Editor’s note: This piece is coauthored by Cleta Mitchell.

In announcing the recent indictments against Russians brought by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein told the American people that “there is no allegation in this indictment that any American was a knowing participant in this illegal activity. There is no allegation in the indictment that the charged conduct altered the outcome of the 2016 election.”

That was good news. The bad news is that the special counsel, the FBI, and the Department of Justice don’t seem interested in illegal actions that may actually affect the outcome of U.S. elections.


The Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF) sued Pennsylvania on Monday for concealing numerous cases of noncitizens registering to vote. One Pennsylvania election official testified before the state legislature that an estimated 100,000 noncitizens are registered in the commonwealth.

In the midst of the discovery last fall, Pedro Cortes resigned as Pennsylvania secretary of state. PILF is suing for the release of the actual data — still being kept confidential — so that it can be used to correct the state’s voter rolls.

Of course, the U.S. Department of Justice could obtain this data easily. But it hasn’t lifted a finger.

That leaves it up to the PILF. If the organization can dislodge this crucial information through civil litigation, the truth about foreign votes cast in U.S. elections can be formally calculated and documented.

Noncitizens should be criminally prosecuted for illegally registering and voting. But that will take a Justice Department waking up from its coma when it comes to enforcing federal laws against election crimes, including noncitizen voting.

In a pending lawsuit against Starr County, Texas, along the Rio Grande Valley, PILF recently turned over to the local court evidence of: dead people (one a former politician) voting; organized noncitizen voter registration ploys; and poor voter list maintenance issues that allow such illegal schemes to flourish.

This evidence has inspired prosecution of three individuals in the last month. Recently, the Texas Senate Select Committee on Election Security said that, absent the PILF efforts, authorities would not have known about the illegal voting that has already occurred, much less be able to thwart such schemes in the future.
 
It is a violation of the federal criminal code for a noncitizen to register to vote. It is a separate criminal offense for a noncitizen to vote in a federal election. Many states, including Pennsylvania, have state laws barring the same actions.

The Department of Justice is charged with enforcing these federal laws to protect the integrity of American elections. Yet not once did the Obama administration bring a case or even inquire about a state’s effort to maintain voter rolls — itself a requirement of federal law.

In every federal election during the eight years of the Obama administration, hundreds of counties had more registered voters than living voting-age residents.

Yet the progressive Left remains steadfast in its determination to thwart all efforts to investigate and prosecute noncitizen voting. Witness its hysteria and outrage over President Trump’s Advisory Commission on Election Integrity. The Left apparently cares nothing about illegal votes and criminal schemes to interfere with America’s elections.

The Left’s well-funded professional grievance industry uses the false mantra that “no voter fraud exists” to squelch even the slightest inquiry into election integrity and to avoid inconvenient truths like the over 1,100 proven cases of election fraud documented in a database maintained by The Heritage Foundation. This is precisely why the Pennsylvania case is so critical. 

What we don’t understand is why Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein continues to focus on Special Counsel Mueller rather than directing the Criminal Division to investigate real interference in the 2016 elections.

To date, PILF has just scratched the surface. Yet these limited investigations have exposed thousands of noncitizen registrants (and voters) in Virginia and New Jersey. Each time, the data were given to federal prosecutors, who appear to have done exactly nothing with the information.

If the Department of Justice wants to do something useful to protect the integrity of American elections, investigating and prosecuting those among us who vote illegally — thereby cancelling out the voices of legitimate voters — would be a good place to start.

Republished from The Heritage Foundation.