FBI agents entered the Cleveland office of the Ohio Organizing Collaborative, a grassroots organization involved in voter registration work, on Thursday, according to Prentiss Haney, a board member of the group. Haney said agents seized computers and phones and also visited homes of people affiliated with the group across the state, interviewing them.
Haney described the operation as “a full on coordinated assault weaponizing the justice department and DHS against people who are fighting for working class voters and Black voters to make sure they have access to the ballot,” in an interview.
The agents appeared to be examining accusations of fraud related to the 2024 election, Haney said, but the specific scope of the investigation was not immediately clear beyond that. The FBI’s office in Cleveland did not return a request for comment.
The raid came roughly a month after a top official in Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche’s office instructed prosecutors to prioritize voter fraud cases, according to the New York Times. Last fall, Frank LaRose, a Republican serving as Ohio’s top election official, referred 1,084 non-citizens who appeared to have registered in the state to the Justice Department. Federal investigators have also collected voter records in at least six Ohio counties, Reuters reported in April.
The search drew swift condemnation from Democratic elected officials and civil rights organizations. Rep. Shontel Brown, whose district includes Cleveland, called it “an unprecedented attack on democracy” and said it appeared to be part of “a systematic effort by Trump and Kash Patel’s FBI to attack our elections and perpetuate more myths of voter fraud – all to undermine and challenge any election result that Trump does not agree with.”
Sen. Sherrod Brown, who is running for reelection this year, described reports of the raid as “deeply disturbing.” Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb said the FBI should disclose the basis for the search. “If there is a legitimate basis for these actions, it should be disclosed,” Bibb said in a statement. “If not, the public has every right to question whether civic participation is being unfairly targeted.”
Michael Waldman, president of the Brennan Center for Justice, said in a statement that the raid “appears to be an outrageous fishing expedition, an attempt to intimidate people working for democracy in our communities and country. It is an egregious abuse of law enforcement for political ends, and it fits a pattern of federal inquiries targeting voting infrastructure ahead of the midterm elections.”
President Trump has continued to assert without evidence that widespread voter fraud plagues U.S. elections, most recently focusing on California, which takes longer to tally votes because it accepts ballots that arrive after Election Day. The claims have escalated concern that Trump may attempt to contest a Republican loss in this fall’s midterm elections, the source reported.