‘We Have Seen Them Weaponize It’
It appears as though New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill (D) will not comply with the Justice Department’s demands for the identities of the 6,600 noncitizens who were, through no fault of their own, placed on the voter rolls in 2023 and 2024.
The whole episode was the result of a software error. At the time, Phil Murphy (D) was New Jersey’s governor; Sherrill publicized the error last week when she announced that about 400 of those noncitizens who were mistakenly added to the voter rolls did, in fact, vote, without knowing they could not. Sherrill made it clear that her office was conducting an investigation into what happened during the previous administration, broke ties with the software company and has said that none of those 400 votes had an impact on the results of elections in her state.
As we unpacked last week, the incident has been hijacked by the Trump Justice Department as a cudgel in its legal crusade to try to force New Jersey and other states to hand over their voter roll data. Trump and his allies are also using it as a new weapon in their effort to spread the lie that noncitizens voting illegally en masse for Democrats is the only reason Democrats win elections. It’s become part of his effort to try to jam through the SAVE America Act ahead of the midterms — which would require documentary proof of citizenship to register to vote, with an added bonus of disenfranchising millions through new voter ID laws.
In a letter to Sherrill last week, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division and former Trump campaign legal advisor Harmeet Dhillon demanded the identities of those who were placed on the rolls within five business days — and indicated in public remarks that the DOJ may want to use the episode to make a big show of deporting or bringing criminal charges against the noncitizens on the rolls.
“It is not a surprise to me that the federal government, that the Trump administration, wants to weaponize this against people as opposed to focusing on making sure that we’re running free and fair elections,” Sherrill said late last week. “We are not in the practice of turning this kind of personally identifying data over to the federal government because we have seen them weaponize it.”
Her spokesperson, Sean Higgins, followed up with a statement to the New York Times saying Sherrill “will use all the legal tools available to her to protect New Jerseyans’ personal information.”
While it is unclear how or when Sherrill will formally respond to the letter, presumably rebuffing Dhillon’s demands, Dhillon has continued bashing the governor publicly, claiming she has been hypocritical in criticizing President Trump for spreading his conspiracy theories about the 2020 election.
“When the president came out with his Primetime speech last Thursday, I believe on the sequencing of events that has been laid out, she already knew that this revelation was forthcoming,” Dhillon told Fox News Digital Monday. “She knew it, and she still went online and called the president a liar and said he was exaggerating. Shame on you, governor.”
As I wrote last week, the whole episode is demoralizing, as it gives the Justice Department one datapoint — though an ultimately inconsequential one! — rooted in reality to point to as it tries to force states to hand over sensitive voter information that it is not entitled to. And more broadly, it gives Trump something to point to to support his delusions about the myth of noncitizen voting.
On the same day it sent the letter to Sherrill last week, the DOJ filed a notice as part of its pending lawsuit against New Jersey to try to seize voter data from the state, claiming the incident bolstered the DOJ’s case for why the court should force the state to give it the sensitive voter data.
We will continue tracking this saga both here and in TPM’s weekly newsletter on the Trump administration’s attacks on voting rights and election administration by reporter Khaya Himmelman, The Franchise.
For his part, former Democratic Gov. Murphy has denied knowing about the error, though Sherrill has emphasized that it took place under his, not her, administration.
“Prior to Tuesday, Governor Murphy had no knowledge of any software glitch at the Motor Vehicle Commission that resulted in non-citizens being inadvertently added to New Jersey’s voter rolls,” Mahen Gunaratna, a Murphy spokesperson, told Politico in a statement. “He applauds Governor Sherrill for initiating a review and looks forward to the findings.”
Amazon and Walmart Rely on Billions in Taxpayer Dollars to Meet Employees’ Basic Needs
Judd Legum is out with a new analysis on Popular Information today, dissecting data on exactly how much some of the country’s richest corporations are relying on tax payer dollars to fund health care for their employees instead of doing it themselves or paying workers a living wage. He found that American taxpayers are spending about $1.04 billion to fund Medicaid costs for 156,000 Walmart employees and about $927 million for Medicaid costs for 123,000 Amazon employees. All the while, the CEOs and top shareholders for each company are raking in millions and billions:
As taxpayers keep their workers afloat, the wealth of the two companies’ largest shareholders is increasing exponentially. The Walton family, the largest shareholders of Walmart, saw their collective wealth increase from $238 billion in 2021 to $513 billion at the end of 2025. Meanwhile, Amazon founder and current executive chairman Jeff Bezos saw his net worth increase from $187 billion to $255 billion over roughly the same time period.
More here: Taxpayers spend about $2 billion annually on Medicaid for Amazon and Walmart employees
Fetterman Changes Tune on Filibuster
In a new Washington Post op-ed today, Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) — who, while he denies it, is acting a lot like how someone might act if they’re going to change political parties — said he was “wrong” about his previous support for changing filibuster rules so Dems could actually pass legislation during Biden’s term. An excerpt:
I thought ending the filibuster was necessary to deliver results for working families. I thought it was unlikely for Republicans in the minority to find common ground on legislation Democrats were proposing. I thought Democrats were not being ruthless the way Republicans were, and we needed to be on that level if we were going to relieve the anger that voters were feeling.
Upon reflection, the pursuit of those short-term wins clouded the bigger picture and lasting impact of a Senate without the filibuster — a Senate that ignored the voices of the minority and everyday people.
This is, of course, coming up again because Trump is trying to get Senate Republicans to abolish the filibuster in order to pass the only legislation he seems to care about: the SAVE America Act, which doesn’t have the votes in the Senate, even among Senate Republicans.
McConnell’s Staff Shares Another Proof-of-Life Photo
Amid swirling conspiracy theories and memes and rumors online about the actual state of the Kentucky senator’s health, his office released another photo and update on his health journey today:
More to Read From TPM Today
Kate Riga has the latest on Trump’s legal efforts to try to enforce his executive order from this spring — seeking the creation of citizenship lists and an overhaul of mail-in voting before the midterms — which has been repeatedly blocked by courts. He’s appealed to SCOTUS: Trump Asks SCOTUS to Let Him Mess with Mail-In Voting Before Midterms
Emine Yücel covers Trump’s demands this morning that Senate Republican leadership cancel the upcoming August recess in order to get the SAVE Act passed (it won’t pass without a blown up filibuster and more Senate GOP support for the voter suppression bill): Senate Poised to Once Again Collapse Into Chaos Over SAVE Act
John Light unpacks the Trump administration’s latest admission, in court, acknowledging its motivation for withholding congressionally appropriated funds from blue states is political: The Brief: Trump Admin Concedes a Blunt Truth About Russ Vought’s OMB
Yesterday’s Top Story
Are Politicians Ready to Stop Turning Back the Clock?
What I’m Reading
GOP senators warn confidence in Hegseth eroding as Iran war drags on
Comey asks judge to dismiss Trump ‘seashells’ case citing lack of ‘true threat’
Thune rejects Trump’s calls to nix the filibuster and Senate recess
A neighbor of mine worked at Walmart. She had to hold a second job in order to survive.
I see more recently that Walmart is paying more than most other retail establishments pay, but I still wouldn’t work for them.