Days later, the election leaders received the email from Hardiman, a career official, who had appeared at the conference to discuss the more traditional roles the FBI plays in assisting election administrators, including investigations of threats to state and local election officials. “It boggles the mind that they wouldn’t just take the ballots!” The official insisted that Trump “should have gotten them on the first day of his term.” This person said the president and his allies have concluded that “if there was a true Trump prosecutor, it would have already been done.” Inside the West Wing, top advisers to the president have also resisted any plans for a “nationalization” of voting processes, despite Trump’s suggestion that the federal government could “take over the voting” in “15 places.” His focus, his advisers say, is on legislative changes to voting procedures, reforms that are permitted by the Constitution but face Democratic resistance in the Senate.
Author: Michael Scherer, Yvonne Wingett Sanchez, Sarah Fitzpatrick, Jonathan Lemire
Published at: 2026-02-08 22:14:51
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