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DOJ opened investigation into Nevada Secretary of State Aguilar over refusal to share unredacted voter data

On September 4, 2026, the U.S. Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division, in a letter from acting voting-section chief Eric Neff, told Nevada Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar (D) that his office was under federal investigation for refusing to hand over the state's complete, unredacted voter registration list, and separately ordered Nevada to preserve all 2024 election records beyond the retention period federal law requires. The letter arrived about three weeks after a federal judge dismissed a DOJ lawsuit seeking the same voter data, a ruling DOJ is appealing. Aguilar, whose office is in Carson City, called the letter "a pretty direct threat" meant to intimidate him into complying.

Part of: Trump DOJ Campaign to Collect State Voter Rolls

Jurisdiction
Federal
Location
Carson City, Nevada

Abuses documented

Actors

On September 4, 2026, the U.S. Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division sent a letter to Nevada Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar (D) ordering his office to preserve all 2024 election records -- including network access codes and computer logs -- beyond the 22-month retention period the Civil Rights Act of 1960 requires, which had expired the same week. The same letter, written by acting voting-section chief Eric Neff, told Aguilar he was personally under federal investigation on allegations that he violated federal voting laws by refusing to turn over the state's complete, unredacted voter registration list, which includes voters' driver's license and partial Social Security numbers.

The preservation order and investigation notice arrived about three weeks after a federal judge dismissed a DOJ lawsuit that had sought the same unredacted voter file, a ruling the department is now appealing. DOJ justified retaining records past their legal expiration by citing that ongoing litigation, arguing the 2024 data could still be relevant to it. The letter is part of a broader federal pressure campaign on Nevada's elections office that has also included seven FBI subpoenas for voter-related information over the preceding three months.

Aguilar called the letter "a pretty direct threat" meant "to intimidate us," and said his office would keep declining to hand over data it is not required to provide. Neff, the letter's author, was previously placed on administrative leave as a Los Angeles federal prosecutor amid allegations he was biased in a case involving a software company tied to conspiracy theories about Donald Trump's false claims that he won the 2020 election.

Why we recorded this

Investigative authority is supposed to follow the facts, not become leverage against an official who resists a demand a court has already rejected. A federal judge struck down the Justice Department's lawsuit seeking Nevada's complete, unredacted voter file -- including residents' driver's license and partial Social Security numbers -- and the department is appealing that ruling rather than dropping the demand. Instead, it told Nevada's own secretary of state he is personally under federal investigation for his office's refusal to hand the list over, while ordering the state to preserve the underlying records past the retention period the law requires. Using the threat of a federal investigation to pressure compliance with a demand a court already found unsupported turns law enforcement into a tool for working around an adverse ruling rather than accepting it.

Sources

  1. Trump administration demands Nevada keep all 2024 election records — The Nevada Independent primary accessed September 8, 2026

See also