DOJ dismantles federal election-crime oversight before 2026 midterms; no FBI command center stood up

As of June 9, 2026, multiple investigations confirm the Trump DOJ has systematically gutted the federal infrastructure that has protected elections for decades. The department canceled training for election prosecutors and FBI agents, deleted a 281-page election-offenses prosecution guide, fired most of the Public Integrity Section’s attorneys, and left the Election Crimes Branch director position vacant. Most consequentially, as of mid-June it had not stood up the FBI’s Election Day command center — a 24/7 operation that has run during every midterm cycle since 2002 to coordinate nationwide law-enforcement response to election-day threats. Its absence leaves no federal rapid-response mechanism for November.

This is the affirmative dismantling complement to the year-long hollowing of the Public Integrity Section (2026-03-09–doj-abuse-power-public-integrity-section-gutted, 2025-02-01–doj-and-fbi-gut-public-corruption-enforcement-team): where earlier events removed the people, this removes the standing election-protection apparatus itself on the eve of a national vote. It produces a structural pincer with the same-window litigation over the mail-voting executive order — federal election oversight withdrawn on one side while the administration’s own election-federalization order is enjoined on the other — and runs alongside the DOJ’s redirected energy toward investigating voting-adjacent organizations (2026-06-12–fbi-raids-ohio-organizing-collaborative-probe-expands-america-votes). The net effect is that no federal body is positioned to respond to election-day threats in November. This is a compound, multi-element story; the command-center absence rests on the two independent tier-2 investigations (Spotlight PA, NOTUS).