Top Democrats and allied organizations sued President Donald Trump and his administration on Wednesday, accusing federal officials of trying to disrupt the midterm elections by intimidating election administrators and pushing states to remove voters from their rolls.

The lawsuit arrived 13 days before the midterms. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., joined the plaintiffs in filing the case in the U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia.

Trump, the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security are named as defendants. The complaint, spanning 44 pages, challenges recent DHS demands that states examine federal lists of alleged noncitizen voters, particularly in Nevada and California.

State officials have disputed the accuracy of those lists, according to the complaint. The lawsuit portrays the administration’s demands as part of an unlawful effort to seize authority that belongs to state election officials.

The filing highlights a Truth Social threat from Trump earlier this week. Trump said election officials in LA County “will all go to jail for a long period of time!!!” if they count votes cast by alleged noncitizens.

The complaint also cites U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Texas Aaron Reitz. In a social media post Monday, Reitz said he would “hunt” and “prosecute” anyone who violates federal election law.

“DOJ’s recent actions confirm that Defendants have settled on a course of intimidating state election officials with threats of criminal prosecution for doing nothing more than adhering to state law and distributing ballots to registered voters,” the complaint states.

The plaintiffs allege that the administration’s attempt to wrest election control from states, along with threats from federal officials, violates the Voting Rights Act and constitutional principles. Those principles prevent the federal government from forcing states to enact, administer or enforce federal laws, according to the filing.

Other plaintiffs include the Democratic House and Senate campaign arms, the Democratic Governors Association and the Nevada Democratic Party. Erick Jose Jimenez, a registered California voter who became a naturalized citizen 20 years ago, also joined the case because he fears being falsely labeled a noncitizen and “unlawfully targeted.”

Attorney General Todd Blanche and DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin are also defendants. Blanche has said he would “absolutely” consider taking the matter to the Supreme Court, while Mullin has said his department will penalize states that refuse to cooperate with federal demands.

The plaintiffs want the court to find that the defendants violated the Constitution and the Voting Rights Act. They are also seeking an order blocking the administration from continuing the challenged actions.

“None of this is lawful,” the complaint states. “The Executive Branch enjoys no authority to superintend state voter list maintenance, to supplant state determinations of who is qualified to vote, or to dictate who gets a ballot or whose ballot gets segregated — Congress has kept that responsibility with the States, subject only to a narrow civil enforcement power the administration has declined to invoke during its recent efforts.”

The case is the latest challenge to the administration’s push to force states to surrender voter rolls. Federal courts have unanimously struck down those efforts, while Democrats and election experts have warned that the campaign could weaken trust in the coming elections.

Federal officials have nevertheless continued pressing the issue, including through a lawsuit filed against California election officials last week. Trump administration officials rejected the allegations in the new Democratic lawsuit and defended their election actions as lawful.

White House spokesperson Lauren Bis said, “Democrats and the media continue to dismiss concerns about voter fraud,” and described the administration’s actions as efforts to prosecute election crimes, strengthen election infrastructure security and protect vulnerable voters. DOJ spokesperson Kirsten Pels said “election integrity is a top priority” and maintained that every department action was grounded in law.

A DHS spokesperson dismissed the case as “another political stunt by Democrats.” The lawsuit was assigned to Chief Judge James “Jeb” Boasberg, an Obama appointee who previously handled a challenge involving the deportation and imprisonment of alleged Tren de Aragua gang members.

During an emergency hearing in March 2025, Boasberg ordered that no additional flights to El Salvador could depart. Trump later called him a “Radical Left Lunatic,” while a judicial misconduct complaint against Boasberg filed in July 2025 was dismissed earlier this year by 6th Circuit Chief Judge Jeffrey Sutton.