Pam Bondi

DOJ's first demand letters went to 15 or more states in August 2025, citing federal statutes including the National Voter Registration Act and the Help America Vote Act as authority to compel production of full voter registration files including Social Security and driver's license numbers ². Cross-reference of DOJ filings and litigation trackers indicates that when states declined, DOJ filed suit in six waves between September 2025 and February 2026, with Wave 1 (September 2025) targeting California, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New York, Oregon, and Pennsylvania; Wave 2 adding North Carolina, Virginia, Georgia, Illinois, and Wisconsin; Wave 3 (December 2) adding Delaware, Maryland, New Mexico, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and DC; Wave 4 (December 12) adding Colorado, Hawaii, Massachusetts, and Nevada; Wave 5 (January 2026) adding Arizona and Connecticut; and Wave 6 (February 26) adding Utah, Oklahoma, Kentucky, West Virginia, and New Jersey ³.

According to the same filings, twelve Republican-led states — Alaska, Arkansas, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nebraska, Ohio, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, and Wyoming — complied voluntarily without litigation ³. Analysis of Senate correspondence and news coverage indicates Senator Alex Padilla wrote to Bondi in November 2025 and January 2026 raising legal objections to the program, and Democracy Docket tracked the litigation in real time ⁷. According to court filings and contemporaneous reporting, a federal judge in the Minnesota case described a Bondi letter sent to Governor Tim Walz on January 25, 2026, timed the same day as a fatal ICE operation in Minneapolis, as linking immigration enforcement to voter data compliance, using the word "blackmail," and 18 secretaries of state condemned the letter ⁸.

Analysis of the three dismissal orders indicates the courts reached parallel conclusions: the California court ruled the demands violated federal privacy law and warned against consolidation of elections authority in the executive branch, the Oregon court found DOJ had not met the statutory standard for records access, and Judge Jarbou in Michigan issued a 23-page order finding that no applicable federal statute authorized DOJ to demand the specific personally identifiable data sought ⁴. According to appellate docket records, DOJ appealed all four dismissals to the Ninth and Sixth Circuits ⁴.

According to DOJ-DHS program documentation, the confidential MOU program created a cross-agency data flow in which states provide voter rolls to DOJ, DOJ transfers the data to DHS, DHS runs bulk queries through the SAVE system to flag potential noncitizens, DOJ notifies states of flagged records, and states are required to remove flagged voters within 45 days ⁵. According to Democracy Docket and Stateline reporting, DOJ Voting Section acting chief Eric Neff is the named point of contact for the MOU program; Neff previously relied on True the Vote evidence and has authored articles referencing Dominion Voting Systems conspiracy claims ⁵. According to the same reporting, 11 states were identified as willing to sign confidential MOUs: Alabama, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Tennessee, Utah, and Virginia ⁵.

According to public reporting, DHS Deputy Assistant Secretary for Election Integrity Heather Honey, appointed August 2025, manages the DHS side of the pipeline, was a subcontractor during the Cyber Ninjas 2020 Arizona Maricopa County audit, sits on Cleta Mitchell's FAIR Elections Fund board, and publicly contradicted a DHS spokesperson about whether voter data sharing was occurring ⁶. Analysis of DHS regulatory filings indicates the agency formalized voter registration and voter list maintenance as official SAVE uses, expanding the system beyond its original single-query benefits-verification function ⁶.

According to USCIS documentation, the agency's own Privacy Impact Assessment acknowledges SAVE produces inaccurate results from misspellings and incomplete data, and NPR reported in December 2025 that the system flags naturalized US citizens because SSA citizenship records often fail to update after naturalization ⁶. According to program records, the Texas pilot flagged 2,724 voters and issued 30-day proof-of-citizenship deadlines ⁵.

Stephen Miller, serving as White House Deputy Chief of Staff and Homeland Security Advisor, coordinates with DOJ on voter roll demands and election investigations, according to reporting by The Atlantic (March 2026) and the Washington Post Connection #3288. Miller directs weekly election enforcement meetings in which Honey participates as DHS election integrity deputy. Bondi's voter roll litigation thus sits at the intersection of DOJ legal authority and White House political direction.

Harmeet Dhillon, confirmed as Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights in April 2025, restructured the DOJ Voting Section to execute the voter roll litigation campaign and installed personnel with ties to the Public Interest Legal Foundation and True the Vote as Voting Section chiefs Connection #3326. PILF data was cited in DOJ's demand letter to Pennsylvania's Secretary of State in August 2025, and DOJ filed an amicus brief supporting PILF in the Maine case. Dhillon's prior law firm, Dhillon Law Group, received approximately $4.5 million from the Trump campaign in 2023 before she transferred ownership to her brother upon DOJ confirmation.

Ed Martin chaired the Weaponization Working Group established by Bondi on February 5, 2025, and served at DOJ under her until a demotion in February 2026 Connection #3319. On a January 2026 War Room podcast appearance, Martin stated publicly that he was working with Kurt Olsen on election integrity matters. Martin's connection to Bondi represents the overlap between the voter roll litigation program and the administration's broader election investigations portfolio.

Prior to her appointment as AG, Bondi registered as a lobbyist at Ballard Partners, where she represented the GEO Group Connection #2836. GEO Group is among the primary beneficiaries of expanded immigration detention under the current administration; it received a 15-year, $1.2 billion contract for the Delaney Hall facility 36 days after the January 2025 border emergency declaration. Bondi's prior lobbying relationship with GEO is a disclosed pre-government financial tie to a direct beneficiary of current DOJ and DHS policy.

FEC records show a $1,000 contribution from Pam Bondi to Tommy Tuberville for Senate dated May 27, 2020, made while she was employed at Ballard Partners in DC, and a $2,000 contribution to Huck PAC on December 19, 2014 from Tallahassee ¹. LittleSis assigns entity ID 114097 to Bondi. These are the only federal donor records identified; the FEC match carries medium confidence given the common name and absence of additional corroborating identifiers ¹.

Bondi's Ballard Partners lobbying income, including her GEO Group work, has not been fully itemized in the present record. The financial connection to GEO Group represents the primary pre-government financial relationship with a direct beneficiary of administration policy identified to date Connection #2836.