President Donald Trump listens as Attorney General Todd Blanche speaks during a roundtable event in the East Room of the White House on Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
The past appears to be repeating itself. Less than two weeks before the midterm elections, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a federal criminal indictment against one of the Republican Party’s most prominent political opponents in Virginia.
The timing of the charges has renewed questions about the Justice Department’s informal “60-day rule,” which advises federal prosecutors and the FBI to avoid announcing charges or taking other conspicuous law enforcement action when it could affect an upcoming election.
The policy is not written into law or formally codified. Instead, it is a longstanding Justice Department norm whose application has often been unclear—and fiercely contested.
On Thursday, at a news conference announcing marijuana, racketeering and money laundering charges against state Sen. Louise Lucas, one of Virginia’s most powerful Democrats, a reporter asked Attorney General Todd Blanche to explain why the indictment was filed so close to Election Day.
“The typical practice is DOJ doesn’t usually release charges like this this close to an election,” the reporter said. “Even though Ms. Lucas is not on the ballot, her daughter is. So can you speak to the reason for the timing of these charges so close to an upcoming election.”
Blanche, the nation’s top law enforcement official, dismissed the concern.
“I think you’re referring to the 60-day or 90-day practice, which is not in writing, that’s not part of the justice manual,” Blanche said. “The justice manual speaks very clearly about what the Department of Justice can and can’t do. And we cannot bring a charge if our purpose is improper. And there’s nothing improper about this purpose.”
Blanche’s response appears to reflect the Trump administration’s current view of the election-year prosecution practice.
In effect, the Justice Department seems to regard the 60-day rule as neither a binding restriction nor a significant factor when bringing charges against political candidates or their immediate relatives. Lucas’ daughter, who is also charged, is running for a seat on the Portsmouth City Council.
President Donald Trump, however, has previously taken a sharply different position—and argued it at considerable length.
Trump has even contended that the appropriate buffer should extend well beyond 60 or 90 days.
In February 2024, then a presidential candidate, Trump argued that special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into classified documents at Mar-a-Lago was improper because it was proceeding too close to the 2024 election.
Trump’s filing cited a report from the DOJ inspector general concerning former FBI Director James Comey’s well-documented “mistakes” and mishandling during the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s private email server. Among those mistakes was a major law enforcement announcement made just days before Clinton lost the election.
Blanche was the lead attorney on that defense filing, which praised the longstanding tradition against election interference by prosecutors.
Trump also argued that the proposed trial date in the case was unacceptably close to the 2024 election. Smith rejected that argument, maintaining that the relevant action for purposes of the 60-day practice was the indictment itself. Trump had been indicted in the case, which has since been dismissed, in June 2023.
Trump raised the 60-day rule again in August 2024 while criticizing Smith’s prosecution related to Jan. 6. In that instance, Trump objected to a superseding indictment filed within 60 days of the start of early voting for the 2024 election.
“It is DOJ policy that the Department of Justice should not take any action that will influence an election within 60 days of that election – but they just have taken such action,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Voting starts on September 6th, therefore the DOJ has violated its own policy – Election Interference.”
Two years later, the president appears to have abandoned his earlier enthusiasm for the Justice Department’s 60-day election rule.
The post “Nothing improper”: Todd Blanche dismisses the DOJ’s “60-day rule” in the Louise Lucas prosecution, despite Trump’s past support for the anti-electioneering tradition, first appeared on Law & Crime.
