A senior Justice Department official warned federal prosecutors during a recent conference call that they could be fired if they "decline to investigate and pursue cases of reported election fraud," according to two Justice Department sources who sounded the alarm to MS NOW.

In a report published Friday, MS NOW identified the official as Aakash Singh, the top lieutenant to the deputy attorney general, the department's second-highest-ranking official. Singh warned that Department of Justice lawyers must pursue election fraud cases presented to them by FBI or Department of Homeland Security agents, or risk termination, according to the people, who sought anonymity to avoid reprisals for sharing internal discussions.

The sources said Singh also told supervisors that the FBI and DHS "may overrule a prosecutor who declines to pursue one of their investigations, and that the office of the deputy attorney general would make the final decision on whether a case goes forward." If accurate, the arrangement would shift final charging authority away from line prosecutors and into a senior appointee's office.

The Guardian reported last year that Singh pleaded guilty to driving under the influence four years earlier, and that experts said his subsequent elevation to a high-ranking post "is unusual in light of that arrest." Singh became an associate deputy attorney general last year and, according to the Guardian, immediately began instructing attorneys to "prioritize charges against protesters and people committing misdemeanors, even allegedly advising them to call new grand juries if they fail to get felony indictments."

The Justice Department under President Donald Trump has aggressively pursued the president's perceived enemies with investigations that have often evaporated under jury or judicial scrutiny — the same tests any prosecutions brought under the reported directive would ultimately face.

MS NOW reported that Singh's most recent warnings reverberated through the department, sending officials into a panic, and that department leaders already regularly lose their jobs after failing to secure convictions against Trump's targets.

"The news shocked many, because the instructions appeared to override and reject long-standing Justice Department rules that require prosecutors to independently assess whether the evidence presented to them justifies further investigation or possibly bringing a prosecution," MS NOW reported. Those rules place the judgment over whether evidence supports a case in the hands of the prosecutors who review it.

Justice Department spokesperson Emily Covington denied to MS NOW that Singh threatened firings.

"He never said anyone would be fired," Covington said in an emailed statement. "The Department has been very clear that election integrity is a priority. This is not a partisan issue. Only those who are allowed to vote should be voting in our elections. If you break the law, you will be charged accordingly."

MS NOW also interviewed former Justice Department prosecutors and election security experts, who said that pressuring prosecutors to pursue election fraud cases is "dangerous for the public and ignores decades of department policy designed to avoid unfounded investigations."

"If true, this is outrageous," said Ryan Crosswell, a former Justice Department prosecutor in the Public Integrity Section. "It is the prosecutor — the expert on the criminal law and the expert on whether the facts satisfy the elements of the crime — that has to make this decision."

Crosswell's former office oversaw election crime before the Trump administration dismantled the office, leaving the department without its dedicated election-crime unit. He resigned his position in 2025 after Trump political appointee Emil Bove ordered his section to shut down a corruption investigation into Trump ally and then-New York Mayor Eric Adams.