“It’s clear that this administration is fishing to try to drum up stories around fraud,” Prentiss Haney told NBC News after FBI agents searched the Ohio Organizing Collaborative’s office on a Thursday in June. Haney is a board member of the group and its former director.
NBC News, citing three people familiar with the matter, reported on June 12 that special agents searched the office as part of a Justice Department investigation into the group’s voter registration work. A spokesperson for the FBI Cleveland Field Office confirmed law enforcement activity there. Haney said agents also went to the homes of people tied to the organization, and he said staff and volunteers were questioned about possible voter registration fraud.
Two sides of the argument
Haney accused the administration of targeting civil rights and community leaders “because they don’t see a path for themselves to actually legitimately hold power beyond this year.” He described the effort as intimidation with “mob boss energy.”
Rep. Shontel Brown, an Ohio Democrat, said her office had contacted the FBI demanding information. “I am deeply concerned that this is an effort to use federal law enforcement to intimidate and halt voter registration and organizing efforts,” she said, calling for the raids to end.
A Justice Department official responded that search warrants “are authorized by a judge and anything said by any organization or others in the media is unfounded speculation, as the target of any investigation is not privy to the search warrant affidavit until after indictment.” The FBI and the Justice Department did not respond to Votebeat’s emails seeking comment.
The collaborative, formed in 2007, says its mission is to organize Ohioans for racial, social and economic justice. In 2017, a paid canvasser for the organization pleaded guilty in a fraudulent voter registration scheme. Its sister group, the Ohio Organizing Campaign, said it registered nearly 160,000 Ohio voters in 2024 and called that the largest independent voter registration program in the country.
The probe widens
On June 17, Votebeat reported that the FBI had served a subpoena on America Votes, a Washington nonprofit founded by prominent Democratic leaders that works to turn out voters. Tax filings show America Votes has given the Ohio group at least $500,000 in recent years. The organization confirmed the subpoena, which it said asked for “basic records related to funding of the Ohio Organizing Collaborative,” and said it had been told it is not a target.
Haney said the FBI appeared to want information from America Votes and other voting rights groups that worked with his organization. “This is very far reaching,” he said. He added that he did not know the full extent of the inquiry.
The wider backdrop
The probe comes ahead of the November midterms. President Trump has repeatedly claimed, without evidence, that voter fraud cost him the 2020 election, and recently accused Democrats, again without evidence, of rigging the California primary. FBI agents have seized 2020 ballots in Fulton County, Georgia, and secured election records in Maricopa County, Arizona.
Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose, a Republican, referred more than 1,200 cases to the Justice Department last year, many tied to alleged unlawful registration or voting. He said he found more than 1,000 noncitizens had registered, including 167 who appeared to have voted in federal elections between 2018 and 2024. Votebeat noted those are allegations, not proven cases. The AP reported that of 621 referrals sent to Ohio’s attorney general, prosecutors won indictments against nine people for voting as noncitizens over a decade. Government officials and election experts say voter fraud in the United States is uncommon.
Sources
- The FBI subpoenaed one of the leading voter outreach groups in the country, expanding its probe of a voting rights effort in Ohio
- Ohio progressive group searched by FBI accuses Trump’s DOJ of intimidation
