In the letter obtained by the Associated Press, Jones cited Virginia’s Election Code, which bars the disclosure of protected voter information to the federal government without a court order and limits the use of voter‑lookup tools to individuals who attest under penalty of law that they are searching for their own records.
Jones also instructed Mullin to preserve all related documentation, including system access logs, correspondence and training materials referenced in a recent whistleblower report that alleges Department of Homeland Security (DHS) employees misrepresented themselves while using the state’s voter databases.
The anonymous whistleblower report, released Monday by Democratic Senate leaders, includes transcripts of a DHS training session for a group of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services staffers. According to the report, the agents were pulled from other duties in late August, completed a less‑than‑two‑hour training, and were then tasked with running DHS‑provided lists through Virginia’s voter‑registration system to identify “unlawful voters.”
The whistleblower claims each agent was expected to review about 40 individuals per day, giving roughly 12 minutes per record to determine voter eligibility and to create federal records for anyone deemed ineligible.
The allegations come amid the Trump administration’s repeated claims that noncitizen voting could fuel widespread election fraud, despite research showing such instances are exceedingly rare. The Justice Department has also filed lawsuits seeking detailed voter data from 30 states and the District of Columbia, though those suits have yet to succeed.
The Associated Press has reached out to DHS for comment on the letter and the allegations, and the agency has not yet responded.