Democracy Defenders Fund Calls for Investigation into Taxpayer-Funded FBI Video Attacking Democrats During Early Voting
October 15, 2026
The social media video posted on a government run account attacked Michigan’s Democratic Senate nominee by name and promoted “Kash Patel’s FBI” as Americans were already casting ballots
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Democracy Defenders Fund today asked federal watchdogs to investigate the FBI for spending public money on a partisan video that attacked Democrats during early voting in the 2026 midterm elections. This is part of a documented pattern of the Trump administration using taxpayer dollars to fund overtly campaign-style ads.
In a letter to the U.S. Office of Special Counsel, the Government Accountability Office, and the Department of Justice’s Office of the Inspector General, the letter outlines how the video appears to violate the Hatch Act and federal spending laws that bar agencies from using taxpayer dollars for partisan propaganda.
The video shows altered footage of Kamala Harris, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, Cori Bush, and Rep. Ilhan Omar, each labeled by party and placed in front of “Defund the Police” signs, intercut with footage of rioting. It then shifts to footage of FBI Director Kash Patel and other administration officials, with a narrator declaring, “Kash Patel’s FBI is taking safety back by force.” El-Sayed is currently running for U.S. Senate in Michigan. The FBI posted the two-minute video on Oct. 6 to its “FBI Rapid Response” account on X and later took it down.
The letter calls on OSC to investigate potential Hatch Act violations and seek appropriate penalties, including removal from federal employment. It also requests the GAO to determine whether the video violated federal restrictions on taxpayer-funded propaganda, and the DOJ Inspector General to investigate who authorized the video, how it was funded, whether outside contractors were involved, and what steps are needed to prevent similar violations.
“The FBI made a hyper-partisan video ahead of the election using public resources,” said Virginia Canter, chief counsel and director of ethics and anti-corruption at Democracy Defenders Fund. “The nation’s top law enforcement agency has no business attacking members of one party in the middle of an election, and no agency may spend taxpayer dollars to glorify its own director. This video did both, and it is one of several we’ve now seen from the Trump administration. Investigators need to find out who ordered and paid for it, and hold them accountable.”
The Hatch Act bars federal employees from using their official authority to affect the result of an election, and FBI employees face some of the strictest political limits in the federal government.
Congress has also barred agencies from spending public money on unauthorized “publicity or propaganda” since 1951, and the 2026 spending laws carry that ban forward for the FBI. GAO has long read the ban to cover both purely partisan materials and communications designed to promote an agency or its director.
The full letter is available here.
# # #
Democracy Defenders Fund brings together a nonpartisan team to work with national, state and local allies across the country to defend in real-time the foundations of our democracy.
For media inquiries, contact press@democracydefenders.org.
Featured Image: Kristina Blokhin – stock.adobe.com
