Ha, ha! Trump has said, “if you don’t have honest voting, you can’t really have a nation.”

But five months out from the midterm elections that will determine control of Congress, his Justice Department has canceled election-integrity training sessions for prosecutors and FBI agents, deleted a 281-page guide to prosecuting election offenses, fired most of the lawyers in its Public Integrity Section and failed to replace the director of its Election Crimes Branch. Via Spotlight PA:

Also, the DOJ has not taken the usual steps to establish a “command center” to monitor and address the typical emergencies that pop up around Election Day, three sources with knowledge of the situation told NOTUS. A command center team would address things like voter intimidation and targeted disinformation meant to hinder a fair process.

These actions — and inactions — have alarmed current and former prosecutors, who say the Justice Department is not prepared to deal with threats to election integrity in the November elections.

“That’s really concerning,” said Ryan Crosswell, a former public corruption prosecutor who recently ran for Congress as a Democrat. “Obviously, the command center and training are something that anybody who wants to protect election integrity would want. And this just feeds into the fear that rather than protect elections, the DOJ may try to interfere with them. That’s pretty scary.”

A government web page still notes that the DOJ’s Election Crimes Branch was created “to oversee the Justice Department’s nationwide response to election crimes … to ensure uniformity, impartiality, and effectiveness.” And it says a periodically updated, 281-page tome, called the Federal Prosecution of Election Offenses, guides investigators on this corner of law. The publication is cited in several DOJ policies, but the PDF has been taken down. NOTUS obtained a copy and uploaded it here.