The Department of Justice sent threatening letters to at least 30 top election officials across the country, expanding its efforts to gain access to private voter data and election records. The letters warned states not to destroy any records related to the 2024 election, explaining that their chief election officials “are currently under investigation” and subject to “ongoing litigation.” The notices come amid a barrage of efforts by President Trump and his administration, which have been fruitless so far, to find evidence of widespread voter fraud. It is not clear what the department is investigating, nor whether its probe is criminal or civil in nature.

The letters do not cite any criminal statutes. Instead, they point to some of the same claims made previously as part of the administration’s ongoing effort to identify fraud in the nation’s elections, including machine anomalies and noncitizen voting. In court, the Justice Department has tried to force states to hand over unredacted voter lists, including personal information like driver's license numbers and partial Social Security numbers.

The Justice Department has sued 30 different states for this data. They’ve lost 23 of those cases and have won none. Decisions are pending in the rest. Mr. Trump has falsely claimed for years that millions of noncitizens are illegally registered to vote or have actually cast ballots.

Multiple studies have shown the practice is exceedingly rare. Kiersten Pels, a spokeswoman for the Department of Justice, confirmed that the department sent the letters to “the states we are in active litigation against regarding their failure to provide the full” statewide registered voter list. Ms. Pels did not respond to questions about unspecified criminal investigations. Calli Jones, a spokeswoman for the Arizona secretary of state’s office, said the office would comply with what the law requires, regardless of any requests from the Justice Department. “Our office and our counties follow state document retention laws,” Ms. Jones said in an interview, “and to imply otherwise is an insult to the work that election administrators do in Arizona.