Nevada SOS Aguilar Under Investigation, DOJ Issues Subpoenas and Records-Preservation Order

The Justice Department has issued seven voter-related subpoenas to Nevada Secretary of State Francisco “Cisco” Aguilar over the last three months and followed them with a litigation-hold letter telling him he is under investigation while demanding that his office preserve 2024 election records past the 22-month federal retention window, warning of civil and criminal sanctions if the records disappear. 

Aguilar’s office confirmed the subpoenas, but declined to say what they seek. The preservation letter arrived days after the statutory Civil Rights Act of 1960 clock ran out on 2024 general-election records and three weeks after a federal judge in Nevada dismissed the department’s civil lawsuit seeking the state’s unredacted statewide voter registration list. 

Eric Neff, acting chief of the Voting Section in the Civil Rights Division, signed the preservation order. It tells Aguilar he is “currently under investigation and in ongoing litigation as to the extent to which you have failed to comply with your duties under the [Civil Rights Act] as well as the National Voter Registration Act … and Help America Vote Act.” 

It instructs the secretary to retain hard-copy documents and electronically stored information, including network access codes and computer logs, that may be relevant to the appeal or to any further case. 

“The duty to preserve records supersedes any statutory limitations, especially where the party has notice that the evidence is relevant to litigation,” Neff wrote, citing federal case law. “Your failure to preserve relevant data may constitute spoliation of evidence, which may subject you to civil and criminal sanctions.” 

A Justice Department official told the Las Vegas Review-Journal the letter went to states the department is “in active litigation against regarding their failure to provide the full (statewide voter registration lists) as required by federal law.” 

The department has appealed Biden-appointed Judge Anne R. Traum’s August 14 dismissal to the Ninth Circuit. Traum found the government had not supplied a sufficient “basis and purpose” under Title III of the Civil Rights Act to force production of driver’s license numbers and partial Social Security numbers barred from public lists under Nevada law. 

Aguilar said his office was already holding the records through the appeal and will continue to do so. 

“From a legal standard, we absolutely have to comply with that part of the letter, and we will — and we have,” he told the Review-Journal. He added that counties have been notified. He also called the letter “a pretty direct threat” and said the administration is “using this as an opportunity to intimidate us.” 

Aguilar has repeatedly refused to turn over the unredacted voter file. “We will continue to make sure that we are not handing over information that does not need to be given,” he said. 

In August 2025, California Globe reported that Aguilar delayed and then refused the complete voter file after two written demands from the Civil Rights Division under Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon. Aguilar’s office called the request “unprecedented in its scope,” argued that Social Security and driver’s license fields are “highly sensitive and confidential” and “not a public record” under Nevada law, and asked for indefinite time to “assess the legality.” 

Dhillon’s follow-up letter stated that statewide prohibitions are preempted by federal law. Aguilar responded that Washington was using “its massive power to try to intimidate us into turning over protected voter data.” The department has said it needs the full list to check Nevada’s list-maintenance duties under the National Voter Registration Act and Help America Vote Act. 

List-maintenance duties have made recent headlines in relation to Aguilar’s massive purge of the statewide voter roll. 

Earlier this month, Aguilar moved 400,000 voter records off active status or into inactive status, shrinking the Democrats’ registration edge to a mere 672 voter advantage, compared to an 87,000 edge six years ago. 

Governor Joe Lombardo has separately criticized Democratic lawmakers for blocking Election Night counting reforms and basic integrity measures, including voter ID, which returns to the November ballot as Question 7 after passing with 73% in 2024. 

Aguilar is again facing Republican Jim Marchant, whom he beat 48.95% to 46.67% in 2022. Marchant has pledged to scrap electronic voting machines, restore precinct voting and hand counts, end universal mail ballots, and re-register every voter to clean the rolls.

The secretary of state now heads into that rematch with federal subpoenas outstanding, a Justice Department notice that he is under investigation, and an appeal over the same voter records he has refused to produce.