Michigan AG Rejects Trump Administration's Ballot Request Amid Election Probes Michigan’s attorney general, Dana Nessel, has rejected a request by the U.S. Department of Justice to obtain ballots and voting materials from Wayne County, a key target of the Trump administration’s ongoing efforts to scrutinize election records in states the former president falsely claimed he won in 2020. The dispute centers on a letter sent by Harmeet Dhillon, the DOJ’s assistant attorney general for civil rights, to Wayne County clerk officials, demanding access to all ballots, ballot receipts, and envelopes from the 2024 election within two weeks. Nessel swiftly responded, calling the Trump administration’s claims of widespread voter fraud “baseless” and vowing to defend Michigan’s electoral process against what she described as “unlawful interference.” The DOJ’s request is framed as a legal necessity to ensure the validity of ballots from the 2024 election, citing Wayne County’s “history” of alleged election irregularities. However, Nessel and other state officials argue that the federal government’s pursuit of these materials lacks a credible legal foundation. She emphasized that multiple federal, state, and local investigations have consistently found no evidence of systemic voter fraud in Michigan, dismissing the few cases her office prosecuted in 2020 as “infinitesimal” compared to the state’s vast electorate. Nessel’s letter to Dhillon explicitly rejected the DOJ’s rationale, stating that “speculative evidence of election fraud” does not meet the legal threshold required to compel states to surrender ballots. She also criticized the scope of the request as overly broad, arguing it infringes on the jurisdiction of local election clerks who retain 2024 ballots.#us_department_of_justice #wayne_county #michigan_ag #dana_nessel #harmeet_dhillon
