen voting ahead of the midterm elections.

Aakash Singh, the principal associate deputy attorney general, told senior supervisors on a recent conference call that DOJ lawyers must pursue voter fraud cases presented by the FBI or Department of Homeland Security or risk termination.

Singh also reportedly said that the FBI or DHS could challenge a prosecutor’s decision not to pursue a case and that the deputy attorney general’s office would ultimately decide whether an investigation moved forward.

DOJ disputed the account.

Spokesperson Emily Covington told MS NOW that Singh “never said anyone would be fired,” adding that pursuing election-related crimes is a department priority and that people who violate voting laws will be prosecuted.

If accurately described, Singh’s instructions would represent a departure from the discretion DOJ’s own Principles of Federal Prosecution assign to individual prosecutors.

The Justice Manual says that even when probable cause exists, prosecutors must independently consider whether to investigate further, prosecute or decline a case. It also says merely establishing probable cause does not automatically warrant prosecution. Before bringing charges, a prosecutor should believe admissible evidence will probably be sufficient to secure and sustain a conviction.

Former DOJ prosecutors described Singh’s alleged warning as inconsistent with longstanding department practice. Ryan Crosswell, a former prosecutor in DOJ’s former Public Integrity Section, said prosecutors have an obligation to end investigations when the evidence does not support them.

“If true, this is outrageous,” Crosswell said. “It is the prosecutor — the expert on the criminal law and the expert on whether the facts satisfy the elements of the crime — that has to make this decision.”

The reported threat comes as federal agencies devote increasing resources to investigations of possible noncitizen voting, which is exceptionally rare.

Beginning this month, Homeland Security Investigations — the investigative arm of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) — launched what internal guidance described as a “coordinated criminal voter fraud surge initiative” in California, Connecticut, Georgia, Missouri, Nevada, New York, Pennsylvania, Washington and Wisconsin. 

Agents were instructed to pursue investigative leads, conduct field interviews and prepare potential cases for prosecutorial review through mid-October.

So far, however, the administration’s broader search for noncitizen voting has produced relatively few prosecutions.

A ProPublica analysis of DOJ data found that between January 2025 and May 2026, fewer than 150 suspected noncitizen voters were referred for federal prosecution and 41 were charged with illegal voting or related election crimes. Fourteen had resulted in convictions or guilty pleas through May. 

More than 150 million people voted in the 2024 presidential election. 

The administration has nevertheless continued expanding the effort. A DHS whistleblower alleged this week that employees working on a separate initiative were instructed to use voter data they knew could contain errors, potentially causing U.S. citizens to be incorrectly flagged for investigation. DHS has defended the project as a legitimate election integrity effort.

The developments are also beginning to generate new litigation.

On Friday, the NAACP and a coalition of civil rights and labor organizations sued DHS, DOJ, ICE and the FBI, alleging that the administration’s election investigations, immigration enforcement operations and repeated statements about potentially sending federal agents near polling places are intimidating voters in violation of Section 11(b) of the Voting Rights Act. 

The groups are asking a federal judge to block federal officials from deploying agents in a manner that unlawfully intimidates voters.