FBI raids Ohio Organizing Collaborative, a voter-registration group
On June 11, 2026, FBI agents raided the Cleveland offices of the Ohio Organizing Collaborative, a nonprofit that runs statewide voter-registration programs, and fanned out across Columbus, Dayton, and Cincinnati to question current and former staff, serve subpoenas, and seize electronic devices. A board member estimated that more than 100 agents were involved and said investigators alleged voter fraud while presenting no evidence of wrongdoing. The raids came roughly five months before the 2026 midterm elections and drew condemnation from Ohio Democrats and democracy advocates as an attempt to intimidate voter-registration work.
Actors
- Kash Patel (Director, FBI)
- Federal Bureau of Investigation (Cleveland Field Office)
- U.S. Department of Justice
Why we recorded this
In a healthy democracy, the power to search and investigate is reserved for evidence of actual crimes, not turned against citizens because of the political work they do. When federal agents raid a nonprofit whose core activity is registering voters — deploying more than a hundred agents across a state, seizing devices and questioning staff months before an election, without presenting evidence of wrongdoing — law enforcement becomes an instrument of intimidation rather than of justice. We record this because aiming the FBI at voter-registration infrastructure chills lawful civic participation and treats organizing for democracy as something to be policed.
Sources
- Ohio voting rights organization raided by FBI — MS Now primary accessed June 12, 2026
- Ohio voting rights group says it was raided by the FBI — The Statehouse News Bureau investigative accessed June 12, 2026
- Trump FBI raids Ohio voter registration group in latest bid to suppress voting — Democracy Docket secondary accessed June 12, 2026
See also
- Southern Poverty Law Center moves to dismiss DOJ fraud indictment as vindictive prosecution
- DOJ indicts Southern Poverty Law Center on 11 counts of fraud over $3M informant payments
- CNN reveals DOJ shakeup of Brennan probe: career prosecutors warned case was too weak, told 'that's not good enough'
- Deputy AG Blanche boasts every DOJ and FBI employee who investigated Trump is gone
- FBI opened inquiry into NYT reporter Elizabeth Williamson over her story on Director Patel's girlfriend