{"id":470839,"date":"2026-10-19T20:20:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-19T20:20:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/470839\/"},"modified":"2026-10-19T20:20:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-19T20:20:10","slug":"federal-prosecutor-vows-to-hunt-down-texas-election-lawbreakers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/470839\/","title":{"rendered":"Federal prosecutor vows to ‘hunt down’ Texas election lawbreakers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Standing beside a Bible and a framed photo of President Donald Trump<\/a>, the top federal prosecutor for much of Southeast Texas issued a stark warning as Texans began voting Monday: Violate federal election law, <\/a>and he will “hunt you down and prosecute you.”<\/p>\n

Aaron Reitz, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Texas, outlined his office’s plans to monitor polling locations, investigate credible allegations of election law violations and coordinate with state and federal agencies ahead of the Nov. 3 election. The Southern District of Texas includes Houston, the Gulf Coast and the Rio Grande Valley and serves about 10 million people.<\/p>\n

Reitz framed the effort as a defense of election integrity, warning against illegal voting, foreign interference, election fraud and misconduct by local election administrators. He said his office appointed civil and criminal election officers who would work with the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division to advise election monitors at key polling locations.<\/p>\n

“They’re not armed agents,” Reitz said. “They’re lawyers.”<\/p>\n

The Justice Department<\/a> has conducted election monitoring for decades, he added.<\/p>\n

The video comes as Harris County prepares for the midterm election with 193 fewer Election Day polling locations than it had in 2022, according to an ABC 13 analysis<\/a>. The county will have 589 Election Day sites this November, down from 782 four years ago.<\/p>\n

What Reitz says his office will do<\/p>\n

Reitz said he established standard procedures with the Texas secretary of state and attorney general to investigate credible violations of federal law. He also said he coordinated with the Department of Homeland Security, FBI and Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division to direct legal resources where needed.<\/p>\n

\"WASHINGTON,<\/p>\n

WASHINGTON, DC – FEBRUARY 26: Aaron Reitz, President Donald Trump’s nominee for assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Policy, prepares for his confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee in the Dirksen Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill on February 26, 2025 in Washington, DC. A Marine veteran of the war in Afghanistan, Reitz serves as chief of staff to committee member Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX). (Photo by Chip Somodevilla\/Getty Images) (Chip Somodevilla\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

State and local officials have primary responsibility for administering elections under the U.S. Constitution, Reitz said. He advised people with complaints about election administration to contact those officials first, describing his own role as a federal “backstop” to ensure federal law is upheld.<\/p>\n

Reitz said that meant ensuring only eligible voters cast ballots, preventing foreign influence in election infrastructure and campaign finance, and holding local election administrators accountable for their legal duties.<\/p>\n

“American elections are for Americans only,” he said.<\/p>\n

Reitz also warned against what he described as crooked election administrators and fraudulent voting practices, saying accurate voter rolls, honest paperwork, secure ballots and lawful procedures were essential to preventing fraud.<\/p>\n

He did not identify specific election violations or provide evidence of widespread fraud in the video.<\/p>\n

This isn’t the first time Reitz has made headlines.<\/p>\n

While serving as Texas Deputy Attorney General under Ken Paxton, Reitz faced widespread backlash in 2021 after attacking Texas-raised Olympic legend Simone Biles <\/a>on social media.<\/p>\n

Following Biles’ decision to withdraw from the women’s gymnastics team final at the Tokyo Olympics due to safety and mental health concerns, Reitz shared a video of Kerri Strug’s 1996 vault on injured ankles and added: “Contrast this with our selfish, childish national embarrassment, Simone Biles.”<\/p>\n

More News<\/p>\n

TV<\/a> | KPRC’s Cathy Hernandez returns to the Texans sideline<\/a>
Lawsuits<\/a> | Houston developer sued after blind employee fired on first day<\/a>
Jobs<\/a> | Texas layoffs hit Benchmark Mortgage, Hello Bello during Thanksgiving<\/a>
Courts<\/a> | Houston man’s Pakistani divorce rejected by Texas Supreme Court<\/a><\/p>\n

For the latest and best from Chron, sign up for our daily newsletter here.<\/a><\/p>\n

This article originally published at Federal prosecutor vows to ‘hunt down’ Texas election lawbreakers<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Standing beside a Bible and a framed photo of President Donald Trump, the top federal prosecutor for much…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":470840,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,28],"class_list":["post-470839","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470839","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=470839"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470839\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/470840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=470839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=470839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=470839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}