The Department of Justice (DOJ) is ramping up efforts to monitor and crack down on election-related threats ahead of the 2024 election.
DOJ officials announced on Monday that the department is prepared to “aggressively investigate and prosecute” those who criminally interfere with election processes, such as making threats against poll workers.
“If you threaten to harm or kill an election worker, volunteer or official, the Justice Department will find you and we will hold you accountable,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said, according to POLITICO. “The public servants who administer our elections must be able to do their jobs without fearing for their safety or their families. We will aggressively investigate and prosecute those who threaten election workers.”
Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said that the “democratic process and the public servants who protect it have been under attack like never before,” according to Axios. Monaco added that artificial intelligence has created “new avenues” for bad actors to “hide their identities” and “misinform and threaten voters,” according to POLITICO.
“A particularly disturbing trend across these cases is the way perpetrators use new technologies to mask their identities and communicate their threats,” Monaco said. “Today, criminals use a range of anonymizing technologies, not just burner phones and social media.”
“These advanced tools are providing new avenues for bad actors to hide their identities and obscure sources of threats,” she continued. “They’re providing new avenues to misinform and threaten voters through deep fakes, spreading altered video or cloned audio impersonating trusted voices, and providing new avenues to recruit and radicalize with incendiary social media content that accelerates online hate and harassment.”
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Monaco said that in cases that involve the use of such “advanced tools” that make crimes “more dangerous and more impactful, the Department of Justice will seek enhanced sentences.”
The DOJ under President Joe Biden has focused significant resources on pursuing election-related charges, such as those related to the breach of the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. The department’s focus has re-routed resources away from other significant areas of criminal conduct, such as child sex abuse, according to an FBI whistleblower.
The Justice Department has also prioritized cases against pro-life protesters, which Republicans allege have become victims of political prosecution under the Biden administration. GOP lawmakers say that federal laws restricting protests have been used unequally against pro-life protesters.