Trump DOJ blindsides states with federal deployment decried as ‘intimidation’: report

State officials are scrambling after the Justice Department quietly launched a plan one local official fears is designed to intimidate.The DOJ this week began alerting counties in Colorado, Florida, Minnesota, Texas and Washington that it intends to send federal monitors to watch their elections, NPR reported Wednesday. In past cycles, state officials learned of such plans alongside the counties, but this time states weren't initially told, officials in three states said, and some only received notice after NPR asked the DOJ about it.Harmeet Dhillon, who leads the DOJ's Civil Rights Division, said last month that the department would dispatch 1,000 observers across the country in what she called "the largest monitoring effort" in the agency's history. A DOJ spokesperson, Kiersten Pels, told NPR that the full list of jurisdictions would be released "closer to the election."The DOJ routinely watches elections, sending monitors to 64 jurisdictions in 24 states during the...