A 45-year-old Iraqi man was charged on Monday with voting illegally in the 2020 presidential election, a prosecution that federal officials said had been assisted by Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency.
The case against the man, Akeel Abdul Jamiel, appeared to be the first announced by the Justice Department in which Mr. Musk’s unit, also known as DOGE, is credited with aiding in the investigation that led to the charge. The department did not respond to an inquiry about what form the unit’s help had taken.
Mr. Jamiel lived in South Glens Falls, N.Y., about an hour north of Albany in Saratoga County, when he cast the illegal ballot, officials said. He was prohibited from voting because he was not a U.S. citizen but did so anyway, according to a charging document.
He registered as a member of the Conservative Party about a month before the election, public records show. It appears to be the first time he had registered to vote in the United States, where records show he had lived since at least 2005.
President Trump has argued since 2020 that rampant voter fraud caused him to lose that year’s election to President Joseph R. Biden Jr. In what could be considered an ironic twist, court filings in a lawsuit suggest that Mr. Jamiel is a Trump supporter.
Mr. Jamiel was not in custody on Monday, and a spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office for the Northern District of New York declined to comment on when he might be. The charge he faces, voting by aliens, is a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in prison and a fine of as much as $100,000. He could not be reached for comment.
In a statement, John A. Sarcone III, the interim U.S. attorney for the district, called Mr. Jamiel’s vote “a callous and illegal act.”
“We will continue to investigate and prosecute illegal schemes aimed at corrupting the election process,” Mr. Sarcone added.
It is illegal for noncitizens to vote in federal elections, and studies have found that the practice is virtually nonexistent. Still, Mr. Trump and his allies have long claimed that large numbers of noncitizens, including illegal immigrants, vote or try to vote in U.S. elections.
In an executive order issued on March 25, Mr. Trump directed the Department of Homeland Security, “in coordination with the DOGE administrator,” to review state voting records alongside federal immigration records, “including through subpoena where necessary and authorized by law, for consistency with federal requirements.”
DOGE, whose work to date has largely focused on slashing the federal work force and on dismantling federal agencies, said in a message posted on Mr. Musk’s social media site, X: “Great job by @TheJusticeDept for prosecuting voter fraud where a noncitizen voted in a federal election.”
“This individual was also previously arrested for first-degree assault and was receiving federal benefits,” the message also said.
The benefits claim could not be verified on Monday, but local news reports and court filings by Mr. Jamiel in a federal lawsuit indicate he was charged with first-degree assault in a 2017 shooting in Monticello, N.Y., and was held in the Sullivan County Jail for some period of time. It was unclear how the case was resolved.
In his lawsuit, one of several unsuccessful legal actions he has filed in federal court in New York, he accused the county sheriff and several members of the jail staff of abusing him.
In another suit, filed in 2019 against Bill de Blasio, New York City’s mayor at the time, Mr. Jamiel accused him of having violated his constitutional rights “by providing sanctuary for illegal immigrants who are placing a hardship on me.”
“I am unable to find and keep a job and provide for my self,” he wrote. “Nor will I be able to keep a roof over my head.”
As an exhibit attached to the suit, Mr. Jamiel included an April 2019 letter he had written to Mr. Trump, referring to him as “the great president” and complaining about the issue of illegal immigration.
In a second exhibit, a letter to a federal judge overseeing a separate lawsuit, Mr. Jamiel closed by writing: “May God Bless America and its Great President Mr. Donald J. Trump.”
Sheelagh McNeill contributed research.
