Eric Neff, a Republican lawyer with a web of ties to election-conspiracy theorists detailed by Democracy Docket, is the new acting chief of the voting section at the U.S. Department of Justice. Also in this week’s Eye On The Right: DOJ sues Fulton County, Georgia for 2020 ballots and election records, and President Donald Trump sends the far-right fringe into raptures with a legally meaningless “pardon” for Tina Peters.

As always, thanks for reading. 

DOJ replaces voting section chief with lawyer tied to election conspiracists

• In a shakeup in the DOJ’s voting section, Eric Neff, a Republican attorney with a web of ties to election-conspiracy theorists, is the new acting chief, according to the department’s website.
  
  
• As Democracy Docket previously reported, Neff was put on leave as a Los Angeles County prosecutor after bringing charges against an election software executive based on information from the conspiracy-driven election denier group True the Vote. Taxpayers ultimately coughed up $5 million to settle a lawsuit over the flawed prosecution.
  
  
• Earlier this year, Neff briefly represented Patrick Byrne, the prominent election-conspiracy theorist who aided Trump’s effort to steal the 2020 election. In that case, in which Byrne was being sued for defamation by Hunter Biden, Neff briefly worked under Stefanie Lambert, another leading election denier who will soon face trial in connection with a scheme to access vote tabulators in Michigan.
  
  
• Neff replaces Maureen Riordan, who worked as a top lawyer for the Public Interest Legal Foundation, which advocates for restrictive voting rules. In 2022, Riordan appeared on a podcast hosted by Cleta Mitchell, the right-wing lawyer and anti-voting activist who played a key role in Trump’s failed bid to subvert the results of the 2020 election.

Another new DOJ voting lawyer with troubling ties to election conspiracies

• Speaking of DOJ voting lawyers with troubling anti-voting histories: Brittany E. Bennett, who’s working on the department’s effort to seize states’ private voter data and 2020 election records, was previously involved in a GOP lawsuit in Georgia challenging the use of Dominion voting machines.
  
  
• As a Georgia lawyer, Bennett filed a legal brief in 2024 on behalf of the state GOP, supporting a lawsuit that tried to bar the state from using Dominion voting machines. The lawsuit falsely claimed that Dominion’s voting machines weren’t secure, based on comments by Clay Parikh — an election denier and cybersecurity specialist with ties to MyPillow CEO and conspiracy theorist Mike Lindell.
  
  
• Since joining DOJ, Bennett has signed complaints brought against eight states seeking their unredacted voter records. The DOJ has sued a total of 18 states for access to private voter data. 

DOJ sues Fulton County, Georgia for 2020 ballots and election records, fueling election conspiracies

• After months of probing debunked allegations of voter fraud in the 2020 election in Georgia, DOJ sued Fulton County, Georgia last week seeking ballots and other election records from the 2020 presidential vote.
  
  
• The lawsuit is the latest move in an effort backed by far-right members of the state election board and anti-voting allies of the president to probe false claims of voter fraud in Fulton County. Pro-voting advocates worry DOJ’s latest lawsuit will fuel more election conspiracy theories as the 2026 midterms approach.
  
  
• “This administration’s unending obsession with the 2020 election results in Georgia uses outright lies to compensate for the fact that they lost,” Kristin Nabers, the state director for All Voting is Local, said. “By doing President Trump’s bidding, the Department of Justice is attacking the very notion of free elections in this country, demanding to see ballots from Fulton County because their candidate didn’t win there half a decade ago.”

Gregg Phillips, pioneer of election denial, tapped for top FEMA post

• Gregg Phillips, a far-right activist who has a long record of promoting fabricated claims about voter fraud, attacking federal agencies as illegitimate and amplifying racist, right-wing conspiracy theories, has a new job in the Trump administration: leading FEMA’s Office of Response and Recovery.
  
  
• Immediately after the 2016 election, Phillips wrote, without evidence, that millions of illegal votes had been cast. “Completed analysis of database of 180 million voter registrations,” Phillips wrote. “Number of non-citizen votes exceeds 3 million. Consulting legal team.”

• As a leader of the anti-voting group True the Vote, Phillips was a key figure behind 2000 Mules, the widely debunked, pseudo-documentary by far-right commentator Dinesh D’Souza, alleging a vast mail-in ballot conspiracy in Georgia.
  
  
• Phillips does not appear to have any documented experience in emergency management that would suggest he’s qualified to lead one of FEMA’s most urgent operations. Phillips has, however, authored a LinkedIn post where he described himself as “a very vocal opponent of FEMA.”

Trump issues unenforceable ‘pardon’ to Tina Peters, right-wing figures threaten violence

• Trump claimed last week that he has issued a “full pardon” to Tina Peters, the Colorado election denier serving a nine-year state sentence.
  
  
• Peters was charged by the state with seven crimes — four of which were felonies, including influencing a public servant, and conspiracy to impersonate a public servant. But since they were state, not federal charges, Trump has no constitutional authority to pardon Peters.
  
  
• Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (D) has refused to pardon Peters. “No President has jurisdiction over state law nor the power to pardon a person for state convictions,” Polis said in a statement. “This is a matter for the courts to decide, and we will abide by court orders.”
  
  
• In response, right-wing figures have escalated their calls for violence to free Peters. Jake Lang, a far-right influencer who served time in prison for his role in the Jan. 6 riot, promised that “people are coming to break Tina Peters out of prison.”