Margot Cleveland of the Federalist explores the impact of recent actions from the Biden Justice Department.

[T]he U.S. Department of Justice issued two “guidance documents” purportedly “to ensure states fully comply with federal laws regarding election.” Those documents, however, really represent the Biden administration’s latest attempt to squelch investigations into potential voting irregularities, silence critics of the 2020 election, and cement forever the free-for-all COVID voting “procedures” implemented last voting cycle.

Wednesday’s guidance came in the form of two documents entitled, respectively, ”Federal Law Constraints on Post-Election ‘Audits’” and “Guidance Concerning Federal Statutes Affecting Methods of Voting.” In the DOJ’s guidance on post-election audits, the Biden administration began with its familiar refrain that “the November 3rd election was the most secure in American history,” and that notwithstanding “automatic recounts or canvasses,” there was no evidence “of either wrongdoing or mistakes that casts any doubt on the outcome of the national election results.”

Yet, as the DOJ put it, there has since been an “unusual second round of examinations” by states looking at “certain ballots, election records, and election systems used to conduct elections in 2020.” Then, with a not-so-veiled threat, the Biden administration rattled off the “federal constraints, which are enforced by the Department of Justice,” on these audits. …

… While not singled out by name, the detail contained in its guidance statements suggest the DOJ has in its sights the Arizona Republicans leading the probe into Maricopa County voting. …

… The DOJ’s guidance will likely provide the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, which has resisted attempts by the state Senate to obtain the equipment and other data, an excuse to keep a close hold on the information. The guidance from the Biden administration, however, seems also to seek to scare off state officials from pursing such investigation, as seen by the DOJ’s reference to the criminal penalties that attach to willful violations of the Civil Rights Act.