The Justice Department has filed criminal cases against prominent critics of President Trump and election lawsuits against states in the weeks before the midterm elections — a pre-election run that NPR Justice correspondent Ryan Lucas said is “not normal at all” for the department.

Speaking with host Scott Simon in an NPR interview, Lucas described “a flurry of politically charged cases and investigations by the Justice Department over the past month.”

Federal agents searched the home of Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar, one of Trump’s fiercest critics in Congress, as part of an investigation into possible immigration fraud, Lucas said.

The department has also charged two former FBI officials in connection with the investigations into Hunter Biden, the son of former President Biden.

James Comey, the former FBI director, was charged this month for allegedly leaking sensitive information 10 years ago. It is the third criminal case against Comey in little over a year.

And just this week, prosecutors tried and failed to secure a grand jury indictment against a former Trump White House aide who had provided what Lucas described as damning testimony to House lawmakers about the January 6 Capitol riot.

The activity departs from a long-standing department practice, observed by Republican and Democratic administrations alike, of avoiding overt investigative actions in the roughly two months before an election, Lucas said. The purpose, he said, is to avoid even the possibility that the department could be seen as interfering with or influencing an election.

The Justice Manual, the department’s internal rulebook, states that prosecutors and agents can never do anything with the purpose of affecting an election, according to Lucas. Critics, including legal experts and department veterans, say the recent actions are clear violations.

Attorney General Todd Blanche has pushed back on that criticism. “When we have to execute a search warrant or an arrest, if there’s a crime that occurs, we take into consideration the purpose and making sure the purpose is proper, which is what the Justice Manual requires, and that’s what we did then, and that’s what we do in every case,” Blanche said when asked about it earlier this month.

In California, the department has asked courts to set aside any vote-by-mail ballots associated with a list of 20,000 names that the Justice Department says are likely noncitizens until the voters’ citizenship has been verified. A federal judge and an appeals court rejected that request this week.

The department has not backed down in the broader fight over the state’s voter rolls: on Thursday it sent grand jury subpoenas to California election officials, a step Lucas described as a significant escalation.

Alaska, Lucas said, “has been a wild ride.” The Justice Department sued to delay certification in the state’s U.S. Senate race if the Republican incumbent, Dan Sullivan, loses by a small margin, arguing that a second Dan Sullivan on the ballot could confuse voters. The state’s Supreme Court has already ruled that both Sullivans can run. President Trump has said he told the Justice Department to file the suit.

Things had seemed to settle down until The New York Times reported this week that Democrats recruited the second Dan Sullivan to run specifically to siphon votes away from the Republican. The Justice Department revised its lawsuit to include those allegations. Alaska’s governor has ordered an investigation, and the Justice Department already has a criminal investigation underway. Lucas said there is more to come on that front.