President Donald Trump’s attempt to impose federally approved voter lists on states and restrict mail-in voting is moving full-steam ahead.

White House officials have held discussions in recent weeks about putting the plan into action with the help of the Justice Department, the postmaster general and a known election conspiracy theorist who’s been put in charge of “election integrity” at the Department of Homeland Security.

According to a government official with direct knowledge of these discussions, the talks have involved top administration officials at particular departments. The official responsibilities of the individuals involved hints at how the government is planning to implement — and defend — the policy in court. This source provided evidence that these discussions have involved DOJ Civil Rights Division head Harmeet Dhillon and her deputies; U.S. Postal Service CEO David Steiner; and Heather Honey, a far-right activist whose disproven research fueled Trump’s 2020 election challenges.

Honey is now the DHS deputy assistant secretary for election integrity in the department’s Office of Strategy, Policy and Plans. She has been described as a “protege” of Cleta Mitchell, a Republican lawyer who guided Trump as he attempted to cling to power after losing his 2020 reelection bid.

Trump’s March 31 executive order, titled “Ensuring Citizenship Verification and Integrity in Federal Elections,” tasks DHS with establishing what it calls a “state citizenship list” and calls for the DOJ to “prioritize” the prosecution of state and local officials who distribute ballots to anyone not eligible to vote. The nation’s postal service is also ordered to create rules that would force states to submit rosters of eligible voters to USPS in order to distribute mail-in ballots.

Progressive groups have decried the maneuver as an attempt to violate the Constitution by having the federal government seize control of state-run elections.

Speaking on background, a White House staffer would not acknowledge that these discussions have taken place but said “it is standard process for administration officials to coordinate on implementing President Trump’s executive orders. We do not comment on private meetings that may or may not have happened.”

USPS also would not confirm that Steiner attended these discussions, and it merely issued a statement saying that “the Postal Service is examining the executive order, and we are working on a draft of a proposed rule.”

DOJ and DHS did not respond to questions sent Wednesday afternoon.

Former DOJ officials told NOTUS the involvement of the department’s civil rights division is indicative of how Dhillon has transformed its mission to one that is aimed at cementing MAGA’s political control. And three election law attorneys expressed deep concern that the head of the post office is directly involved.

“This is a state issue they’re meddling in,” said Sara Tindall Ghazal, a member of the Georgia State Election Board. “The U.S. Postal Service is allegedly an independent entity that is not supposed to come under any sort of jurisdiction under federal agencies. I’m deeply concerned if they are talking about restricting the rights of voters, because it’s very clear that the administration does not have any authority in determining how people can vote if they’re registered to vote.”

Evidence provided to NOTUS shows that several White House officials and lawyers have led those discussions, including Deputy Homeland Security Advisor Anthony Salisbury, who was previously the Homeland Security Investigations special agent in charge in Miami.

The evidence also shows that top DOJ brass are also involved in the discussions, including two associate deputy attorneys general, Trent McCotter and Aakash Singh, and a counselor to the attorney general, Henry Whitaker.

The timing of these discussions also has the potential to affect two ongoing lawsuits brought by elections-rights advocates challenging Trump’s executive order. The government is trying to stop a judge from issuing a preliminary injunction that would halt the order. To further the government’s argument, officials at various agencies have made declarations that imply these agencies have taken minimal steps to move forward on implementing Trump’s directive.

Steven Monteith, USPS’s chief marketing officer and the executive in charge of planning corporate strategies, issued a declaration that said “deliberations are currently ongoing within the Postal Service regarding the implementation of the executive order.” Michael Mayhew, who oversees immigration and identity records as deputy associate director of DHS’s U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, signed a similar declaration that noted “deliberations are currently ongoing within DHS and USCIS.”

However, neither official makes any mention that those talks involve more than half a dozen White House officials.

That point could be particularly relevant at a court hearing scheduled to take place in Washington on Thursday, when U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols will consider whether to step in. In a legal brief filed last week, DOJ lawyers argued that the federal judge is not in a position to block the order, in part, because any notion that the White House is directly controlling the implementation is premature.

The DOJ called it an “abstract legal question unless and until the Postal Service actually issues a rule that injures the plaintiffs and it does so only because it was directed to by the president — rather than, for example, as an exercise of the agency’s own independent judgment.”

Danielle Lang, an attorney at the Campaign Legal Center, one of the advocacy groups that initiated that lawsuit, told NOTUS that the revelations that White House officials are so involved in ongoing discussions shows “who’s driving the bus.”

“It’s bringing together their top political leaders from those various agencies to give various marching orders, it seems to me,” she said.

Lang said she’s particularly concerned about “the presence of folks like Heather Honey and Harmeet Dhillon, who’ve been long on the train of conspiracies around voting.”