For months, Donald Trump and his administration have suggested they will deploy armed federal agents in and around the polls. They have had every opportunity to disavow this violation of federal criminal law. Instead, they have doubled down again and again.

Late last night, Democrats said enough.

Just before midnight, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the Democratic Governors Association, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer and House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries filed a new lawsuit to stop the Trump administration from carrying out its policy of deploying ICE and other federal agents at the polls this November.

This lawsuit is necessary and important — because Trump isn’t just threatening to deploy ICE to polls. He’s preparing for it — and the proof is in the past.

As I have warned before, when Trump loses in court, he escalates. That is what he did after the 2020 election on Jan. 6, when I helped lead the legal effort on behalf of Joe Biden that defeated Trump and his allies more than 60 times in court.

It is also what he has done throughout his second term. As you remember, Trump deployed federal agents to terrorize U.S. citizens in places like Los Angeles, Chicago and Minneapolis.

Now the Department of Justice has lost for the 25th straight time in its bid to obtain sensitive voter rolls. Trump's attempt to weaponize the U.S. Postal Service against mail-in voting has failed. His poll numbers are plummeting.

Trump is becoming more dangerous to our democracy every single day.

The new lawsuit, which my law firm filed, traces the administration's campaign to subvert elections to its threat to deploy federal agents at polling locations.

It notes that in May, ICE was in the parking lot of a polling place in Texas and in June, ICE agents were spotted in the parking lot of a polling place in California, at least one of them masked and wearing a tactical vest.

Most disturbingly, on June 23, ICE agents entered a polling site in Syracuse, New York, to confront a poll worker who had criticized the agency on Instagram. They arrived carrying a folder of printed screenshots of her posts and a copy of her driver's license.

Yes, you read that right. Federal agents went to an active polling place to pressure an election worker over her social media posts.

And then there are the administration's own statements.

In February, then-White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said she couldn't guarantee that ICE agents wouldn't be near polling locations.

In March, Todd Blanche, then deputy attorney general and now attorney general, asked a conservative conference, "Why is there objection to sending ICE officers to polling places?"

In May, a reporter asked Trump whether he would send the National Guard or ICE agents to voting locations in November. He responded that he would "do anything necessary to make sure we have honest elections."

At his confirmation hearing in March, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said officers could be deployed to polling places if there was a "specific threat." Earlier this month, he went further, saying agents could be at the polls if "we're serving a warrant on someone that we have been actively tracking down."

Perhaps most chillingly, FBI Director Kash Patel was asked under oath last week to commit to keeping FBI agents away from the polls. He refused: "If there's a reason to go there because there's been a violation of the law, we will."

Let me be clear: federal criminal law prohibits armed federal agents at places where voting is taking place. The only exception is "to repel armed enemies of the United States." Violating this law is a felony punishable by up to five years in prison.

A separate provision of the Voting Rights Act bars anyone, including government agents, from intimidating, threatening or coercing voters or those who help others vote.

As the Democrats’ lawsuit explains, dispatching armed federal agents to the polls — "or even threatening to do so" — is forbidden by federal law. Voters don't have to be arrested or even approached to be intimidated. And because no voter can know in advance whether agents will be at their polling place, the threat alone chills voting everywhere.

That is why we are asking the court to act now.

The lawsuit seeks an order barring the administration from sending armed officers anywhere near open polling places, drop boxes, curbside voting locations or any other site where ballots are collected, counted or certified. The order would apply from the start of early voting through the end of post-election ballot curing.

The Democratic Senate, House and governors' committees that brought this case understand the threats to our elections. They have candidates on the ballot across the country, and they know that Trump's plan to deploy federal agents at or near polling places is intended to swing outcomes.

Just as important, they recognize this as Trump's latest escalation in his effort to rig the rules and steal the results. This is the third lawsuit these groups have filed to protect the midterms.

The first two challenged Trump's executive orders on voting and the USPS mail-in voting rule. I am proud of the work my team did to win both.

There is no guarantee this new lawsuit will prevail. For the sake of our democracy, let's hope it does.

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