Attorney General Todd Blanche has personally signed charging documents in four misdemeanor voting fraud cases in Nevada between Oct. 23 and Oct. 29, according to federal court records. Each defendant was accused of voting by alien under 18 U.S.C. § 611. The defendants are Jullie Ann Sumalinog Moore, Khalida Safi, Moneir Elzobier Ali Yousif and Mlebinge Riziki Ramadhani.
Blanche's name appears on the signature blocks of the charging documents, though his actual signature does not. Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Anthony Lopez signed the filings. The cases were charged by criminal information rather than grand jury indictment.
Former federal prosecutor and Westchester district attorney Mimi Rocah told All Rise News that "The Attorney General himself signing a criminal information is extremely rare if it has even ever been done before" and that it "raises huge red flags about why he is doing so in any particular case."
The DOJ issued three press releases about the four cases. A Law&Crime review of Nevada federal prosecutor filings from October shows Blanche affixing his name to multiple cases beyond the voting fraud prosecutions, including coercion allegations and a bank robbery sentencing disagreement.
Nevada currently operates without a confirmed U.S. attorney. First Assistant U.S. Attorney Sigal Chattah runs the Nevada office after a court found her unlawfully appointed to the U.S. attorney role. Similar leadership vacancies exist across federal districts, with multiple acting U.S. attorneys facing court challenges to their appointments.
The voting prosecutions follow an earlier embarrassment for the administration. The Department of Homeland Security initially claimed 16,000 noncitizens were on Nevada's voter rolls. That figure was later reduced to 185, and Nevada authorities then determined all 185 were actually citizens.