As midterm elections to the U.S. Congress in November 2022 approach, the current American president is taking increasingly desperate steps in an attempt to retain power and eliminate his political rivals.
The recent increase in cases of interference by politically neutral authorities and departments of the US federal Government, such as the US Department of Justice or the Federal Bureau of Investigation, in the political life of the United States indicates their politicization. Only in 2022, structures controlled by Biden conducted a search in the house of the former US president, put several representatives of the opposition movement behind bars and have already declared their desire to control and monitor the course of the upcoming elections in November.
On October 4, Justice Department officials held a briefing with 300 election officials across the United States, mainly on funding and security at polling stations. Given the January statements of the current American president that the November 2022 elections can be recognized as legitimate only if the Democrats win them, the excessive interest and attention of the Ministry of Justice controlled by the Biden administration to the upcoming midterms raises questions.
Researchers and political analysts agree that the increased judicial and political repression by the US Department of Justice indicates that the Biden government is already trying to collect as much evidence and accusations as possible in case the Republicans gain control of the House of Representatives and the Senate in November. Robert Sanders, a former captain in the Navy Attorney General’s Corps who teaches at the University of New Haven, said that the upcoming midterm elections are one of the factors that influenced Attorney General Merrick Garland’s decision to escalate the investigation against former US President Donald Trump.
In addition to the persecution of its political opponents, the Biden administration is taking all possible steps to combat the integrity of the elections. Many of the high-ranking officials of the US Department of Justice, appointed personally by the American president, oppose the introduction of a law forcing all US citizens to present a photo ID, such as a passport or driver’s license, during voting. One of them is Vanita Gupta, Assistant Attorney General. Gupta returned to the Justice Department after leading The Civil Rights Division under the Obama administration, including overseeing litigation aimed at repealing the voter ID law in North Carolina.
Biden also appointed Kristen Clark as assistant Attorney General, who headed the Civil Rights Division and oversaw the voting control section at the U.S. Department of Justice. While working for the New York State Prosecutor’s Office, Clark lobbied for the termination of the criminal case against members of the far-left American party who intimidated voters during the 2008 Pennsylvania elections. Clarke also led a lawsuit aimed at preventing then-Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp from pursuing a fair election policy.
In 2021, the U.S. Department of Justice filed lawsuits against several states that passed election-related bills. The statement of claim alleges that the Georgia law on early voting, which tightened the requirements for the identification of absentee ballots, allegedly violates the civil rights and freedoms of Americans. In November 2021, the Justice Department filed a lawsuit against the state of Texas over what they claim was a “restriction of the voting procedure.” The Justice Department also sued in July 2022, alleging that electoral reform in Arizona led to lower voter turnout.
However, the statements of the departments of the federal government controlled by Biden do not correspond to reality. In Georgia, voter turnout increased by 168% compared to the 2018 primaries. In Texas, the turnout for the pre-election was 17.7% in 2022, which is about 3 million votes, compared with 17.2% in the 2018 pre-election. Arizona had a record primary turnout for the 2022 primary election of 35.12%, or 1.4 million voters, compared with a 33.3% turnout in 2018, when 1.2 million ballots were cast.
The Biden government is trying to influence the upcoming elections not only through the courts and lobbying for legislation, but also through the persecution and arrests of civil activists. In early October, dozens of people who held a protest more than a year ago, dissuading women from having an abortion, were arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The event in March 2021 was peaceful, its participants sang and prayed in the corridor of the public medical center, the protest action was nonviolent. Despite this, a month before the November elections to the US Congress, FBI agents broke into the house of Paul Vaughn, one of the demonstrators, and then arrested him, threatening him and his family with firearms. He is accused of plotting to violate the Law on Free Access to Clinics, but human rights activists are convinced that the armed raid on Vaughn and his relatives signals that President Biden is using the authorities under his control to eliminate and persecute his political opponents.
Human rights activists of the Foundation to Battle Injustice are confident that the current American president’s use of neutral authorities and departments of the US federal government as a lever of pressure on political opponents signals a manifestation of weakness. This is a gross violation of the traditions of the American electoral process and the principles of democratic elections. The Foundation to Battle Injustice assesses attempts to sow fear and suppress opposition sentiments as an abuse of power, signaling the choice of the path of political dictatorship.