Grand jurors in Washington on Friday refused to indict a person the Justice Department accused of casting ballots in two places in the 2024 election, The New York Times reports, citing four people briefed on the case.
The Times says the setback, along with a run of recent courtroom losses, reflects the department’s “harried push” to back up President Trump’s unproven claims of widespread fraud.
The identity of the person targeted for indictment by the DOJ remains confidential, as does the reason jurors refused to indict. However, a federal grand jury refusing to indict, known as a “no true bill,” is considered extremely rare, because a prosecutor generally only has to show probable cause at this stage.
People familiar with the matter gave the Times different explanations for why the case was filed so close to Election Day, which the paper says earlier administrations avoided. One said political appointees, including U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro, pushed it to answer Trump’s calls for voter-fraud prosecutions. Another said it grew out of a list from the D.C. Board of Elections identifying people who had voted twice. The U.S. attorney’s office didn’t comment.
According to the Times, the department has brought roughly 200 voter-fraud cases against individuals under Trump, compared with about a dozen under Biden, while losing dozens of suits against state and local election officials, including in California last week.
This follows a number of other high-profile failed indictments by the Trump administration, most recently against former Trump administration aide Cassidy Hutchinson, whom officials wanted to charge with lying to Congress in her January 6 testimony. As no true bills have spiked in recent months, Chief Judge James Boasberg has asked grand jury leaders to tell the court whenever they happen.
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