Trump administration dismantles election-threat task forces, experts warn security gap

A former chief election-security officer for Oregon, now leading the Oregon District Attorneys Association, says the Justice Department’s election-threat task force has gone silent since 2024, despite handling more than 2,000 reports and opening over 100 investigations between 2021 and 2024. High-profile prosecutions such as Solomon Peña’s shooting of election officials and Quintez Brown’s attack on a mayoral campaign were among the 21 cases filed.

Shortly after Pam Bondi was confirmed as attorney general, the FBI’s foreign-influence task force was dissolved and senior staff at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency were reassigned, while funding for CISA’s election-security training program was withdrawn. Law-makers’ pleas to preserve these resources were ignored, and experts warn the loss of a coordinated information-sharing network leaves local jurisdictions blind to broader threat patterns. The administration continues to pursue non-citizen voter-fraud cases, charging more than 90 individuals, but critics say the focus diverts attention from the dismantled protective infrastructure.