Trump’s DOJ Demands 865,000 Ballots From Detroit Area After Finding 350,000 Dead Voters Still on Rolls

The Trump administration just put Michigan on notice in a big way.

Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon fired off a letter to Wayne County Clerk Cathy Garrett demanding every single ballot from the November 2024 election. All 865,000 of them. Absentee ballots, provisional ballots, ballot receipts, envelopes. Everything.

And if Wayne County doesn’t comply within 14 days? The DOJ said it will seek a court order to force the handover.

This comes after Dhillon’s team reviewed roughly 60 million voter records across cooperating states and found at least 350,000 dead people still registered to vote. They also referred approximately 25,000 individuals with no citizenship records to the Department of Homeland Security.

U.S. Senator Mike Lee summed up the situation perfectly.

Why are 29 states & D.C. stonewalling federal officials trying to ensure that your vote isn’t nullified by noncitizens & dead people?@AAGDhillon has already found tens of thousands of noncitizens & hundreds of thousands of dead people—just on voter rolls of cooperating states. https://t.co/sdpy0ZN30h pic.twitter.com/609fcKOG43

— Mike Lee (@BasedMikeLee) April 20, 2026

Dhillon herself responded, making it clear the DOJ is not backing down from states that refuse to cooperate.

Yes, why? Imagine what sloppy or worse situations the non-compliant states are trying to prevent the federal government from learing! https://t.co/0dEzy7N7LD

— AAGHarmeetDhillon (@AAGDhillon) April 20, 2026

Fox News reported on the details of the demand:

Dhillon cited Wayne County’s “history of fraud convictions and allegations” and warned that failure to comply “may result in the United States seeking a court order for production of such records.”

The DOJ is currently suing 29 states and Washington, D.C. for refusing to hand over their voter rolls. In states that cooperated, the results were staggering: at least 350,000 deceased individuals still on voter rolls and roughly 25,000 people with no citizenship documentation referred to Homeland Security for further investigation.

Not surprisingly, Michigan’s top Democrats immediately went into panic mode.

CNN reported on the response from Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel:

Nessel characterized the request as baseless and politically motivated. She and Governor Gretchen Whitmer issued a joint statement saying the demand was about “a weaponized DOJ trying to please a president who doesn’t want to be held accountable.”

Nessel argued that the DOJ’s letter was directed to the wrong office, pointing out that the 865,000 ballots are actually held by 43 municipal clerks across Wayne County, not the county clerk. She called the request a “fishing expedition” that would burden election officials ahead of the August 2 primary.

Think about that for a second. The DOJ says it found 350,000 dead people on voter rolls, referred 25,000 suspected non-citizens to DHS, and wants to review the ballots from a county with a documented history of fraud allegations. And Michigan’s response is to call it a “fishing expedition.”

If your voter rolls are clean and your elections are secure, what exactly are you afraid of?

Dhillon said the quiet part out loud during her appearance on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures” with Maria Bartiromo: states that refuse to cooperate with voter roll cleanup are the ones with the most to hide. The DOJ has already proven its case in the jurisdictions that handed over their data.

The 14-day compliance deadline for Wayne County expires April 28. If Nessel and Whitmer continue to stonewall, the DOJ has made it clear it will take the fight to court.

The American people have a right to know that only eligible citizens are voting in their elections. That shouldn’t be controversial.