A nationwide coalition of locally elected prosecutors today put the Trump administration on notice: any federal agent who shows up at a polling place in violation of state or federal law will be investigated and prosecuted under the laws of the jurisdiction in which they act.
WASHINGTON, May 19, 2026 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- A nationwide coalition of locally elected prosecutors today put the Trump administration on notice: any federal agent who shows up at a polling place in violation of state or federal law will be investigated and prosecuted under the laws of the jurisdiction in which they act.
The announcement, made by the Project for the Fight Against Federal Overreach (FAFO), comes after President Trump last week refused to rule out deploying Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers to polling locations during the November elections — a move that legal experts across the political spectrum have warned would constitute unlawful voter intimidation under both federal civil rights law and state election codes.
FAFO is a coalition of locally elected district attorneys from Philadelphia, Minneapolis, Tucson, Austin, Dallas, Northern Virginia, Norfolk, Portsmouth, and other jurisdictions around the United States, formed earlier this year to prosecute federal agents who break state law or violate constitutional rights while operating in their communities. The coalition was incubated by DEFIANCE.org and has since been independently established as its own organization at FederalOverreach.org.
"Anyone — federal agent or otherwise — who shows up at a polling place in Philadelphia to intimidate voters is going to find out what 'find out' means," said Larry Krasner, District Attorney of Philadelphia. "A federal badge is not a license to violate the Constitution, and it is not a shield from state criminal law. We have prosecuted police officers who broke the law. We have prosecuted public officials who broke the law. We will prosecute ICE agents who break the law. There is no category of American who gets to operate above it."
Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty, who has already brought charges against federal agents in Minnesota and is currently litigating against the Department of Homeland Security over the administration's deployment of federal forces in Minneapolis, said the coalition is prepared to move quickly.
"The right to vote without fear of armed government agents at the polls is not negotiable, and it is not subject to the whims of a president," said Moriarty. "Federal law makes voter intimidation a crime. Minnesota law makes voter intimidation a crime. If ICE officers are dispatched to polling places in Hennepin County to frighten voters away from the ballot box, my office will investigate, and we will charge. Every prosecutor in this coalition is preparing for that possibility now, before November, so there is no ambiguity about the consequences."
Miles Taylor, the former Chief of Staff at the Department of Homeland Security under the first Trump administration and the founder of DEFIANCE.org, said the announcement reflects a long-overdue rebalancing of accountability for federal misconduct.
"The assumption inside the Trump administration has been that a law enforcement badge is a get-out-of-jail-free card," said Taylor. "FAFO is the answer to that assumption. When I was at DHS, the agents I worked with understood that the law applied to them. We made sure of it. Trump came back to office hellbent on doing the opposite. The prosecutors in this coalition are here to remind them — in the only language that matters in a courtroom — that no one in this country is above the law, and that a uniform is not a hall pass to commit crimes against American voters."
The announcement comes amid a documented escalation in the Trump administration's use of federal law enforcement for domestic political purposes, including the deployment of ICE and other DHS components to American cities, the seizure of state election records in Georgia, and public signaling by the president to use the Insurrection Act and other emergency authorities against political opponents.
Under federal law, 18 U.S.C. § 594 prohibits intimidation of voters at federal elections, and 52 U.S.C. § 20511 imposes criminal penalties for interference with voter registration and voting. State statutes in almost every FAFO member jurisdiction independently criminalize voter intimidation, assault, false imprisonment, and abuse of authority — all charges that can be brought against federal agents acting outside the scope of their lawful duties.
FAFO member prosecutors are available for interviews on request.
ABOUT FEDERALOVEREACH.ORG
The Project for the Fight Against Federal Overreach (FAFO) is a nationwide coalition of locally elected district attorneys committed to enforcing the Constitution and state criminal law against federal agents who exceed their lawful authority. Founding members include district attorneys from Philadelphia, Minneapolis, Austin, Dallas, Fairfax, Arlington, Portsmouth, Norfolk, and Pima County. Learn more at FederalOverreach.org.
ABOUT DEFIANCE.ORG
DEFIANCE.org is a 501(c)(4) civic action organization dedicated to defending American democracy and the rule of law. DEFIANCE incubated FAFO and continues to support pro-democracy organizing nationwide. Learn more at DEFIANCE.org.
Media Contact
Scott Gooddstein, Defiance.org, 1 202-256-8320, [email protected], https://Defiance.org
SOURCE Defiance.org
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