DOJ dismantles federal election-integrity safeguards ahead of 2026 midterms

The Justice Department has quietly rolled back the institutional machinery it has historically used to safeguard federal elections, according to reporting published June 8, 2026. The department fired most of the lawyers in its Public Integrity Section (PIN) — the unit that has long been the backbone of federal election-law enforcement — and has not replaced the departed director of its Election Crimes Branch. It canceled election-integrity training sessions for prosecutors and FBI agents and deleted a 281-page guide to prosecuting election offenses.

The department also appears to have abandoned its customary Election Day "command center," a 24-hour operation staffed by public-corruption prosecutors and investigators that coordinates law enforcement's response to voter intimidation, disinformation, and other emergencies as they arise. With PIN hollowed out and the command center unstaffed, election-crime enforcement now defaults to the 93 local U.S. attorney offices. Former prosecutors warn those offices lack the specialized expertise the central units provided; Gary Restaino, Arizona's U.S. attorney during the Biden administration, described "a massive knowledge gap" and called the command center "critical to act uniformly across states."

The DOJ said election integrity remains a top priority, noting that election officers have been assigned to U.S. Attorney's Offices around the country to handle complaints involving voter intimidation, fraud, voting-rights concerns, and threats of violence. The changes come roughly five months before the 2026 midterm elections and follow a June 2024 revision that ended the requirement for local U.S. attorneys to consult PIN before pursuing election-related matters.