Utah Lt. Governor Deidre Henderson, a Republican, was interviewed by Lesley Stahl for CBS News program 60 Minutes about the upcoming midterm elections. Stahl noted that Henderson is responsible for “everything from voter registration to counting the ballots on election day.”
Henderson told Stahl, “In the past two elections that I oversaw as lieutenant governor, the threats were all external. Non-state actors, cybersecurity threats, and other things. But now we also have threats coming from within our own government.”
Utah Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson denied a Justice Department request for Utah’s voter registration list, which includes voters’ confidential personal information. She says she had never seen a request like it before. https://t.co/78VgqzyBZU https://t.co/tjYDwMEZAw
— 60 Minutes (@60Minutes) October 18, 2026
[NOTE: President Trump’s Department of Justice has asked for voter registration lists from several states, including Utah, a move that some states, objecting in the courts, have characterized as part of a federal effort to interfere with state-run elections.]
Henderson denied the DOJ request, saying “They wanted things that we typically are required by law to keep private. Social Security numbers, full dates of birth, driver’s license numbers.”
Henderson has been told by the DOJ that she is now officially under investigation.
[NOTE: Earlier this month, The Hill reported that U.S. District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan in Washington ruled the DOJ “exceeded its legal authority and violated federal privacy laws by requesting sensitive voter information and sharing it with other agencies to identify people’s citizenship status.” Her ruling blocks the Trump administration from continuing the program even in states that voluntarily cooperated.]
At least 16 states have provided complete statewide voter registration lists to the DOJ, including driver’s license and Social Security numbers, among them Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas and Wyoming.
On 60 Minutes, Stahl told Henderson, “You are toe-to-toe with the president of the United States. It’s a big thing that you’re doing.”
Henderson replied, “I’m just doing my job.” She explained: “I have to tell myself it doesn’t matter what the consequences are, as long as I feel like I’m doing what’s right.”
Trump’s Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights at the DOJ, Harmeet Dhillon, was also interviewed by Stahl, “to discuss the administration’s efforts to protect the integrity of the upcoming general election,” as Dhillon put it.
After the episode aired, Dhillon complained on social media: “I set some fake news straight on @60Minutes tonight, though as usual they edit out 95% of the answers.”
I set some fake news straight on @60Minutes tonight, though as usual they edit out 95% of the answers.
— Harmeet K. Dhillon (@HarmeetKDhillon) October 19, 2026