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The Big Story
On Thursday, the Washington Post published an incisive look into the alternate media and information ecosystem that is fomenting conspiracies about voter fraud— and the millionaires and political figures who are backing the “big lie” that the election was stolen from former President Trump.
“The baseless assertion,” wrote Post reporters, “backed by millions of dollars from wealthy individuals, is reverberating across the alternative media ecosphere five months after Trump and many of his backers were pushed off Facebook and Twitter for spreading disinformation that inspired a mob to attack the U.S. Capitol.”
Those wealthy individuals include MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell and former Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne, who have produced movies that reportedly offer no compelling evidence of the fraud they allege. And as the Post reporters wrote, those baseless allegations “are now seeping into civic life, spurring citizens in multiple states to demand that local officials review the 2020 results.”
Such unnecessary and partisan “reviews” are a grave threat to democracy. This week, American Oversight obtained more documents from the Arizona Senate’s biased and poorly run “audit” of ballots cast in Maricopa County. Here’s the latest:
Arizona: The records released by the Senate this week revealed new details about the involvement of various outside groups in the “audit,” including service agreements with security companies and a report indicating that an organization had earlier this year canvassed more than 3,000 homes in Maricopa and Pima Counties “to verify the integrity of the voter rolls.”
That document was reported on by The Rachel Maddow Show, during which Maddow pointed to the May 5 letter from the Justice Department warning the Arizona Senate not to engage in such canvassing, which had been mentioned in the Senate’s contract with Cyber Ninjas. And this week, the Arizona Republic reported that people impersonating election officials were knocking on doors in Yavapai County. Other news:
- The records we obtained also show Senate President Karen Fann fielding emails from conspiracy theorists, such as a November email calling for her to appoint new presidential electors to overturn the results.
- Other documents include messages that “audit” spokesman Randy Pullen exchanged with Liz Harris, who was reportedly organizing the Yavapai canvassing operation, and Jovan Pulitzer, a conspiracy theorist whose involvement in the recount is less clear. (According to the Post, Pulitzer appears in Byrne’s film.)
Michigan: Calls for a similar official recount are persisting in Michigan, where a state lawmaker on Tuesday introduced a bill calling for a “forensic audit” and the board of commissioners in Cheboygan County voted the same day to pursue its own review.
- The next day, the state Senate’s Republican-led Oversight Committee issued a report on its investigation into the election, concluding that there was “no evidence of widespread or systematic fraud” in the state in 2020.
Wisconsin: Robin Vos, the speaker of the Wisconsin Assembly, is moving forward with another investigation of the 2020 election, this one to be undertaken by three former police officers and an attorney. On Thursday, the Associated Press reported that those former cops will be paid $3,200 a month to look into “potential irregularities.”
The Real Threats to Voting and Election Integrity
In each of those three states, those leading the charge claim their goal is not to overturn the election, but rather just to verify results or assure voters. The Michigan committee’s report even goes so far as to say that claims about ballot manipulation in one rural county were the result of “willful ignorance.”
But officials can’t convincingly vouch for the integrity of the 2020 election unless they relinquish the myth that our voting systems are at risk of widespread fraud. And they cannot drop lies about voter fraud without undercutting their rationale for the wave of voter suppression efforts being unleashed across the country. (In fact, the same Michigan report included recommendations for adding new barriers to the election system.)
- Those suppression efforts include state laws that make voting harder, such as those currently being considered in Michigan as well as in Texas, where Gov. Greg Abbott has called a special legislative session for July 8 to again take up a voter-suppression bill that was blocked by a Democratic walkout last month.
- They also include the alarming proliferation of measures designed to put control of elections into the hands of the same people who echoed — or still echo — Trump’s lies about a stolen election. Last weekend, the New York Times reported on those partisan power grabs and the dire consequences they could have for free and fair elections.
On the Records
Far-Right Anti-Immigration Influence in the Trump Administration
Records we uncovered further illustrate the extent of far-right anti-immigration groups’ contacts with key figures in the Trump administration’s Department of Homeland Security. The emails show Chad Mizelle, then acting chief of staff, and Chad Wolf, then acting secretary, communicating with an organization designated as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, and Mizelle being in contact with Kris Kobach regarding the largely discredited We Build the Wall project.
Other Stories We're Following
NATIONAL AND STATE NEWS
- N.Y. state court suspends Giuliani from practicing law over 2020 vote fraud claims (NPR)
- U.S. military training document says socialists represent ‘terrorist’ ideology (Intercept)
- Trump Commerce boss Wilbur Ross hoovered up $53 million while in public office (HuffPost)
- The authoritarian instincts of police unions (Atlantic)
- Federal judge tosses most claims against Trump, Barr and U.S. officials in clearing of Lafayette Square (Washington Post)
- His cybersecurity firm is working on the Arizona ‘audit.’ But people who know him have questions. (CNN)
- In push against ‘indoctrination,’ DeSantis mandates surveys of Florida students’ beliefs (Washington Post)
- Top U.S. officials consulted with BlackRock as markets melted down (New York Times)
- Saudi operatives who killed Khashoggi received paramilitary training in U.S. (New York Times)
THE JAN. 6 ATTACK
- Pelosi announces a select committee will investigate the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol (Washington Post)
- New body camera footage shows the violence against police during the Capitol riot (NPR)
THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC
- The inquiry into Emergent and its troubled Maryland vaccine plant is expanded (New York Times)
- The Biden administration is expected to extend the federal moratorium on evictions for another month (New York Times)
- 153 people resigned or were fired from a Texas hospital system after refusing to get vaccinated (Washington Post)
- Secret Service says nearly 900 employees tested positive for Covid-19 (CNN)
- Housing inequalities exacerbated by coronavirus still remain, report finds (Washington Post)
- Biden outlines vaccine plan, set to miss global-sharing goal (Associated Press)
- CDC Director: Delta variant to ‘probably’ become dominant strain in U.S. (Politico)
- Youngest adults are least likely to be vaccinated, and their interest in shots is declining (Washington Post)
- New book offers fresh details about chaos, conflicts inside Trump’s pandemic response (Washington Post)
- Models predict U.S. coronavirus infections could surge this fall if vaccination rates lag, former FDA chief says (Washington Post)
IMMIGRATION
- Biden administration removes Rodney Scott as head of U.S. Border Patrol (Washington Post)
- Detained immigrants on hunger strike over poor conditions at ICE facilities were force-fed, report says (CNN)
- Migrant children endure ‘despair and isolation’ inside tent city in the Texas desert (CBS News)
REDISTRICTING
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