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Trump Justice Dept breaks with tradition to intervene in midterms · GNN Daily Breaking News

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  Speaker 1: The Department of Justice has launched an unprecedented series of
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  Speaker 1: direct legal interventions in the final weeks of the 2026
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  Speaker 1: midterm elections, breaking with decades of established department policy that
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  Speaker 1: historically restricted federal law enforcement from taking public actions that
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  Speaker 1: could influence ongoing elections. Led by Attorney General Todd Blanch
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  Speaker 1: and federal prosecutors, the department has initiated high-profile lawsuits, grand
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  Speaker 1: jury subpoenas. and criminal investigations across multiple battleground states prior
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  Speaker 1: to the conclusion of voting on November 3rd. The core
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  Speaker 1: of the department's intervention focuses on aggressive legal filings in
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  Speaker 1: California and Alaska. In California, the Justice Department filed an
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  Speaker 1: emergency lawsuit attempting to force state and local election officials
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  Speaker 1: to set aside more than 20,000 processed mail-in ballots based
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  Speaker 1: on federal claims of alleged non-citizen voter registrations. In Alaska,
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  Speaker 1: federal prosecutors sought an injunction to halt the certification of
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  Speaker 1: the US Senate race. Both legal maneuvers were rejected by
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  Speaker 1: federal district courts, which ruled that the Department of Justice
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  Speaker 1: lacked the legal authority to disrupt state-run voting procedures prior
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  Speaker 1: to vote counting. The administration's pre-election tactics mark a stark
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  Speaker 1: departure from the Justice Department's traditional 60-day rule. an unwritten
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  Speaker 1: institutional protocol designed to prevent public investigative steps, indictments, or
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  Speaker 1: civil filings close to an election that could sway voter
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  Speaker 1: turnout or public perception. Administration officials and Department of Justice
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  Speaker 1: spokespersons have defended the actions, maintaining that the lawsuits and
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  Speaker 1: federal grand jury subpoenas are necessary to enforce federal statutes
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  Speaker 1: prohibiting non-citizen voting and ensure absolute election integrity. The unprecedented
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  Speaker 1: wave of litigation has drawn sharp resistance from state officials,
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  Speaker 1: legal coalitions, and federal judges. A federal appellate panel recently
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  Speaker 1: upheld an injunction barring federal prosecutors from threatening local election
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  Speaker 1: workers with criminal prosecution during ballot processing, while state leaders
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  Speaker 1: have accused the administration of weaponizing federal law enforcement to
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  Speaker 1: create pre-election uncertainty. As emergency appeals move through federal circuit
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  Speaker 1: courts' hours before polls close, the clashes reflect a fundamental
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  Speaker 1: conflict over the limits of executive power in state-administered elections.