Michigan Rejects Trump Administration's Demand for 2024 Election Ballots in Wayne County

The Trump administration was rebuffed by the state of Michigan on Sunday after it attempted to demand Detroit-area ballots from the 2024 election.

Last week, the Department of Justice sent a letter, signed by Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, to the clerk of Wayne County, where Detroit is located. The letter demanded election ballots, ballot receipts, and ballot envelopes from the last presidential election, according to Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel.

In a joint statement with Governor Gretchen Whitmer and Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, Nessel called the request “as absurd as it is baseless.”

“Once again, President Trump is weaponizing the Justice Department in an attempt to sabotage our democratic process and turn it into his own personal agency to interfere in state elections,” Nessel said in the statement. “If this administration wants to bring this circus to our state, my office is prepared to protect the people’s right to vote.”

This is the latest in a series of attempts by the Trump administration to demand voter and election information from states across the country, ostensibly to search for evidence of fraud. Administration officials have sought election data from every state and Washington, D.C., but have suffered legal setbacks in Rhode Island, California, Massachusetts, and Oregon.

President Trump continues to claim that the 2020 election was stolen from him, despite a lack of evidence and multiple court losses. In a Fox News interview on Sunday, FBI Director Kash Patel stated that arrests over the 2020 elections are coming “this week,” signaling that Trump’s allies are attempting to justify further election interference ahead of the November midterms and beyond.