New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell Blasts DOJ Voter List Request as ‘Pretextual’

New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell is giving more insight into his decision not to provide the U.S. Department of Justice with the city’s voter lists.

He called the request “bewildering” and “completely and evidently, unmistakably, pretextual” and said it is not about protecting limited English speaking voters, as suggested in the DOJ’s request letter.

“Call me deeply cynical, but it’s hard for me to believe that the Trump Administration is concerned about facilitating voting among people who don’t speak any English,” Mitchell said in his weekly appearance on WBSM. “Call me crazy, I don’t know, maybe they had a change of heart.”

READ MORE: New Bedford Mayor Won't Turn Over Voter Lists to DOJ

Mitchell, a former federal prosecutor, not only questioned the true nature of the request, but also lamented the state of the Department of Justice in the second Donald Trump administration.

“It’s a little bewildering to me,” he said. “As somebody who spent a career as a federal prosecutor working for the Justice Department and believing in the mission of the place to do justice in the name of the American people, to get a request like this that is completely and evidently unmistakably pretextual.”

Mitchell: 'A Shame' What the DOJ Has Become Under Trump

Mitchell said he feels this plays more into the Trump Administration’s larger narrative that questions the integrity of elections.

“This whole business about elections being rigged and illegal immigrants doing this and that, and everything else, to my mind, it’s like, what? This sounds crazy to me, and it is,” he said. “It’s crazy, but it’s a shame that this is what has become of the Justice Department, and it pains me. I think the institution will recover after the Trump Administration, but it will take a while to recover its credibility, which is unfortunate, but this is what we get.”

READ MORE: The DOJ's Letter to the City of New Bedford

“As someone who really believed in the mission of the Justice Department, like so many others, and a place that had really high standards for hiring and conduct, to my mind it’s just so politicized right now that it’s barely recognizable,” Mitchell said. “So it’s a part of me that feels like, wow, I can't believe we’re having this conversation, but we are.”

“My job is to stand up for the residents of my city, and I try to run the place, and not go looking for opportunities to slam the presidential administration. I’ve made opinions known for sure,” he said. “But I spend my time running the city because that’s what people expect me to do, but now they’ve come to the city with this veiled attempt to delve into our elections, I have to fight back, that’s kind of what I do when we get pushed here.”

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Protecting Voter Trust and Turnout in New Bedford

Mitchell conceded that what the DOJ has requested in its letter – the first and last names of registered voters – is public information that the City of New Bedford regularly provides to political candidates and others who request it.

“Ordinarily, we’d just say go ahead and have it, under normal circumstances, but these aren't normal circumstances,” he said. “They’re not being straight with us, so we’re not going to turn this over.”

READ MORE: The City's Response to the DOJ

“I have a lot of people in my city who are concerned about the chilling effect it might have on voting,” Mitchell said, suggesting people could be worried that federal authorities would be at the voting booth and asking for voters’ names. “We have a tough enough time getting people to come out to vote anyway, so I’m not going to make it harder still for people to vote in the city.”

New Bedford Won't Impede Federal Election Monitors

However, there will be federal monitors in New Bedford for the upcoming September 1 primary, and Mitchell said that it’s not an uncommon thing.

“That’s their right to do, and we’re not going to impede them whatsoever,” he said. “We wouldn’t impede them or anyone else. It’s their right to observe the election so long as they’re not getting in the way of the process.”

Mayor Mitchell Ready for a Subpoena Battle

Mitchell also conceded that the Department of Justice could decide to ramp up its request for the voter lists if New Bedford does not comply.

“If they want to send us a subpoena, go ahead, send us a subpoena,” he said. “And that’ll be a different legal analysis, but I’m not just going to hand this over and let people in my city feel it’s not worth delving into controversy by showing up at the polls.”