The Justice Department’s civil rights chief accuses New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill of publicly dismissing election integrity concerns even though her state was about to disclose thousands of potential noncitizen registrations, and the DOJ has sued to force compliance and get the data it says is needed to investigate illegal voting.

Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon says the timing of New Jersey’s response raises serious questions about motive and transparency. She told Fox News Digital that Sherrill’s public attacks on President Trump came after, not before, her office knew a major registration issue was about to be revealed.

The Department of Homeland Security released data the same day as the president’s speech showing more than 35,000 potential noncitizens on New Jersey’s voter rolls, and within days Sherrill joined 23 other Democratic governors in a joint statement led by Kentucky Governor Andrew Beshear accusing the president of lying. Dhillon argues that sequence matters and that officials should be straightforward when the integrity of elections is at stake.

“When the president came out with his Primetime speech last Thursday, I believe in the sequencing of events that has been laid out, she already knew that this revelation was forthcoming.”

Dhillon did not hold back in public remarks about the governor’s decision to sign the multi-governor rebuke. Her charge is that Sherrill “knew it, and she still went online and called the president a liar and said he was exaggerating, Shame on you, governor.”

“She knew it, and she still went online and called the president a liar and said he was exaggerating, Shame on you, governor.”

Sherrill’s office has not answered Dhillon’s specific allegation of prior knowledge. Her spokesman, Sean Higgins, directed questions to comments the governor made after a public appearance in Essex County, where she framed the situation as federal overreach rather than a state failure.

“We’re running an independent investigation right now to get to the bottom of exactly how this happened and what’s going on, but it is not a surprise to me that the federal government that the Trump administration wants to immediately weaponize this against people as opposed to focusing on making sure that we’re running free and fair elections.”

Those remarks neither confirm nor deny whether Sherrill knew about the pending disclosure and instead emphasize a separate point about federal involvement. The contested facts, however, are clear enough to require answers from state officials and cooperation with federal requests.

Independent reporting and state reviews show a software malfunction at the Motor Vehicle Commission added roughly 6,600 noncitizens to New Jersey’s voter rolls between June 2023 and June 2024, and about 400 of those people voted before the error was fixed. The DHS figure of more than 35,000 potential noncitizens is much larger than the state’s confirmed count, and officials have not reconciled those different totals publicly.

Sherrill has publicly blamed her Democratic predecessor, saying “no one in the previous administration brought this to light, demanded accountability, or took action when it happened years ago.” That admission from a sitting Democratic governor undercuts the broader party line that noncitizen registration is not a real problem.

When Dhillon demanded voter registration data from the governor’s office, she gave the state five business days to comply; Sherrill declined to hand over the records, and the Justice Department then sued New Jersey Lt. Gov. Dale Caldwell over the state’s refusal to cooperate. Dhillon has warned that noncitizens who voted face serious consequences.

“They are subject to both prosecution as well as removal from the United States,” Dhillon said in announcing the investigation.

Several states, including New Jersey, have resisted DOJ requests by citing federal and state privacy protections, and the department has signaled this is a nationwide concern by warning election officials in all 50 states that failures to address noncitizen voting could carry legal exposure. Dhillon framed the moment as an offer to work with states first and litigate if necessary.

“It’s a bipartisan problem, actually. And I’m really looking forward to helping everyone who will work with us fix this problem. And if they won’t work with, we’ll sue them and we’ll still fix the problem.”

The joint message Sherrill signed labeled the president’s election integrity claims “lies and conspiracy theories” and insisted elections are safe and secure, a stance that sits uneasily next to Sherrill’s own acknowledgment that noncitizens were registered and that some voted. She opened an independent probe while refusing federal cooperation, creating a legal and political standoff.

Dhillon emphasized the human stake: “Every single person who voted illegally canceled out the vote of a New Jersey voter; that is shameful.” She argues officials who admit problems should help fix them, not attack those who are trying to investigate.

“And instead of pointing fingers at the president, which is what Governor Sherrill did… she should be raising her hand to work with the federal government to clean this up ASAP because that’s the vow she took when she ran for office and she got sworn in as the governor of her state is to protect her citizens, and her citizens have a right to vote.”

Federal enforcement actions and prosecutions for illegal voting are already on record, and local investigations have turned up cases when officials looked. The practical takeaway from the dispute is that transparency and cooperation matter when votes and citizenship are in question.

Sherrill’s mixture of acknowledging an internal problem, blaming a predecessor, pursuing a state probe, and simultaneously refusing to provide federal investigators with requested records leaves more questions than answers. As litigation proceeds, the focus will be on whether state officials will fully open their data to federal review and help ensure every lawful vote counts.