The Trump administration has a whistleblower — and they’re sounding the alarm about the U.S. Postal Service. The complaint, which was made available this morning, alleges that USPS is rushing to build a new online "Federal Ballot Mail Portal" to "screen ballots submitted by state election officials prior to USPS agreeing to mail them to voters."

This system is the result of a directive contained in a blatantly unconstitutional executive order signed by Donald Trump last March. Since then, multiple lawsuits have been filed, and court orders have been issued and appealed, seeking to prevent USPS from moving forward with this scheme in the 2026 midterm elections.

The legacy media has largely focused on allegations that this system, if implemented, would disenfranchise large numbers of eligible voters seeking to obtain mail-in ballots.

As the whistleblower's complaint put it: "The apparently sloppy and rushed manner in which the Federal Ballot Mail Portal and supporting IT systems are being built poses significant risk. Potentially millions of American voters may not receive their mail-in ballot this election cycle in a timely manner, or at all."

There is, however, an equally important allegation in the document that has received less attention from the legacy media. An allegation that, in the long run, may pose an even bigger threat to free and fair elections.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal explains it well in a letter to the Postmaster General: "USPS continued work on the Portal despite numerous court orders enjoining it from doing so."

Indeed, it did.

For example, days after Donald Trump signed his anti-voting executive order, a group of Democratic state attorneys general sued to prevent Trump and his administration — including USPS — from restricting mail-in voting.

On June 25, the court issued a broad injunction against the Postal Service. Among other things, it blocked the agency and its agents "from implementing, giving effect to, or enforcing" Trump's executive order.

The court made clear that this prohibition included "refusing to transmit mail-in or absentee ballots from voters registered in Plaintiff States to election officials in Plaintiff States, regardless of the voters' location, or otherwise initiating or completing rulemaking."

Most importantly, the court ordered USPS to "in good faith take such steps as are necessary to prevent explicit or implicit implementation of [the executive order] and to cease and reverse any implementation of those provisions."

According to the whistleblower, USPS initially followed this order and ceased work. But then, a month later, on July 29, work inexplicably resumed.

No intervening court decision could possibly have justified this decision to resume work on the Portal. The only significant ruling during that period was the First Circuit's opinion affirming the lower court's injunction.

Nor is there any justification for work continuing to the present day, given the more recent temporary restraining order issued by the Massachusetts federal court on August 27, which stated bluntly that USPS "may take no further preparatory steps or implement in any way for elections occurring before or on November 3, 2026."

The actions by the Department of Justice and the Postal Service may land them in trouble beyond the federal judge in Massachusetts. In a separate case my law firm filed in Washington, D.C., the federal judge has had a standing order requiring the government to "notify the Court of any material factual developments while this litigation remains pending."

Despite providing notice of other developments, the government never told the federal judge in Washington that USPS had resumed implementation of the executive order and draft rule in late July.

If the whistleblower is correct and the DOJ never disclosed USPS's activities to any court, there may be serious repercussions.

DOJ lawyers owe a duty of candor to the court, and their clients were under court orders that appear to have been violated. This is not the first time this administration has violated a court order. It is not even the first time it has done so in this case.

On August 25, the judge in Massachusetts found that the Postal Service had violated her earlier order blocking finalization of the rule creating this mail-in ballot scheme. Given the odd posture of the case at the time, the judge chose not to impose sanctions or a remedy.

If the allegations in the complaint are true, that must not be the outcome here. A failure to hold the administration accountable for violations of court orders in voting cases will echo throughout this election season.

In his summary of the whistleblower's complaint, Sen. Blumenthal writes that "the Trump Administration appears intent on USPS moving forward with its flawed plans, no matter the chaos they may create."

That is certainly true. Chaos is a goal, not a flaw, for this administration. With Republicans in control of Congress and the White House, it will be up to the courts to prevent this result. They must start by insisting their orders are followed.