Former President Donald Trump claimed Monday that the Justice Department is trying to help Democrats “cheat” the election by attempting to add “illegal voters” to the voter rolls in Virginia.

“One of the biggest examples of weaponizing the Department of Justice is the fact that they are suing Virginia to reinstate ALL illegal voters who have been fully exposed and removed by the important work of Governor Glenn Youngkin to the voter rolls. “Obviously this was done so they could cheat the election,” Trump wrote on social media.

But he and other Republicans misrepresented a lawsuit filed by the Justice Department, CBS News election law expert says.

Trump’s statement followed a lawsuit filed by federal prosecutors on Friday accusing Virginia officials of purging voters from their voter rolls too close to the general election, in violation of federal election laws.

The National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) prohibits states from removing voters from registration rolls within 90 days of a federal election. Election experts say the 90-day grace period prevents voters from being disenfranchised by giving them a chance to be added back to the registration rolls if they were mistakenly removed.

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, a Republican, signed an executive order that caused Virginia to violate the quiet period by conducting list maintenance “as late as the end of September,” the Justice Department alleged. The department has also sued Alabama in recent weeks for violations of the NVRA.

Youngkin defended his actions in a statement, saying, “With less than 30 days until the election, the Biden-Harris Department of Justice is filing an unprecedented lawsuit against me and the Commonwealth of Virginia over a 2006 law signed by Democrat Tim “Duly enforced.” Kaine, requiring Virginia to remove non-citizens from voter rolls.”

David Becker, executive director of the Center of Election Innovation and Research and a CBS News election law contributor, said the Justice Department is enforcing a deadline for maintaining voter rolls that election officials have met for about 30 years.

“Governor Youngkin is right that it is ‘unprecedented’ for the Justice Department to have to sue a state like his so close to an election, but that is because no state has tried to violate this law before this year,” said Becker.

Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson also criticized the Justice Department’s lawsuit on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” on Sunday. He claims The department sued Virginia officials to “prevent them from cleaning up their voter rolls.” The speaker said, “I think non-citizens will vote too,” and argued that the Justice Department’s lawsuit is a “case in point.”

Experts have found that voter fraud by non-citizens is very rare, and there is no evidence of widespread voting by non-citizens in previous elections. After the 2016 election, an analysis by the Brennan Center for Justice found that election officials reported 30 cases of suspected non-citizen voting out of 23.5 million votes cast in the 42 jurisdictions examined.

Federal law prohibits noncitizens from voting for the president or members of Congress. Violations can be punished with a fine, a prison sentence of up to one year and deportation.

The federal government has required states to maintain regular voter rolls since the enactment of the NVRA in 1993. However, the law requires that they do so before the end of the 90-day rest period.

In the months leading up to the Nov. 5 general election, other Republican-led states, including Texas, made announcements about maintaining their voter rolls that highlighted potential noncitizens.

Voter administration ensures that states can remove ineligible voters from their voter rolls — including those who have died or left the state — but sometimes states have mistakenly identified voters for removal. In 2019, Texas faced lawsuits from voting rights groups for mistakenly including naturalized citizens on a list of registered voters earmarked for verification.

Alice Clapman, senior counsel at the Brennan Center’s Voting Rights Program, said she is concerned that routine annual tally maintenance is being presented by some states as evidence that there is a problem with voter rolls that doesn’t exist.

“We are concerned that the routine updates that occur each year are presented in a manner that is likely to raise doubts about election accuracy that are simply unfounded and have the potential to undermine public confidence in the election results,” said Clapman.