honest elections pjt

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primary 4 26 kickass 3 scotus 4 26 LEO --> 2026 FUCKERY?

NO MERRI

:{:{sim names}: EG NETWORK; ELECTION INTEGRITY BS = GENERIC

SEE VOTER SUPPRESS BLACKWELL VON SPAK

see lnrd tag JCN HONEST ELECTIONS PJT AMICUS 3 SCOTUS BRETT K

:{:{see Cleta CNP CPI election integrity}:

11 21 2nd alec bradley cleta crypto evil pending 

rebrand = money launder?

judic ed pjt corkery jcn donors trust koch $

voter felon suppression 2020, pal of ginni and jok?

AM FIRST WORKS

4 26 lever sirota alluded to hep atty? = cleta?

GUNSALAS ~ CLIMATE SUPERFUND?

:{:{bad code see bak}:

WHAT CONNECTION TO FLYNN CONF? CLETA WAS THERE

At Summit, Election Deniers Press for Trump to Take Over Midterms — ProPublica

KICKASS 4 26

IF YOU GO BACK TO THE ORIGINAL BUG YOU ALSO SEE THE HONEST ELECTIONS PROJECT.

3:27

3 minutes, 27 seconds

THIS WAS USED TO FILE AN AMICUS BRIEF IN THE SUPREME COURT WITHOUT DISCLOSING ITS AFFILIATION WITH THE JUDICIAL CRISIS NETWORK, WHICH SPENT

3:35

3 minutes, 35 seconds

MILLIONS OF DOLLARS TO GET THREE LEONARD LEO-SELECTED SUPREME COURT JUSTICES APPOINTED TO THE COURT.

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mma

Right-wing media figures are exploiting state clerical errors and voter roll purges to fearmonger about mass voting by noncitizens

Right-wing media figures are accusing Democrats of “cheating,” though audits and studies have repeatedly shown that noncitizen voting rarely happens at all

Written by Jack Winstanley

Published 10/03/24

Conservative outlets and media figures are amplifying reports of clerical errors, state voter roll audits, and Republican lawsuits to push a narrative that noncitizens are being widely allowed to vote in elections, despite evidence that very few votes are actually cast — and this right-wing framing is being used to argue that Democrats will “cheat” in November’s election. Meanwhile, multiple GOP-led states are pushing for voter roll purges that disenfranchise thousands of legal voters.

• ## Right-wing media figures and politicians have stoked fears of mass voting by noncitizens, despite evidence that it rarely happens

• • Right-wing media figures and politicians have repeatedly evoked the specter of mass voting by noncitizens to promote supposed “election integrity” measures and stricter voter ID laws. Right-wing figures are fixated on voters registered through DMV offices and driver's license applications as a potential source of mass voter fraud. This fixation follows years of right-wing media figures conflating “voter fraud” with registration inaccuracies to claim that “dead people” and “illegal aliens” are casting ballots. Media Matters, [7/11/24, 2/21/16]

• • Fox News has spent months pushing the false narrative that undocumented immigrants are coming across the border in droves to vote in the election — with several network figures citing driver's licenses as a source of fraud. In one segment, Fox anchor Maria Bartiromo cited a debunked video in claiming that “14% of illegal immigrants admitted that they are registered to vote.” In another, host Jeanine Pirro baselessly claimed that migrants are “lining up to vote right now, given driver’s license.” Media Matters, [9/16/24]

• • Right-wing media figures have also repeatedly pushed the “great replacement” conspiracy theory — accusing Democrats of weaponizing the immigration system for their own electoral gain. Conservatives have claimed that the Biden administration is allowing “a wide open border” in order to sway electoral and census data so Democrats “can get more Electoral College votes so they can find another way to rig elections.” Media Matters, [3/4/24, 3/26/24, 1/12/24, 6/30/22]

• • Right-wing media pushed conspiracy theories that helped to successfully convince six Republican-led states to pull out of an interstate voter data-sharing effort over bogus claims of inflated voter rolls. Right-wing media claimed that the Electronic Registration Information Center — a system for states to share voter registration data for cleanup and auditing — is really a “left wing voter registration drive disguised as voter roll clean up.” Media Matters, [5/4/23]

• • Numerous studies — including from right-wing organization The Heritage Foundation — have concluded that noncitizen voting is extremely rare and does not influence election outcomes. A 2017 study from the Brennan Center for Justice analyzed 23.5 million ballots from 42 jurisdictions and found only 30 cases of potential noncitizen voting. An audit of Georgia’s voter rolls found less than 2,000 instances of noncitizens attempting to register to vote over the last 25 years, with none being accepted and allowed to vote. The Associated Press, [10/19/22; Brennan Center for Justice, 5/5/17; Georgia Secretary of State, 4/11/22; Immigration Impact, 8/1/24]

• • It is illegal for noncitizens to make a false claim of citizenship on a voter registration form and to vote in federal elections. As noted by Sean Morales-Doyle, director of the Brennan Center Voting Rights Program at New York University’s school of law, “making a false claim of citizenship on a voter registration form is a federal criminal offense that carries steep penalties, including deportation.” Democracy Docket, [7/9/24; NPR, 4/12/24; PolitiFact, 5/20/24]

• ## Oregon, Arizona, and Ohio recently reported issues that apparently registered some noncitizens to vote

• • In Oregon, an oversight with the state's automatic voter registration system allowed 306 noncitizens to be registered — with two casting ballots since 2021. According to the Oregon Department of Transportation, the error occurred as part of a “data entry issue” with driver's license applications after state law allowed noncitizens to obtain a license in 2019. The Associated Press, [9/16/24; Oregon Post Beacon, 9/13/24]

• • Arizona officials are addressing a “clerical error” where nearly 100,000 registered voters — most of whom are legitimate voters — were mistakenly recorded as having provided documentation proving their citizenship. Such documentation is only required in Arizona to be eligible to vote in state and local elections and would not impact anyone’s ability to vote in the 2024 presidential election. According to the Arizona secretary of state, the error is limited to individuals who were issued a license before October 1996. The Washington Post reports that according to state officials, the affected voters “skewed Republican, and nearly all of them appeared to be citizens.” NPR, [9/17/24; CNN, 9/17/24, 9/20/24; The Washington Post, 9/28/24]

• • In Ohio, a routine audit of voter rolls identified a possible few hundred individuals — a small fraction of the state’s electorate — who either registered to vote or cast a ballot despite being noncitizens. CNN explains: “In a state with about 8 million registered voters, a recent review of Ohio’s voter rolls resulted in the removal of 154,995 abandoned or inactive voter registrations. A far smaller number, 597, have been referred by Secretary of State Frank LaRose to the state’s attorney general for ‘further review and potential prosecution’ for possibly registering to vote as a noncitizen. However, an even smaller number, 138, ‘appear to have cast a ballot in an Ohio election.’” CNN, [9/12/24; The Associated Press, 8/21/24; Ohio Capital Journal, 9/14/24]

• ## Republicans are using claims of noncitizen voting to push for voter roll purges, disenfranchising citizens and legitimate voters

• • Republican officials in several states have launched investigations into potential cases of noncitizens being registered. In Alabama, 3,200 people were identified by the secretary of state as part of an initiative to identify noncitizen voters. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced that “over 6,500 potential noncitizens” were removed from the state's voter rolls. NPR, [8/30/24; Texas Monthly, 9/18/24]

• • Ahead of the 2024 presidential election, the Trump campaign and its allies have filed lawsuits in seven states preemptively claiming that the election will be affected by noncitizen voting. According to Reuters, the lawsuits filed in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Kansas, and Texas alleged that the states’ automatic voter registration program was a partisan attempt to register Democrats. A lawsuit filed by the Republican National Committee and North Carolina GOP alleges that the state “allowed over 225,000 people to register to vote” without proper citizenship documentation. In Nevada, the Trump campaign, state GOP, and RNC filed a lawsuit alleging that the secretary of state has improperly managed voter rolls allowing noncitizens to be registered. Reuters, [9/19/24; Democracy Docket, 8/26/24; Nevada Independent, 9/15/24]

• • Republican-led purges of active voter rolls have disenfranchised naturalized citizens who are eligible to vote across the country. In 2023, Democrats in Virginia called for an investigation after thousands of voters were mistakenly removed from state voter rolls. Several individuals who were mistakenly removed from Alabama’s voter roll in 2024 have been left with little recourse, and over 14,000 registered voters in Tennessee received letters stating they had to prove citizenship under threat of felony charges. Ahead of his successful 2018 gubernatorial campaign, Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp removed over 560,000 voters from the state roll over supposed “inactivity,” but a separate investigation found that 107,000 of them were still eligible to vote. NPR, [11/1/23, 8/30/24; Newsweek, 11/1/23; American Public Media, 10/29/19]

• ## Right-wing media figures have exploited the recently reported errors, state audits, and Republican lawsuits to fearmonger about noncitizens voting en masse and accuse Democrats of trying to cheat in elections

• • The New York Post amplified a Republican lawsuit to claim that noncitizens voting could “tip the presidential race in Nevada.” The article also uncritically parrots the claim from a Trump campaign lawsuit that “an estimated 3,700+ [noncitizens] will cast a ballot in November’s presidential election,” and directly connects the suit to right-wing intentions of “purging rolls,” specifically citing the “close results” of recent state elections. New York Post, [9/13/24]

• • Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose appeared on Steve Bannon’s War Room to celebrate removing “over 600 noncitizens on the voter rolls,” admitting “that’s a small number out of 8 million” voters registered in the state. Real America’s Voice, *War Room*, [9/10/24]

• • In an article discussing a forthcoming audit of Pennsylvania’s voter roll, The Federalist embedded a social media post claiming the Commonwealth's automatic voter registration system was implemented so Democrats “can register the illegals to vote.” The Federalist, [9/16/24]

• • Reacting to reports of “Nearly 100,000 Swing State Voters” potentially receiving the wrong ballots in Arizona, right-wing social media figure Phillip Buchanan, known online as “Catturd,” claimed that “Democrats are already cheating in every way possible.” Twitter/X, [9/19/24; Daily Dot, 11/17/23]

• • Sharing a post about the Nevada lawsuit, Buchanan stated, “All Democrats do is cheat.” Twitter/X, [9/20/24]

• • Conservative commentator Steve Guest claimed that Oregon’s clerical error “was not a ‘mistake’” but rather is “a feature of their bad policies.” In a second post, Guest claimed that “the ‘mistakes’ happen in the same direction seemingly all of the time. A Democrat state registers a bunch of non citizens to vote.” Twitter/X, [9/14/24, 9/24/24]

• • Conservative author and radio host Bo Snerdley speculated that the Oregon DMV may have registered additional noncitizens, claiming “300 is what they are admitting to. Who knows if that's real or not.” Twitter/X, [9/14/24]

• • The Federalist connected a single case of a noncitizen charged for voting in Iowa to the supposed “growing threat of noncitizen voting, particularly in light of the border crisis.” The article fearmongered “that the federal government only prosecuted 35 cases of illegal aliens voting in U.S. elections in 21 years, despite the fact that untold millions have poured across the southern border at the same time,” claiming “that at least tens-of-thousands had been illegally registered to vote.” The Federalist, [9/25/24]

• • Infowars host Alex Jones claimed that the Arizona Supreme Court’s ruling “proves Arizona was stolen in 2020. That means Trump won and is the real president.” Twitter/X, [9/21/24]

• • A segment on Fox News’ America Reports discussing voter roll purges featured Chad Ennis, the vice president of election denial organization the Honest Elections Project, who stated that noncitizen voting “certainly probably has” impacted a U.S. election, calling it “silly” to suggest otherwise. Fox News, *America Reports*, [9/6/24; Media Matters, 10/27/22]

• • Fox Business anchor Maria Bartiromo said that “a lot of Republicans are saying illegals coming from the open border are being given driver's licenses and are wanting to get registered to vote.” Bartiromo also suggested that the Biden administration could be responsible for the errors in Oregon and other states, asking, “Hasn't the Biden administration been very clear that it's a whole-of-government plan to get every agency involved in the election?” Fox Business, *Mornings with Maria*, [9/18/24]

---

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gmail 4 23

three of the most prominent rightwing groups which spread election denial lies and advocate for restrictions on voting rights in the US 

have joined forces in a secret attempt to woo top election officials in Republican-controlled states.

Led by the Washington-based conservative thinktank the Heritage Foundation, the groups have created an incubator of policies that would restrict access to the ballot box and amplify false claims that fraud is rampant in American elections. The unstated yet implicit goal is to dampen Democratic turnout and help Republican candidates to victory.

Details of the two-day “secretaries of state conference” held in Washington in February were obtained by the watchdog group Documented and shared with the Guardian.

Officials from 13 Republican-controlled states, including 10 top election administrators, participated in the event. Attendees discussed controversial “election integrity” ideas of the sort weaponized by Donald Trump.

Among the participants were nine secretaries of state and Virginia’s election commissioner, all of whom preside over both statewide and federal elections in their states including next year’s presidential contest. A list of attendees namechecks the chief election officials of Indiana, Florida, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia.

Documented also obtained the conference agenda which lists a number of Trump associates among the speakers. They include Ken Cuccinelli who, as acting deputy secretary for homeland security, played a key role in setting elections policy for the Trump administration.

Cuccinelli now runs the Election Transparency Initiative which is fighting Democratic efforts in Congress to shore up voting rights, and has been active in pushing state-level vote restriction measures.

Heritage Foundation Secretaries of State Conference Agenda, obtained by Documented.

The keynote speech was given by Ken Blackwell,former secretary of state in Ohio. He was an early adopter of Trump’s lie about rigged elections, championing the idea in the 2016 presidential race which Trump won.

Blackwell now chairs the Center for Election Integrity at the America First Policy Institute,a rightwing thinktank led by former Trump officials. The center has been touting election-related model legislation.

Heritage was careful to organize the conference amid tight secrecy. Among the records obtained by Documented is an email from Hans von Spakovsky, a lawyer at the foundation who leads their election work.

Responding to a query about the event from a Texas official, Von Spakovsky said: “There is no livestream. This is not a public event. It is a private, confidential meeting of the secretaries. I would rather you not send out a press release about it.”

Email to Texas Senator Paul Bettencourt's staff from Hans von Spakovsky, obtained by Documented

Von Spakovsky has long been at the forefront of efforts to undermine US elections by claiming falsely that fraud is endemic. He helped spearhead the attack on voting by mail during the pandemic, holding private briefings with Republican state election officials – a drive that became a core part of Trump’s efforts to overturn his defeat in the 2020 presidential election.

Heritage and its political arm, Heritage Action for America, have spent tens of millions of dollars promoting their own model bills that impose strict restrictions on voting. They have targeted the investment on key battleground states such as Arizona, Georgia and Michigan that could hold the balance of power in the 2024 presidential race.

Heritage began hosting annual gatherings of Republican secretaries of state at the start of the Trump presidency in 2017. February’s in-person conference was the first to be sponsored by three rightwing powerhouses of election denial and voter suppression – Heritage, together with the Public Interest Legal Foundation (Pilf), and the Honest Elections Project (HEP).

Pilf is a conservative legal group that sues election officials to force them to purge voter rolls, a process that has affected eligible US voters. The group is led by J Christian Adams, a former justice department lawyer who tried to use the Voting Rights Act to claim voting discrimination against white people.

Trump’s former lawyer Cleta Mitchell also sits on the Pilf board.

HEP is a conservative dark-money group closely tied to the Republican operative Leonard Leo who was instrumental in engineering the current conservative supermajority on the US supreme court. Reporting by ProPublica and the New York Times last year revealed that Leo has received control of a staggering $1.6bn to advance rightwing causes.

Concern about the potential of top election officials to subvert democracy intensified during the 2022 midterm elections when a number of individuals committed to Trump’s stolen election lie also ran for office. They formed the “America First Secretary of State Coalition” which became a conduit of far-right conspiracy theories linked to QAnon.

Most of those candidates failed in their bid to take over the reins of election administration in their states. But the Heritage conference suggests that the desire to deploy Republican secretaries of state as channels of voter suppression and election misinformation remains very much alive.

Though chief election officials are tasked with ensuring that ballots are fair and impartial, the Heritage conference was attended only by Republican secretaries of state.

The Guardian asked Heritage to explain why its conference was held in secret and with only Republican attendees. The group did not answer those questions.

Von Spakovsky said that the event was an “educational summit intended to provide information on current issues in elections and ensure that our election process protects the right to vote for American citizens by making it easy to vote and hard to cheat”.

He disputed the argument that security measures at the ballot box such as voter ID suppressed turnout. “The claim that secure elections somehow promote greater restrictions is outrageous and has been clearly disproven,” he said.

Von Spakovsky also pointed to Heritage’s election fraud database, which he said sampled “proven instances of election fraud from across the country”. The database records 1,422 “proven instances of voter fraud” stretching back to 1982 – a 41-year period during which billions of votes have been cast in the US.

Several of the participants at the conference have election denial and voter suppression track records. They include Florida’s secretary of state, Cord Byrd,who, soon after beingappointed by Governor Ron DeSantis last spring, refused to say whether Joe Biden had wonthe 2020 presidential election.

Byrd runs Florida’s “election integrity unit” that was set up by DeSantis last year to investigate election crimes, even though there is scant evidence of substantial voter fraud. More than a dozen citizens accused of illegally voting have been arrested at gunpointunder DeSantis’s crackdown on supposed voter fraud.

Another attendee – Jay Ashcroft, secretary of state of Missouri – has been a leading proponent of that state’s new restrictive voting law. His office has been named in numerous lawsuits in the last year for imposing extreme constraints on voter registration, including a recent lawsuit accusing Ashcroft of illegally blocking a ballot measure.

Tennessee’s secretary of state, Tre Hargett, another listed participant, has been accused by Democratic leaders in Tennessee of purging thousands of voters from the official rolls.

Panel discussions laid out in the agenda were held on several of the core talking points of the current Republican party. The opening discussion, moderated by Von Spakovsky, was on “Auditing Expertise”.

The main speaker was Paul Bettencourt, a state senator in Texas who has sponsored several bills making it harder to vote including a measure that would deploy armed “election marshals” to oversee polling stations.

Before the conference-goers attended a cocktail reception and dinner held at an upscale restaurant in downtown Washington, day one ended with a session entitled: “Realistic Eric Fixes and Reforms”. Eric – the Electronic Registration Information Center – is a non-profit group run collectively by 28 states which is used to finesse the accuracy of state voter rolls.

In recent months it has become the target of rightwing conspiracy theories fueled by Trump who claimed falsely that it was rigged to benefit Democrats.

Ashcroft, the Missouri secretary of state, was one of the speakers in that session. Earlier this month he announced that he was pulling Missouri out of Eric, making it one of the first Republican-controlled states to quit the organization along with Alabama, Florida and West Virginia.

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no lnx doc 26 pp see bak

[https://www.exposedbycmd.org/2022/10/14/alec-held-third-voter-suppression-summit-with-dark-money-group-this-summer/](no%20lnx%20doc%20see%20bak

https://www.exposedbycmd.org/2022/10/14/alec-held-third-voter-suppression-summit-with-dark-money-group-this-summer/

oct%202022

The%20American%20Legislative%20Exchange%20Council%20%28ALEC%29%20held%20its%20third%20known%20voter%20suppression%20summit%20for%20state%20lawmakers%20on%20July%2025%20and%2026%20preceding%20its%20annual%20meeting%20in%20Atlanta,%20the%20Center%20for%20Media%20and%20Democracy%20%28CMD%29%20has%20learned.

ALEC%20invited%2015%20legislators%20to%20participate%20in%20the%20two-day%20Honest%20Elections%20Academy%20with%20“policy%20experts”%20to%20focus%20on%20“the%20biggest%20challenges%20for%20the%20next%20electoral%20year,”%20and%20to%20equip%20lawmakers%20“with%20the%20resources%20to%20combat%20unfair%20practices,%20identify%20key%20opponents,%20and%20understand%20the%20election%20process%20from%20start%20to%20end,”%20according%20to%20an%20email%20invitation%20obtained%20by%20CMD.

The%20event%20culminated%20in%20an%20Inaugural%20Leadership%20Dinner%20co-hosted%20by%20its%20501%28c%29%284%29%20sister%20organization%20ALEC%20Action%20and%20the%20dark%20money%20voter%20suppression%20group%20Honest%20Elections%20Project%20%28HEP%29.

In%20an%20email%20obtained%20by%20CMD,%20ALEC%20CEO%20Lisa%20Nelson%20asked%20board%20members%20to%20“recruit%20leadership%20members”%20in%20their%20“caucus”—meaning%20Republicans—in%20hopes%20of%20getting%20approximately%2070%20lawmakers%20to%20attend.%20The%20email%20included%20a%20template%20invitation%20to%20the%20Leadership%20Dinner%20signed%20by%20the%20host%20committee,%20which%20includes%20the%20following%20board%20members:%20Arizona%20Senate%20President%20and%20ALEC’s%202022%20National%20Chairwoman%20Karen%20Fann%20%28R%29,%20Utah%20Senate%20President%20Stuart%20Adams%20%28R%29,%20Kansas%20Senate%20President%20Ty%20Masterson%20%28R%29,%20Mississippi%20Speaker%20of%20the%20House%20Philip%20Gunn%20%28R%29,%20Iowa%20Speaker%20Pro%20Tempore%20John%20Wills%20%28R%29,%20and%20Ohio%20Representative%20William%20Seitz%20%28R%29.

ALEC%20is%20a%20pay-to-play%20operation%20in%20which%20state%20legislators%20and%20corporate%20lobbyists%20meet%20behind%20closed%20doors%20to%20write%20model%20legislation%20that%20advances%20a%20radical%20right-wing,%20pro-corporate,%20and%20pro-Republican%20agenda%20on%20everything%20from%20suppressing%20voter%20access%20and%20denying%20climate%20change%20to%20crushing%20unions%20and%20undermining%20public%20education.

Nelson%20has%20repeatedly%20lied%20about%20the%20fact%20that%20ALEC%20works%20on%20voting%20and%20elections,%20claiming%20that%20it%20hasn’t%20done%20so%20since%20its%20Public%20Safety%20and%20Elections%20Task%20Force%20disbanded%20in%202012%20in%20the%20face%20of%20public%20backlash%20over%20its%20role%20in%20promoting%20voter%20ID%20legislation.

“ALEC%20doesn’t%20have%20‘template%20legislation’%20on%20voting%20because%20ALEC%20doesn’t%20work%20on%20voting%20issues,”%20Nelson%20wrote%20in%20a%20June%202021%20opinion%20piece%20for%20Real%20Clear%20Politics.%20She%20drafted%20the%20op-ed%20after%20a%20broad%20coalition%20of%20more%20than%20300%20civil%20rights%20and%20democracy%20reform%20groups%20called%20on%20corporations%20to%20disassociate%20from%20ALEC%20because%20of%20the%20surge%20in%20voter%20suppression%20efforts%20it%20was%20helping%20to%20facilitate.

Nelson%20also%20sent%20an%20email%20to%20ALEC%20members%20%28obtained%20and%20published%20by%20CMD%29%20claiming%20that%20the%20“assertions%20included%20in%20the%20coalition%20letter%20are%20categorically%20false….%20ALEC%20does%20not%20create%20or%20promote%20policy%20models%20on%20election%20reform/security.”

However,%20in%20September%202021,%20CMD%20exposed%20Nelson’s%20clever%20dodge%20by%20publicizing%20video%20of%20a%20talk%20she%20delivered%20at%20a%20May%202021%20meeting%20of%20the%20secretive,%20Christian%20Right%20Council%20for%20National%20Policy.%20“We%20don’t%20have%20model%20policy,”%20she%20said,%20speaking%20on%20a%20panel%20that%20included%20Adams%20and%20Gunn,%20“we%20will%20be%20developing%20that%20at%20the%20Honest%20Elections%20Project%20[Academy]—through%20them.)

oct 2022

The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) held its third known voter suppression summit for state lawmakers on July 25 and 26 preceding its annual meeting in Atlanta,the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) has learned.

ALEC invited 15 legislators to participate in the two-day Honest Elections Academy with “policy experts” to focus on “the biggest challenges for the next electoral year,” and to equip lawmakers “with the resources to combat unfair practices, identify key opponents, and understand the election process from start to end,” according to an email invitation obtained by CMD.

The event culminated in an Inaugural Leadership Dinner co-hosted by its 501(c)(4) sister organization ALEC Action and the dark money voter suppression group Honest Elections Project (HEP).

In an email obtained by CMD, ALEC CEO Lisa Nelson asked board members to “recruit leadership members” in their “caucus”—meaning Republicans—in hopes of getting approximately 70 lawmakers to attend. The email included a template invitation to the Leadership Dinner signed by the host committee, which includes the following board members: Arizona Senate President and ALEC’s 2022 National Chairwoman Karen Fann (R), Utah Senate President Stuart Adams (R), Kansas Senate President Ty Masterson (R), Mississippi Speaker of the House Philip Gunn (R), Iowa Speaker Pro Tempore John Wills (R), and Ohio Representative William Seitz (R).

ALEC is a pay-to-play operation in which state legislators and corporate lobbyists meet behind closed doors to write model legislation that advances a radical right-wing, pro-corporate, and pro-Republican agenda on everything from suppressing voter access and denying climate change to crushing unions and undermining public education.

Nelson has repeatedly lied about the fact that ALEC works on voting and elections, claiming that it hasn’t done so since its Public Safety and Elections Task Force disbanded in 2012 in the face of public backlash over its role in promoting voter ID legislation.

“ALEC doesn’t have ‘template legislation’ on voting because ALEC doesn’t work on voting issues,” Nelson wrote in a June 2021 opinion piece for Real Clear Politics. She drafted the op-ed after a broad coalition of more than 300 civil rights and democracy reform groups called on corporations to disassociate from ALEC because of the surge in voter suppression efforts it was helping to facilitate.

Nelson also sent an email to ALEC members (obtained and published by CMD) claiming that the “assertions included in the coalition letter are categorically false…. ALEC does not create or promote policy models on election reform/security.”

However, in September 2021, CMD exposed Nelson’s clever dodge by publicizing video of a talk she delivered at a May 2021 meeting of the secretive, Christian Right Council for National Policy. “We don’t have model policy,” she said, speaking on a panel that included Adams and Gunn, “we will be developing that at the Honest Elections Project [Academy]—through them."[vid]

aLEC has effectively outsourced its election-related model legislation to HEP,while still maintaining a secret working group on elections and giving HEP regular access to its legislative members. HEP does not make its model legislation available to the public.

At ALEC’s 2021 States and Nation Policy Summit in December, state lawmakers were invited to an Honest Elections Academy, Part Two, an invitation obtained by CMD indicates.

“Over the summer, we discussed best practices for securing a state’s elections,” the invitation reads. “Now…we’ll work with you on how to put these proven methods into practice, from direct litigation strategies, to workshops with leading election experts, to messaging techniques.”

ALEC also held a secret elections working group meeting on December 1, which CMD first reported on as part of its coverage of the summit.

ALEC held its inaugural Honest Elections Academy from July 26–28, 2021, just before its annual meeting, CMD first reported.  It featured a veritable who’s who of the right-wing leaders behind the ongoing disinformation campaign about voter fraud and assaults on voting rights across the country, as documents later obtained by CMD reveal.

Most of the sessions focused on legislation, which gave state lawmakers an opportunity to discuss bills to restrict voting that had already been introduced and passed in their legislatures during the 2021 sessions and hear from Republican-aligned leaders about additional needs.

ALEC’s first known session with HEP was on July 9, 2020, when it held an “exclusive call”for its legislative members in which HEP and a “former FEC official” discussed mail-in voting, CMD revealed.

Honest Elections Project, the group ALEC chose to partner with on its voting agenda, is a dark money operation formed in February 2020 to push for voting restrictions and spread baseless and dangerous claims about election fraud, laying the groundwork for Trump’s attempt to overturn the election. It is a project of The 85 Fund,the legal name for the Judicial Education Project, a group linked to Leonard Leo that played a central role in Trump’s effort to pack the Supreme Court and the entire federal judiciary with right-wing judges.

13 pp doc

Dinner with keynote speaker Attorney General of Indiana Todd Rokita2012

Ice Cream Social 3 – 3:30 PM Opening Session Welcome from Lisa B. Nelson / ALEC Welcome and opening remarks by Honest Elections Project

Breakfast Legislation and Policy Section Priorities Jason Snead / Honest Elections Project lays out priorities for election integrity across the states, as well as polling results.

Panel Discussion with Secretaries of State Tennessee’s Tre Hargett, Kentucky’s Michael Adams, West Virginia’s Mac Warner; Discussing what policies the states need to employ to make it easier to vote and harder to cheat; Q&A

The Left’s attack on our election system (state-level attacks on election integrity legislation; HR 1) – ft. Hans von Spakovsky and Ken Cuccinelli

– 11:15 AM Legislative Authority over election processes (how it was undermined and how to shore it up) – ft. Jason Snead, Jason Torchinsky, Lee Goodman

Mapping the Left Lunch - keynote speaker Scott Walter, Capital Research Center

1 PM – 2 PM Panel of legislators (3-4) discussing election challenges they’ve faced in their own states; intended to be wrap-up of morning/lunch discussion Moderator: Ken Blackwell

Litigation Cornerstone 2:15 PM – 3:15 PM Panel #1 Facing in litigation challenges, e.g., anticipating challenges to the Voting Rights Act in Arizona, Marc Elias, redistricting fight, and more. Panelists: Jason Torchinsky, Michael Thielen, Brian Barnes

Operationalizing litigation challenges – how can/do legislators and attorneys engage these challenges? E.g., budget, tactics for intervening in lawsuits; ways to challenge the scope of litigation attacks on new election integrity legislation (defense) as well as advance the ball on election integrity (offense). Panelists: Tyler Green, Lee Goodman

4:30 PM – 4:45 PM Q&A; closing remarks 6 PM – 8:00 PM Evening: Group dinner out The Blue Iguana 165 S West Temple, Salt Lake City, UT 84101 Meet at ALEC registration desk at 5:30 PM for charter transportation 8 PM – 9:30 PM Election Transparency Initiatives Dessert Reception: Open House Notes & 1 Key Takeaway:

12 PM – 1 PM Mapping the Left Lunch - keynote speaker Scott Walter, Capital Research Center...usual suspects von spak etc cleta don palmer...

:{

hayes recs

 Constellation of Anti-Voting Groups Threaten Democracy

By Marc Elias

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  August 18, 2022

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https://www.democracydocket.com/news/a-constellation-of-anti-voting-groups-threaten-democracy/

republican leaders of the anti-voting movement recently held a “gourmet dinner” at an “undisclosed location” to discuss my voting rights litigation. The event was billed as the inaugural leadership dinner for a group called the Honest Elections Project. I was not invited to attend.

There is a constellation of well-funded, right-wing groups that use the legal and political system to make voting more difficult and free and fair elections less likely. They range from mere vote suppressors to full-on election deniers. Most oppose expanding voting rights and support strict voting laws. Many seek to gut the Voting Rights Act entirely; others want it interpreted so narrowly as to be ineffective. None of these organizations supported Congress’ efforts to enact new pro-voter legislation.

These right-wing groups work closely with the RNC and with state legislatures to advance anti-voting legislation.

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The American Constitutional Rights Union, Foundation for Government Accountability, Judicial Watch, Lawyers Democracy Fund, Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF) and Restoring Integrity and Trust in Elections are just a few of the groups fighting against voting rights in court. America First Legal Foundation, Election Integrity Network, Heritage Foundation and True the Vote also support anti-democracy legal efforts. The conservative American Legislative Exchange Council advances model anti-voting legislation for state legislatures.

We recently got a preview of how these groups will operationalize their legal efforts in court in the future. Earlier this year, a Florida federal judge struck down most of the state’s “Big Lie” voter suppression law. In doing so, the court found that Florida Republicans had intentionally discriminated against Black voters and had violated the constitutional rights of Floridians seeking to participate in the democratic process. On appeal, six national anti-voting groups filed separate “friend of the court” briefs opposing the lower court’s decision — in addition to the briefs by the state defendants and the Republican Party.

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For many years, the Republican National Committee (RNC) was legally barred from participating in election monitoring or voter suppression efforts as a consequence of the GOP’s ugly history of targeting minority voters in the 1980s. When that bar was lifted in 2017, the RNC picked up where it had left off and ran so-called “election integrity” programs with state parties.

These anti-voting legal groups offer a path for Republicans to wield majority political power without majority support.

Now, in the post-Trump era, the RNC directly partners with voter suppression groups and efforts that two years ago would have been unthinkable. The party’s dismal court results following the 2020 election coupled with MAGA supporters’ distrust of the party establishment has left the GOP operating in the penumbra of the current stars of the election denier and voter suppression movement.

It’s not just what these groups do, but who runs them.

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On PILF’s board of directors, for example, are Cleta Mitchell and John Eastman,both of whom served as lawyers for former President Donald Trump. Mitchell participated in the infamous telephone call during which Trump demanded that the Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R) find 11,000 votes and declare Trump the winner. Eastman, who has been in the news recently for having a search warrant executed against him, helped craft the January 2021 insurrection plan.

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The Honest Elections Project — the host of the secret dinner — was formed in February 2020 and is connected to Federalist Society founder Leonard Leo.

The newest of these groups, Restoring Integrity and Trust in Elections, was co-founded by former U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr (R) and Karl Rove, who served as former senior advisor and deputy chief of staff to President George W. Bush. Casino billionaire Steve Wynn provides the organization’s financial backing as its finance chair.

This group is notably more competent and well-resourced than the legal buffoonery who led Trump’s post-election antics. Though I am no fan of Barr, he is unlikely to hire lawyers who claim Hugo Chávez rigged elections from the grave or threaten to release the mythological Kraken. With Rove on its board as well, Barr is almost certainly not going to hold press conferences in a landscaping parking lot.

Notably, the infrastructure on the right is eclipsing the organizations on the left. 

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Historically, most organizations and resources dedicated to protecting the right to vote were connected to the left. Today there are still many important civil rights and voting rights organizations that bring litigation to protect the right to vote. Their work is invaluable. But most of those groups have broader portfolios that extend beyond voting rights and have insufficient resources to meet their growing needs.

What is notable about the right wing’s approach is the scope and interconnected nature of their legal efforts to undermine voting rights and free and fair elections.

Right-wing legal groups work in tandem with Republican legislatures dominated by election deniers. These organizations can help generate the most effective voter suppression policies that Republicans turn into laws. When those laws are challenged in court, the conservative legal groups then help defend them.

This brings me back to the “gourmet dinner” at an “undisclosed location” that I was not invited to attend. The right wing holds these events and funds these groups because they know that they cannot win fair elections. These anti-voting legal groups offer a path for Republicans to wield majority political power without majority support. They know that they lost in 2020. They are embarrassed that Trump was routed in post-election litigation. Some are upset that his coup failed on Jan. 6.

They set up new groups, hold secret dinners and create new voter suppression laws hoping that we will give up. I’m not sure what gave them that impression. After Trump was defeated in 2020, his team fought dozens of times in court — and lost. We didn’t give up then, and we certainly aren’t giving up now.

NEXT UP

Conservatives Have Been Packing the Courts for Years

We deserve a forward-thinking judiciary filled with movement lawyers who want to see progress for our nation.

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NEW REP

...

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Cleta Mitchell

Attorney}:

Mitchell is a longtime member of the CNP board of governors. More recently, she appeared on panels at 2020 CNP meetings speaking on “Election Integrity: Securing the Ballot Box” and “Election Integrity: Action Steps.” Mitchell also serves on the board of directors of the Bradley Foundation, run by fellow CNP board member Richard Graber. Following Biden’s victory, Mitchell tweeted that the Georgia recount was “A FAKE!!!” She traveled to Georgia as a volunteer legal adviser for Trump’s campaign and helped to file a December 2020 lawsuit challenging the returns. According to The Washington Post’s Robert O’Harrow Jr., “On December 30, Mitchell wrote to [then–White House chief of staff] Mark Meadows and offered to send some 1,800 pages of documents purporting to support claims of election fraud.” On January 2, Mitchell took part in Trump’s infamous call to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, of whom Trump famously demanded, “I just want to find 11,780 votes.” The call was leaked, and when Mitchell’s role was disclosed, she was obliged to resign from her position at the Foley & Lardner law firm. But Mitchell continues her work through her strategy sessions at the CNP, her board membership at the Bradley Foundation, her Apple podcast Who’s Counting?, and her November 2021 appointment to the Board of Advisors of the federal Election Assistance Commission, which certifies voting systems—including voting machines—and advises local officials on compliance with federal regulations.

Richard Graber

CEO, Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation

This Milwaukee foundation has assets of some $900 million. Graber is a member of the board of governors of the CNP, while CNP election strategist Cleta Mitchell is one of the foundation’s 11 board members. The Koch network and the DeVos family philanthropies may have received more attention, but the Bradley Foundation’s strategic, longtime focus on state-level politics has allowed it to make a major impact, using its home state of Wisconsin as a laboratory. In 2012 to 2013, the foundation spent more than $8 million on a network of groups promoting a right-to-work law also supported by then-Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker (a fellow CNP board member) and attacking Wisconsin trade unions. The resulting right-to-work law crippled the unions and contributed to Wisconsin’s shift from a Democratic to a swing state. In 2021, the Bradley Foundation earmarked $600,000 for the American Legislative Exchange Council’s voter management campaign software and other activities, bringing its ALEC contributions to $5.4 million over the previous decade. In 2020 and 2021, the foundation gave $200,000 to the Claremont Institute. Claremont has played a critical role in the radical right’s promotion of false claims of fraud and the efforts to rewrite voting laws in advance of the 2024 elections; John Eastman, who drafted the infamous six-point memo used by Trump to challenge the Electoral College on January 6, is a Claremont senior fellow. The foundation also contributed $300,000 to the Public Interest Legal Foundation (chaired by Cleta Mitchell) and $175,000 to the Heritage Foundation’s election law initiative, both of which promoted Trump’s false claims of fraud.

Lisa Nelson

CEO, American Legislative Exchange Council

Nelson came to ALEC in 2014 after previous stints on Newt Gingrich’s staff and at GOPAC, the Republican state and local political training organization. ALEC was co-founded in 1973 by Paul Weyrich, also a co-founder of the CNP. ALEC convenes corporate sponsors and Republican state legislators to “collaborate” on model bills—including legislation to oppose environmental regulation and gun control. In April 2020, The Washington Post reported that Nelson, Jenny Beth Martin, and Adam Brandon were leading an effort to organize a group of businesspeople to help Trump “jump-start” the economy in the depths of the Covid epidemic. Nelson continued her efforts over 2020 and doubled down after the Biden’s victory.

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From December 2 to 4, 2020, ALEC hosted a secret “process working group” for Republican state legislators, election commissioners, and attorneys to develop strategies on election oversight and redistricting. In July 2021, ALEC hosted and financed an “academy” under the rubric of the “Honest Elections Project” in conjunction with its annual meeting, with panels featuringCleta Mitchell and other CNP strategists.Nelson offered a preview of their project to rewrite election laws at the CNP’s May 2021 meeting: “We’ve been targeting our efforts on those states that have had issues—Pennsylvania, Michigan, Arizona, Florida to a certain degree.” Currently, Republicans control 30 state legislatures, including Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. If successfully implemented, the independent state legislature initiative could determine the outcome of the 2024 elections, regardless of the popular vote.

Daniel J. Schultz

Attorney and founder, Precinct Strategy

Schultz was an early proponent of the idea that Republican-controlled legislatures could overturn election results—later promoted as the “independent state legislature doctrine.” In some interpretations, Republican-controlled state legislatures could nullify the popular vote and send their own electors to put Trump in office. The key to his strategy? Purging from the Republican Party inconveniently ethical officials like Brad Raffensperger, starting at the precinct level. “We can take over the party if we invade it,” Schultz told Steve Bannon on his podcast in February 2021. Over the following months, there was a surge in candidates for precinct chairman positions across the country. Schultz has pointed to the strategy’s success in Arizona as a model. ProPublica reported that in one Maricopa district, the precinct roster grew by 63 percent in less than six months. Schultz’s website asks: “Can we get 3/10 of 1% of the 74 M Trump America Firsters to Become Republican Precinct Committeemen? To TAKE OVER The Republican Party? To Save the Republic?” He points out that precinct committeemen are the ones who elect the state party leaders and are the only ones who can vote to endorse primary candidates; in some states, they are the only ones who can nominate candidates to fill vacancies in state legislatures. The logic is that full slates of pro-Trump precinct chairs could guarantee pro-Trump candidates on the Republican state-level ballots in 2022, who could be activated to enact the independent state legislature doctrine in 2024—subject to judicial review. Donald Trump approves. On February 27, 2022, he issued a statement endorsing ­Schultz’s project.

Anne Nelson @anelsona

:{

Anne Nelson is the author of Shadow Network: Media, Money, and the Secret Hub of the Radical Right}:. She has taught at Columbia University for over 20 years and is currently a research scholar at Columbia’s Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies.

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https://news.yahoo.com/attorneys-remade-supreme-court-now-110017179.html

no lnx many

lawyers for Trump: These lawyers remade the Supreme Court. Now they're fighting to limit voting.

Lisa Riordan Seville and Sally Bronston

November 1, 2020·

Way back in February, before the pandemic, the lockdowns and the epic lines at polling places, election officials in the battleground state of Michigan got a letter. It said voter registration in 19 counties was "abnormally" high, indicating that they weren't maintaining their rolls.

"Michigan's failure to provide accurate voter rolls violates federal law [and] jeopardizes the integrity of the upcoming 2020 federal election," the letter warned. If officials didn't clean up rolls "bloated with ineligible voters," they'd be taken to court.

:{The group spearheading the letters, called the Honest Elections Project, describes its mission as a nonpartisan effort to fight fraud, protect every American's right to vote and instill faith in the electoral process.

"Elections should be above the political fray," Executive Director Jason Snead told NBC News. "We're talking about elections from a point of principles, not politics."}:

Behind Snead's group, however, is a network that includes some of Washington's most powerful conservative figures, with close ties to the Republican Party and the Trump administration. Hundreds of pages of financial records and other documents, some not previously reported, lead back to Leonard Leo, an adviser to President Donald Trump and former executive vice president of the influential conservative legal group known as the Federalist Society.

Although he doesn't hold public office, Leo has spent three decades helping to shift the American judiciary, including the Supreme Court, to the right. Now his network, backed by millions of dollars in untraceable "dark money," is working to reshape the American vote.

Alongside lawyers who also work for the Republican National Committee, Leo and his team during this election cycle have teed up lawsuits about voter rolls, run ads and filed court briefs to support litigation against mail-in voting. Leo is also on the advisory board of Lawyers for Trump, which is recruiting a battalion of lawyers ready to go to court in the wake of the election.

Whatever the outcome of the race, some see Leo's efforts as part of a longer-term strategy by conservatives to hold onto power in the face of demographic shifts that aren't going their way.

"It's a small circle of Republican advisers and donors who are all wrapped up in the same project," said David Daley, the author of "Ratf**ked," a book about gerrymandering, and a senior fellow at FairVote, which advocates for electoral reform. "The project is using redistricting, voting rights and the courts to ensure long-term Republican power."

:{Since 1988, Republicans have won the popular vote in a presidential election just once, in 2004. In March, Trump said on Fox & Friends that if the $3.6 billion congressional Democrats had requested to support elections during the pandemic had been approved, "you'd never have a Republican elected in this country again."

"The president always says the quiet part out loud," said Sarah Longwell, a veteran Republican political strategist who broke with the party to co-found Republican Voters Against Trump.}:

Longwell pushes back against the idea touted by some liberals that the GOP has been engaged in a long-term effort to disenfranchise voters.

She spent years in Republican circles, she said, and "never heard anybody talk about suppressing the vote." But in this cycle, she said, "the lengths a lot of the Republicans are going to affect voting, those to me do look suppressive. Nakedly suppressive."

'Bloated' voter rolls

In June, the Honest Elections Project made good on its threat over voter rolls, joining a local conservative activist to file suit in Michigan. Trump won the state by just 12,000 votes in 2016, the thinnest margin in the country.

Michigan's Democratic secretary of state, Jocelyn Benson, who is fighting the lawsuit, rejects the characterization of state rolls as "abnormally" high. A spokesperson for her office said the project's methodology, which compares current voter registrations to slightly older population estimates, "misleads the public and misunderstands our nation's laws."

"The goal is 100 percent voter registration, and any suggestion otherwise is antithetical to democracy," the spokesperson said. "Michigan's registration rates are strong because we have had one of the best motor-voter systems in the country."

Snead rejected claims that the suit seeks to suppress the vote, pointing out that Michigan now allows same-day voter registration.

"I would strongly object to the notion that we're trying to stop people from voting when we're talking about cleaning up voter rolls," Snead said. "What we're talking about should be no more controversial than throwing out a spoiled container of yogurt."

Michigan is among at least six swing states that have faced litigation this year over their voter rolls from conservative groups who said keeping voter rolls "clean" protects against election fraud. Voting rights advocates describe them as "purges" that disenfranchise low-income, minority and young voters, who tend both to move more and to vote Democratic.

In a statement, the Trump campaign's deputy national press secretary, Thea McDonald, said: "President Trump has clearly and consistently advocated for stable, understandable rules that will give every American faith in the election's results.

"Democrats have duped the mainstream media into advocating for states to ignore the fact that their voter rolls are inaccurate and outdated," McDonald said, "so that there are tens of thousands unclaimed ballots out there for harvesters to snatch and illegally cast, diluting the will of every eligible voter."

The rolls should be kept up to date, experts said, but officials need to weigh the risk of fraud against that of disenfranchisement.

"There's very, very little evidence of voter fraud based upon voter rolls," said Paul Rosenzweig, a security expert and senior fellow at the R Street Institute, a right-leaning think tank. "There's a lot of evidence that purging voter rolls ends up purging legitimate voters."

Claims of widespread voter fraud have been largely debunked by experts, including Trump's own commission. The organization perhaps best known for asserting them is the Heritage Foundation, whose voter fraud database Snead managed before he moved to the Honest Elections Project. Last year, he was also in Heritage's private election fraud briefing with Republican secretaries of state and active members of the Justice Department, as ProPublica first reported.

While Snead insists that his organization doesn't fight for either party, the lawyers working with him are also leading the Republicans' legal battle over rules for the 2020 contest.

:{

William S. Consovoy, a former clerk to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas,}: is the head of a boutique Washington, D.C., law firm whose clients include the Republican National Committee and the Trump campaign. His firm has been paid $2 million this year for legal work on behalf of the Republican National Committee and the campaign, according to election filings, which included litigation against mail-in voting in Wisconsin. He is also one of Trump's private attorneys.

Before helping Trump with his fight to keep his financial records secret, Consovoy was on the winning side of the Supreme Court case that gutted a key section of the Voting Rights Act, which had prevented areas with histories of racial discrimination from changing their voting rules without federal approval.

Jason Torchinsky, listed as a plaintiff's counsel on the Michigan lawsuit with Consovoy, is a well-known lawyer for conservative dark money groups, including several linked to Leo. He has also represented the Republican National Committee in the past, and he is general counsel for the National Republican Redistricting Trust, the GOP group gearing up to do battle over redrawing state legislative and House district maps in 2021. In September, he represented Pennsylvania's GOP state senators in their unsuccessful Supreme Court petition to block the state's counting of late mail-in ballots.

Further behind the scenes is Leo. A dapper Washington figure who wears distinctive round glasses, he has played a role in placing every one of the six conservative justices on the Supreme Court. In 1991, two years out of law school, he helped prep Thomas for his confirmation hearings.

This year, Leo's network helped to push the confirmation of the court's newest member, Justice Amy Coney Barrett. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died Sept. 18, creating a vacancy. Leo's network immediately pledged to spend millions to advocate for Trump's right to fill the vacancy before the election.

The White House said in a statement that Barrett and Leo didn't speak "after the vacancy arose."

"As President Trump has said, he has no more solemn obligation and no greater honor than to appoint Supreme Court Justices and, as such, it was his decision alone to nominate this well-qualified jurist," White House deputy press secretary Judd Deere said.

Should the election go to the high court, as many think it will, the justices Leo helped to seat will decide it.

Soft power

Leo's influence came from his position at the top of the Federalist Society, which he was instrumental in building. Thirty years ago, the organization was a scrappy island for conservatives in what they viewed as a sea of left-leaning legal institutions. Today, its 70,000 members range from law school students and leading legal scholars to Supreme Court justices and Trump's personal attorneys.

The Federalist Society doesn't litigate or take policy positions. It doesn't have to, because its members have come to occupy positions of power across the legal landscape, said Steven Teles,a political science professor at Johns Hopkins University who wrote a book about the conservative legal movement.

"That's where a lot of the power comes from," he said. "It can coordinate, even in an informal way, across boundaries that government often tends to stovepipe."

Leo moved smoothly across those borders. When a seat on the Supreme Court opened up under a Republican president, he'd take leave from the Federalist Society to organize "the outside coalition efforts," as he did with the confirmations of Justice Samuel Alito and Chief Justice John Roberts.

Until recently, he worked largely "behind the scenes," said Amanda Hollis-Brusky, an associate professor of politics at Pomona College in Claremont, California, and the author of a book about the Federalist Society. "Leo's influence really hasn't been fully felt until the Trump administration."

It began during the 2016 campaign, after the death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia that February.

Don McGahn, a longtime Federalist Society member who served as the Trump campaign's counsel and would become the White House counsel, realized early that the judiciary could help rally a fractured Republican Party behind a controversial candidate. He pulled together a tight team to talk with Trump about who should fill Scalia's seat.

In March 2016, Leo had a quiet meeting with Trump at McGahn's D.C. law firm, Jones Day. Soon after, the Trump campaign did something unheard of: It released a list of potential Supreme Court nominees, a signal to conservatives that he would do right by them with the judiciary.

"It ended up being the single biggest issue that brought Republicans home to someone they were largely troubled by," Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., told The New York Times.

Leo has always insisted that his mission is intellectual.

"I'm engaged in the battle of ideas, and I care very deeply about our Constitution and the role of courts in our society," Leo told The Washington Post in the paper's investigation into his work. "And I don't waste my time on stories that involve money and politics."

But money and politics have been crucial to his success.

The network

Not long after Trump's victory, Leo stood in the gilded lobby of Trump Tower after a meeting with the president-elect.

Beside him was Kellyanne Conway, Trump's campaign manager and counselor. Leo and Conway knew each other well. Her husband, George, was a longtime Federalist Society member; he has since become one of the right's most ardent "Never Trumpers." And according to ethics filings, in the year before she joined the administration, she did consulting work for at least seven companies and nonprofits with close ties to Leo.

In addition to Leo's role at the Federalist Society, where tax filings show he made about $400,000 a year, he was involved in a constellation of nonprofits and companies supporting conservative causes, fueled by tens of millions of dollars of largely untraceable cash.

For years, Leo's presence in this tangled web "was visible, but it wasn't official," said Anna Massoglia, a researcher at the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics, who first wrote about Leo's connection to the Honest Elections Project. "He's been effectively leaving breadcrumbs all over. It's just a matter of finding them and putting it together."

One of the most prominent of the interconnected groups was the Judicial Crisis Network, a Washington, D.C., nonprofit that has been the public relations machine supporting the nomination of conservative, originalist judges to the country's courts. The group has an office in the same building as the Federalist Society.

:{After Scalia died, the Judicial Crisis Network kicked into gear. Its $7 million campaign helped block President Barack Obama's nominee, keeping Scalia's seat open for the next president to fill.

In January 2017, the group announced that it would spend $10 million to back Trump's pick, who was soon revealed as Neil Gorsuch. Working with the Judicial Crisis Network were several figures who are now official partners in Leo's consolidated dark money network.}:

There was Greg Mueller, the head of powerful CRC Public Relations, who ran point, according to a news release. He serves with Leo on the board of the anti-abortion rights group Students for Life of America. Leo would later join Mueller at the firm.

There was also Gary Marx, a political strategist and Judicial Crisis Network senior adviser, who worked to build support in key states. Marx now leads the two main tax-exempt groups in Leo's new network, corporation filings show.

In 2018, the network rallied around the nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh, which survived the most contentious set of hearings since Thomas faced Anita Hill in 1991. McGahn, the White House counsel at the time, coached Kavanaugh, who disputed accusations that he had assaulted Christine Blasey Ford as a teenager.

Leo's network threw millions at the cause, including buying ads to pressure Democratic senators in red states to vote for confirmation.

CRC reached out to reporters offering quotations from former Kavanaugh clerks. The PR firm was, according to Politico, also behind an ultimately embarrassing effort to exonerate Kavanaugh by claiming that someone else might have assaulted Ford.

After Kavanaugh was confirmed, supporters gathered in the Senate's Mansfield Room for a private reception, Politico reported. Leo, Marx and Jonathan Bunch, Leo's right-hand man at the Federalist Society,were there.

Their quest undoubtedly was driven by a shared vision of the law and limited government. But it was also lucrative.

:{

All told, at least $330 million flowed through nonprofits linked to Leo from 2015 to 2018}:, according to an analysis by NBC News that built on a Washington Post tally done last year.

Millions flowed back to the men behind it. A company Leo owns in part received nearly $9 million, according to the tax filings of various nonprofits from 2016 through 2018. CRC, Mueller's company, brought in $9.3 million in that period.

During Trump's first term, Leo's network helped him confirm more federal judges than any other administration had done since Jimmy Carter's. In addition to three Supreme Court justices, Trump appointed 220 federal judges, including 1 of every 4 circuit court judges.

No compromises

Leo's network is prepared for whatever follows Election Day.

He began consolidating the existing strands this year. In January, he announced that he was leaving the Federalist Society to officially head up a push to spread "big money and expertise across the conservative movement," as Axios put it.

Leo implied that his effort was an answer to dark money groups on the left, which in 2018 outspent the conservative groups for the first time.

He surrounded himself with a familiar list of names, essentially making his role official in a network he'd helped create.

Leo became chairman of the newly branded CRC Advisors, Mueller's public relations firm. Bunch joined him.

:{To move the "big money," they revamped two tax-exempt organizations already in their network, with Marx at the helm.

One became The 85 Fund, the fiscal sponsor of the Honest Elections Project}:.

"The conservative movement is finally adopting some of the left's tactics, but the left is still spending far more," Marx said in a statement, pointing to the Arabella Advisors network, one of the largest left-leaning dark money networks. Like the Honest Elections Project, Arabella has said it is nonpartisan.

The Judicial Crisis Network became an entity underneath The Concord Fund.It has given more than $2 million to the Republican Attorney Generals Association, financial disclosures show. Some of that money has gone to pay consulting and research fees to CRC.

The Republican Attorney Generals Association backed Barrett's nomination to the Supreme Court. Several Republican attorneys general are also part of Lawyers for Trump, the group marshaling legal power for the election, which also includes Leo and Consovoy, the attorney for the Honest Elections Project suit in Michigan.

Leo didn't respond to an interview request or a detailed list of questions. Neither did Consovoy or Torchinsky, the other attorney on the Michigan suit.The Republican National Committee, for which both Consovoy and Torchinsky have worked, didn't respond to a query.

The Federalist Society, where Leo remains co-chairman of the board, reiterated that it doesn't "take a position on legislation, litigation, candidates for office or judicial nominees." The spokesman who sent that response is a senior vice president at CRC Advisors.

The support for conservative attorneys general could also be a sign of what's to come.

Attorneys general have mounted aggressive political challenges to Washington over the past decade. Republicans in Oklahoma and Texas challenged Obama's environmental regulations and the Affordable Care Act. Their Democratic counterparts banded to block Trump policy changes on immigration and cuts to food stamps.

"If Biden wins, Republican AGs in general are going to be a real thorn in the side of a Democratic administration, much like Democratic AGs have been for the Trump administration," said Paul Nolette, an associate professor of political science at Marquette University who runs a database that tracks litigation by attorneys general.

If they rally together to file multistate litigation, as state attorneys general increasingly do, they will have an advantage — the ability to "forum shop" for like-minded judges, choosing which states and which federal courts in which to file their cases. The Trump administration's appointments have broadened their options.

In a politically polarized landscape in which Congress is often gridlocked, policy fights are likely to land at the judiciary's feet. Some may like it that way.

"For partisans, it's an appealing avenue," Nolette said. "It doesn't force the two sides to come to a compromise."

Like an election, he said, a lawsuit is "largely win or lose."

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https://www.thedailybeast.com/how-right-wing-dark-money-is-trying-to-kneecap-the-biden-doj

NO LNX

OPINION

How Right-Wing Dark Money Is Trying to Kneecap the Biden DOJ

TIME TO FIGHT

A shadowy group is fighting DOJ appointees Vanita Gupta and Kristen Clarke. Their crime? Their desire to use their skills to defend Americans’ right to vote.

Sheldon Whitehouse

Published Mar. 22, 2021

OPINION

Someone is targeting Biden Justice Department nominees Vanita Gupta and Kristen Clarke with attacks. Why? Both nominees hold exceptional records as litigators and civils rights activists. The respect they’ve earned extends beyond the civil rights movement and progressives to law enforcement and leading conservatives. They ought to be consensus picks.

But pull back the curtain, and strategy and motive take shape. Gupta and Clarke are poised to use their skills to defend Americans’ right to vote, just as the Republican Party is going all in on voter suppression as its path to political victory in 2022.

Unraveling the strategy starts with the dark-money group running the ads: the so-calledJudicial Crisis Network (JCN).This group’s ordinary work has been to translate big donors’ money into political attack ads in the “Court capture” mission that set out to remake the Supreme Court to the donors’ advantage. JCN has placed more than 10,000 ads since 2012 in pursuit of that mission, and they’ve kept secret the identity of those big donors.

[Biden’s AG’s the Perfect Person to Clean Up Trump’s Cesspool

CLEANUP IN AISLE 5

Jay Michaelson]

In Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell’s court-packing machine, this Judicial Crisis Network spent $7 million to oppose President Obama’s Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland, and then spent another $10 million to boost Trump’s nominee Neil Gorsuch. JCN pledged $10 million or more for Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination. It spent $10 million in under two months to support Amy Coney Barrett’s bid. These campaigns were funded with tens of millions of anonymous dollars, primarily through four separate donations of at least $15 million. Those donations may well have been the same donor.

Eye-popping as that is, those millions are a tiny slice of the funding behind the overall dark-money operation. A 2019 Washington Post investigation revealed JCN is one of a web of front groups coordinated by Leonard Leo, the long-time executive vice president of the Federalist Society. The Post tracked more than $250 million in dark money flowing through Leo’s groups.

The groups see to the grooming and selection of reliable nominees, the lobbyists needed to shepherd nominees through confirmation, and the attack ads to motivate the confirmation votes. Then, more groups lobby the selected judges through amicus curiae briefs, signaling how their donors want the judges to rule.

The dark-money network has won an avalanche of victories for its donors. There are 80 partisan, 5-4 Supreme Court decisions that limit workers’ rights and access to reproductive health care, erode environmental protections, block commonsense gun safety laws, undermine civil rights, and protect corporations from courtrooms. It is an astounding 80-0 rout for big right-wing donors.

After The Washington Post exposed the $250 million operation, Leo stepped back from his Federalist Society role and turned up at a new organization improbably named the Honest Elections Project. This project began voter suppression work in political swing states like Florida, Nevada, Wisconsin, and Michigan that included: negative ads against Democrats; threatening letters to election officials challenging voter rolls; and a barrage of lawsuits seeking voting restrictions for November’s election.

“Trump’s cronies at the Justice Department showed dark-money donors the value of a captive Department that would look away from voter suppression schemes. ”

The media soon uncovered that the Honest Elections Project was a rebrand of the Judicial Education Project—which shared connections, donors, and aims with its sister group — yes, the Judicial Crisis Network. As a reporter for The Guardian observed, the Honest Elections Project melds two goals of the right-wing dark-money operation: first, pack the federal judiciary; and second, bring voting rights cases before the packed courts. Rigging elections through the courts is now a Republican judicial priority.

This brings us back to Gupta and Clarke. Gupta once ran the Civil Rights Division. She prosecuted hate crimes and human trafficking, promoted disability and LGBTQ rights, and fought discrimination in education, housing, employment, lending, and religious exercise. But most important, she challenged voter suppression. Gupta, if confirmed as assistant attorney general, will supervise the Civil Rights Division she once ran.

Accomplished civil rights attorney Clarke will fill Gupta’s former role running the Division and enforcing voting rights. The Honest Elections Project, kin to the Judicial Crisis Network, wants no part of these two women, because they will be strong, motivated leaders against unlawful voter suppression. They preferred Trump’s Civil Rights Division, which didn’t bring one single Voting Rights Act case until late May of 2020.

That’s the motive. The donor-approved Republican appointees to the Supreme Court may handcuff the Civil Rights Division with further judicial assaults on voting rights. But Trump’s cronies at the Justice Department showed dark-money donors the value of a captive Department that would look away from voter suppression schemes. As Republicans hinge their election strategy on keeping Americans from voting, an active Civil Rights Division is a deadly threat.

I get it. If I were a right-wing special interest group, the last thing I would want is these two experienced lawyers wielding the power of the Justice Department to defend voting rights. But for everybody else, these women are two appointments to applaud.

[TONY ORTEGA

Even Trump Can’t Make Sense of His Own Dark-Money Maze

https://www.thedailybeast.com/donald-trumps-dark-money-machine-america-first-policies-gets-a-makeoverand-new-owners

no lnx

Trump’s Dark-Money Machine Gets a Makeover—and New Owners

BILL OF GOODS

The dark-money machine that has funded Donald Trump’s political operation for years has almost completely turned over and was “sold.” Experts say that doesn’t really make sense.

Roger Sollenberger

Political Reporter

Updated Dec. 13, 2021 6:00AM ET / Published Dec. 12, 2021

EXCLUSIVE

While ex-President Donald Trump spent the last year licking his election wounds and consolidating power in the Republican Party, his allies were busy reconfiguring a constellation of outside spending groups that have helped bankroll his political movement for years.

Trump’s influential “dark money” machine appears to have almost entirely turned over, capping the overhaul off with the apparent sale of a pro-Trump nonprofit earlier this year, The Daily Beast has learned.

The changing of the guard at the nonprofit, formerly known as America First Policies, illustrates how difficult it is to get a clear picture of the outside money fueling Trump’s movement. It reflects a turbulent year within the circle of Trump’s top advisers and fundraising chiefs, but also casts another layer of opacity over millions of dollars in already obscured donations the group made to controversial far-right causes in 2020, as Trump fought to cling to the White House.

“Whatever your views of so-called ‘dark money’ may be, these groups are further obscuring money flows.”

— Lloyd Mayer, University of Notre Dame

Lloyd Mayer, an expert in nonprofit law at the University of Notre Dame, cast these anti-transparency developments as “troubling,” saying they strike at the heart of federal sunshine laws.

“Whatever your views of so-called ‘dark money’ may be, these groups are further obscuring money flows,” he said.

How the money flows was already in little danger of becoming too clear.

America First Policies,a nonprofit which does not have to disclose its donors, was the core of a pro-Trump dark money network, with an organizational scheme that seems confusing by design.

If you were looking for an illustration of how difficult it is to track how these groups operate, America First Policies offers a prime example.

According to IRS records first obtained by the Center for Public Integrity, America First Policies filed to change its name to America First Works in October. But on Friday, a spokesperson for America First Works told The Daily Beast it wasn’t a name change—America First Policies had been “sold” to America First Works “in a private deal” earlier this year, he said.

“This is a different organization, under completely new ownership,” the spokesperson said. He declined to reveal the selling price.

Asked about the sale, Mayer said he did not understand exactly what the spokesperson was trying to say.

“Nonprofits generally do not have owners as a matter of state law, so I am not sure what they mean by ‘sold,’” Mayer said. “Nonprofits can sell their assets, including their name, as long as they do so for fair market value,” he explained, but pointed out that in this instance, “the nonprofit itself would have received the proceeds.”

“Control of a nonprofit can change, but the persons originally in control generally cannot sell control, as they do not own an equity interest,” he continued, noting that the rules would also depend on where the nonprofit was incorporated and what its governing documents provide.

The sale also shows that the byzantine pro-Trump dark money machine is reconfiguring itself ahead of the 2022 midterms, as well as Trump’s possible candidacy in 2024.

[The GOP Dark Money Group Giving Big to White Supremacists

UNWORTHY CAUSES Roger Sollenberger]

According to tax records, Ashley Hayek is president of America First Works. Hayek’s LinkedIn page says she is also the “chief engagement officer” for the America First Policy Institute—another Trump-aligned group that sprung up earlier this year, and boasts a number of former administration and campaign officials on its roster.

It appears that the walls between the groups are thin. Last month, CNBC reported that America First Works has joined forces with AFPI, which is backing Trump’s lawsuit against social media companies.

Over the course of the year, these groups appear to have fully replaced the old infrastructure.

America First Policies was co-founded in 2017 by some of Trump’s top administration and campaign officials. It soon gave rise to a sister super PAC called America First Action, and the two entities were so close that they shared office space and even employees.

But in August, The Daily Beast reported that America First Action was also winding down, throwing its resources to the new Make America Great Again Action super PAC—a move which appears to have reflected the changing allegiances among Trump’s inner circle at the time.

All the confusion has one immediate upshot: It makes it even more difficult to understand who exactly is responsible for millions of dollars in shady grants that America First Policies doled out last year.

Those grants appeared in the tax report covering America First Policies’ activity last year, which was filed by America First Works and first obtained by the Center for Public Integrity. Some of the listed recipients have been tied to voter-suppression activity, and one of them is a hotbed for bigoted anti-LGTBQ rhetoric.

But paper trails vanish almost immediately, with some entities appearing to have evaded scrutiny after failing to file tax reports for several years—a pattern which raised concerns among experts in nonprofit law.

Robert Maguire, who tracks outside spending groups at government watchdog Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, said the filing illustrates how political machines like the Trump network can shield controversial affiliations from public view.

“The nature of what they’re doing is legal, but they’re also absorbing the expenses and establishing distance from the actions of groups that could be seen as controversial. It gives the party and the campaign plausible deniability,” Maguire told The Daily Beast.

[Dark-Money Group Paid Former Trump AG to Ask for Pardons

BEG YOUR PARDON

Roger Sollenberger]

Take one recipient—Vision America Mobilized, a nonprofit which got half a million dollars from America First Policies last year, according to its tax filing.

Despite that donation, no group called “Vision Mobilized America” appears in the IRS database. That’s because the entity changed its name several years ago, to Million Voices Inc, a faith-based organization headquartered in Texas which does not appear to have filed with the IRS since 2016, according to the agency’s public database.

Mayer explained that groups sometimes change names to slough off negative publicity, allowing them “to distance themselves from bad press.” He noted that white supremacist groups—such as Identity Evropa—have tried this strategy.

And it turns out that Vision America Mobilized does indeed carry a dark past. But by listing the wrong name, America First Works blew the group’s cover—and possibly its own.

Vision America’s founder, Texas-based pastor Rick Scarborough, has a history of bigoted anti-LGBTQ statements. In 2013, he floated the idea of a class-action lawsuit against the gay community for “subjecting people to becoming AIDS sufferers.” Two years later, Scarborough—who once threatened to light himself on fire if the Supreme Court legalized gay marriage (spoiler: he did not)—called AIDS “God’s judgment on a sinful generation,” according to video posted by Right Wing Watch.

Scarborough is listed as a board member on the disclosure that Million Voices filed in 2016. He’s also a director for another nonprofit at the same address, called Vision America Action, whose last available tax return is from 2018.

However, Million Voices hasn’t filed a tax return since 2016. The IRS automatically revokes a group’s tax status if they fail to file returns for three years. Still, the disclaimer on its donations portal claims the group is registered with the IRS as a 501(c)3 tax-exempt organization.

“I don’t know why this organization hasn’t had their status revoked,” Mayer said, upon reviewing the filings. “The IRS has over the years revoked hundreds of thousands of groups based on the three-year statute. The only speculation is that the IRS is so overwhelmed and under-resourced that, together with the demands of getting money out the door for COVID relief last year, it has fallen behind on this task.”

The America First Works spokesperson declined to comment on the grants, and, upon divulging the recent sale, referred questions back to America First Policies.

The Daily Beast reached out to Brian Walsh, former head of America First Policies, who declined comment. Million Voices did not respond to a request for comment.

“The IRS is terrible at keeping track of entities supposed to be filing tax returns,” Maguire said. “You can have these shell groups where, if the IRS did conduct some analysis, they might find they’re in violation. But when they do go after them, the IRS often gets accused of some sort of political witch hunt, so it shies away from that activity.”

The group’s largest gift, about $4.8 million, went to a conservative dark-money clearinghouse called Donors Trust. It appears to have been earmarked for something called the “Honest Elections Project,” a dark-money group which has been tied to voter suppression efforts. (Its website domain was at one point apparently quite open about this goal: hardtovote.honestelections.org.)

Last year, the Honest Elections Project also filed an amicus curiae brief with the Supreme Court laying out a scheme in which state legislatures could unilaterally overturn election results.

[How Right-Wing Dark Money Is Trying to Kneecap the Biden DOJ

TIME TO FIGHT Sheldon Whitehouse]

However, the Donors Trust filing does not show contributions adding up to anything like America First’s $4.8 million—the Honest Elections Project only got $170,000, per the filing.

Asked about this discrepancy, the America First Works spokesperson replied, “Huh.”

But this trail twists again. Donors Trust reported that all its grants to the Honest Election Project had actually gone through another group first, The 85 Fund.But even that relationship is misleading—documents obtained by the Center for Responsive Politics show that The 85 Fund actually is the Honest Elections Project.

That relationship is a cakewalk compared to another voter-suppression group America First Policies supported last year—a flat $2 million contribution to an “election integrity” group calledBe Counted, with almost no public footprint whatsoever.

Outside of a CREW report from 2016, which details a voter-shaming campaign which individuals and local officials described at the time as “creepy” and “a form of intimidation,” Be Counted appears in hardly any press. The group appears tied to the Republican Governors Association, according to its most recent IRS filing, from 2019, which lists a slate of directors affiliated with the RGA.

But it turns out that, like Million Voices, Be Counted also appears to have changed its name. In 2019, it became Be Registered LLC, but with no 2020 tax filing on the books for either group, it’s unclear whether America First Policies contributed yet again to a group under an incorrect name.

Yet another beneficiary, Ohio-basedMoms for America, has also not filed a return since 2018. Moms for America held Trump rallies ahead of the election, and helped organize the “Save the Republic” rally by the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 5. It got $100,000 from America First last year.

Of course, the Trump money machine has never been easy to follow. But the connections appear even blurrier now that Trump is out of office. And thanks to IRS filing deadlines, voters may not know what these groups are currently up to until next November, after the midterms.

“Timing matters,” Mayer said. “The longer it takes for the information to come out, the less it’s on the public’s mind. And by delaying flings and obscuring who these groups are, that information only gets older and colder and staler. Even if it all comes out accurately and on time in 2022, it still may not make the news.”

===

:{

https://www.exposedbycmd.org/**2021/11/**16/alec-academy-featured-a-whos-who-of-voter-suppression-leaders/

an “Academy” for state lawmakers on voter suppression strategies run by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) in July featured a veritable who’s who of the right-wing leaders behind this year’s disinformation campaign about voter fraud and assaults on voting rights across the country, documents obtained by the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) show.

While the July 26-28 session was ostensibly led by the dark money group :{Honest Elections Project:(style="box-sizing:inherit"):}:, it was organized, hosted, and bankrolled by :{ALEC:(style="box-sizing:inherit"):}:, despite repeated claims by its CEO, Lisa Nelson, that the group does not work on voting issues.

Nelson provided the formal welcome at the conference’s opening session, ALEC staff organized turnout, and ALEC provided two nights of accommodations at the five-star Grand America Hotel, five meals, and a $450 travel reimbursement for attendees. ALEC’s annual meeting was held at the same hotel immediately after the Academy.

An invite published by CMD in July stated that “13 legislators from across the country” would be in attendance, but the materials acquired by CMD do not include an attendance list.

Rather than email materials to ALEC lawmakers that may be subject to open records laws, ALEC distributed hard copies of the agenda at registration along with a “zip drive containing a resources document and a one-pager on your state’s election policies,” according to an email from Sarah Wall, ALEC’s manager of legislative outreach and coalitions, obtained by CMD. Wall’s email also lists Michael Bowman, president of ALEC Action, as a key contact for the event.

Nelson tipped her hand about ALEC’s voter suppression subterfuge in May at a meeting of the far-right Council for National Policy. of the event obtained by CMD shows Nelson speaking frankly about ALEC’s work on voting and revealing its plans to outsource model policy on the controversial topic to avert the spotlight. “We don’t have model policy. We will be developing that at the *Honest Elections Project [Academy], through them,” Nelson said.

Honest Elections Project, the group ALEC chose to carry the ball on its voting agenda, is a dark money operation formed in February 2020 to push for voting restrictions and spread :{baseless and dangerous claims:(style="box-sizing:inherit"):}: about election fraud, laying the groundwork for Trump’s attempt to overturn the election. It is a project of The :{85 Fund:(style="box-sizing:inherit"):}:, the new legal name for the Judicial Education Project, a group linked to :{Leonard Leo:(style="box-sizing:inherit"):}: that played a central role in Trump’s effort to pack the federal judiciary with right-wing judges.

Speakers at the Academy featured many of the key strategists and leaders on the Right spreading misinformation around voter fraud, promoting Trump’s lies around the 2020 election, and pushing sweeping new voting restrictions.

Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita gave the keynote address. A :{proponent:(style="box-sizing:inherit"):}: of Trump’s Big Lie that the election was stolen, Rokita recently :{testified:(style="box-sizing:inherit"):}: in front of the U.S. Senate against strengthening the federal Voting Rights Act.

Rokita was one of only four state attorneys general to not sign a National Association of Attorneys General :{letter:(style="box-sizing:inherit"):}: condemning the Jan. 6 violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, and is a member of the Republican Attorneys General Association (RAGA). RAGA was a member of the “March to Save America” coalition that organized the Jan. 6 rally, and its policy arm, Rule of Law Defense Fund, sent out robocalls urging supporters to “march to the Capitol building and call on Congress to stop the steal.”

Agenda Focused on Election Legislation

Most of the Academy sessions focused on legislation, giving legislators a chance to discuss bills to restrict voting that have already been introduced and passed in their states this year and hear from Republican-aligned leaders about what more they think needs to be done.

By the timeALEC held its voter suppression Academy in July, 18 states had already passed :{30 laws:(style="box-sizing:inherit"):}: this year making it harder to vote, according to the Brennan Center for Justice.

The Honest Elections Project’s Executive Director Jason Snead, who worked with ALEC to organize the event, laid out “priorities for election integrity across the states” and polling results in a breakfast session and appeared on another panel on how to “shore up” legislative control over election processes with Jason Torchinsky and Lee Goodman.

The Honest Elections Project has aggressively promoted a radical legal theory called the “independent state legislatures doctrine,” which holds that state courts don’t have the authority to review state election laws and would empower heavily gerrymandered state legislatures to determine election outcomes.

Republican legislators have already introduced and passed bills in 2021 “interfering with nonpartisan local election administration and consolidating power to administer and determine elections results themselves,” the Voting Rights Lab reported.

Snead is a former senior policy analyst with the Heritage Foundation where he developed its Election Fraud Database, which the Brennan Center for Justice says “grossly exaggerated” the extent of voter fraud. 

Torchinsky is general counsel for the National Republican Redistricting Trust and has been defending ALEC against CMD’s state complaints alleging that ALEC illegally gave sophisticated voter management campaign software linked to the Republican National Committee to its legislative members.

Goodman is an elections attorney and a former Republican chairman and commissioner of the Federal Election Commission (FEC) between 2013 and 2018.

Jessica Anderson, the executive director of Heritage Action, and Ken Blackwell, executive director of the :{MAGA voter suppression center:(style="box-sizing:inherit"):}: at America First Policy Instituteled another legislative session on “securing absentee ballots.” 

Anderson bragged to Heritage donors in April that policies, “severely restricting mail ballot drop boxes” and “preventing election officials from sending absentee ballot request forms to voters” were among recommendations Heritage gave Georgia for its massive voter suppression bill.

Blackwell’s Center for Election Integrity recently published a “Top 25 Common-Sense State Election Integrity Reforms” fact sheet that includes these Heritage recommendations alongside other extreme voter suppression wish-list items, such as eliminating no-excuse absentee ballots and requiring an affidavit for absentee applications.

Blackwell also moderated a panel at the Academy with state legislators “discussing election challenges they’ve faced in their own states.”

Another panel over breakfast covered “things to consider with implementation of laws” related to election day voter registration, “election observer protections,” and organizing seniors to work the polls. Chairman of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission Donald Palmer, a Trump appointee, and :{Cleta Mitchell:(style="box-sizing:inherit"):}:, chair of the Conservative Partnership Institute’s Election Integrity Network, led the session.

Mitchell is a Big Lie fueler and Trump legal advisor who lost her job at Foley & Lardner following news that she participated in a January call in which Trump asked Georgia election officials to “find” enough votes to make him the winner of the state’s electoral votes.

“On Dec. 30, Cleta Mitchell wrote to White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and offered to send some 1,800 pages of documents purporting to support claims of election fraud,” The Washington Post Magazine :{reported:(style="box-sizing:inherit"):}:. Meadows is now a colleague of Mitchell’s at the Conservative Partnership Institute.

Three Republican secretaries of state, Tennessee’s Tre Hargett, Kentucky’s Michael Adams, and West Virginia’s Mac Warner, spoke on a panel about “what policies the states need to employ to make it easier to vote and harder to cheat.”

“Easier to vote and harder to cheat” has been a favored talking point of Republicans in recent years.

All three are active in the :{R**epublican Secretaries of State Committee**:(style="box-sizing:inherit"):}:(RSSC), with Hargett serving as chair and Adams as vice chair. Republican secretaries of state produced a report on “Best Practices for Making It Easier to Vote and Harder to Cheat” for the Republican State Leadership Committee, obtained by CMD. 

The RSSC holds monthly calls that Commissioner Palmer often attends. Secretary Warner and Palmer also participated in an “off-the-record” Election University session on June 21 as part of the U.S. House GOP’s “Faith in Elections Project,” as first :{reported:(style="box-sizing:inherit"):}: by CMD.

ALEC Lawmakers Consider Litigation

ALEC’s Academy featured two panels on litigation. The first dealt with “anticipating challenges to the Voting Rights Act in Arizona,” legal challenges mounted by Democratic voting rights attorney Marc Elias, and redistricting fights, and was led by with Republican lawyers Torchinsky, Michael Thielen, and Brian Barnes.

Thielen is the executive director of the Republican National Lawyers Association and served on the national board of Lawyers for Trump in 2020. Barnes was involved in legal challenges to changes in voting procedures in North Carolina and Pennsylvania last fall.

Goodman and Utah’s former Solicitor General Tyler Green led the second panel on “operationalizing litigation challenges.” Noted in the description of the panel are “ways to challenge the scope of litigation attacks on new election integrity legislation (defense) as well as advance the ball on election integrity (offense).”

As of Oct. 3, “at least 43 voting cases have been filed in 12 states, and Georgia and Texas lead the way with ten new lawsuits each in 2021,” the Brennan Center reports.

Training Sessions on “the Left”

Two trainings focused on “the Left” filled out the remaining agenda at the ALEC Academy. Hans von Spakovsky, senior legal fellow and manager of the Heritage Foundation’s “Election Reform Initiative,” and Ken Cuccinelli, former Trump staffer and chairman of the Election Transparency Initiative, led a session focused on “the Left’s attack on our election system” through “state-level attacks on election integrity legislation” and HR 1, the sweeping voting rights and campaign reform bill pending in Congress. 

Spakovsky, who was appointed by Trump to his voter fraud myth from the Right for well over a decade....>Capital Research Center

}: Scott Walter gave the keynote for a “Mapping the Left Lunch.” Walter and CRC received funding from the Bradley Foundation [“Influence Watch.” The site was “constructed in partnership with Berman and Company,” run by PR spin doctor Richard Berman, and in collaboration with ALEC...igor salon](https://www.exposedbycmd.org/2017/12/20/influence-watch-website-launched-berman-alec-heartland-copy-cmds-sourcewatch-org-site;inspired%20by%20CMD’s%20SourceWatch,%20called)

https://www.alternet.org/2021/10/glenn-youngkin-2655355138/

A billionaire Trump donor who funded a group that marched on the Capitol ahead of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot is bankrolling a dark-money group boosting Virginia Republican gubernatorial candidate Glenn Youngkin's attacks on Democratic opponent Terry McAuliffe.

The Republican-aligned Restoration PACthis week launched attacking McAuliffe, who served a previous term as governor, over crime rates. (Virginia's unusual term limits restrict governors to one term, but does not bar them from running again after leaving office.) The PAC has spent $1.767 million funding ads against McAuliffe, making it by far the largest independent expenditure group in the race.

The group is funded almost entirely by Republican mega-donor Richard Uihlein, co-founder of the Wisconsin shipping supply giant Uline. Uihlein contributed $24.5 million to the group in the 2020 election cycle, making up 97% of its funding, according to data from the Center for Responsive Politics. He put another $1.5 million into the group in May, according to FEC filings.

Uihlein and his wife Liz are among the biggest Republican donors in the country, having given more than $65 million to former President Donald Trump,Republican candidates and conservative groups since 2019. The Uihleins have also contributed $4.3 million over the past five years to theTea Party Patriots, including $800,000 in October 2020, making them by far the group's biggest donors.

The Tea Party Patriots participated in the "March to Save America" rally that preceded the Capitol riot and were one of 11 groups listed as part of the "#StopTheSteal coalition," according to WBEZ. The group also contributed to Rep. Mo Brooks, R-Ala., who was accused by "Stop the Steal" organizer Ali Alexander of helping plan the rally, which Brooks has denied. Tea Party Patriots also contributed to Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Josh Hawley, R-Mo., who led objections to the certification of Electoral College results in the Senate.

Restoration PAC last month also gave $942,000 to Women Speak Out Virginia — 2021, a PAC affiliated with the anti-choice Susan B. Anthony List that launched a $1.4 million campaign to attack McAuliffe on abortion.

Uihlein's foundation also contributed $275,000 to Trump booster Charlie Kirk's Turning Point Action between 2014 and 2016. The group was listed as a participant in the Capitol protest and Kirk took credit for "sending 80+ buses full of patriots to DC to fight for this president" in a since-deleted tweet.

Turning Point Action also previously received $50,000 from the Judicial Crisis Network, a conservative dark-money group that helped Trump fill federal courts with conservative judges and is pushing to restrict voting. The group also funds the Republican Attorneys General Association (RAGA), giving it $2.1 million last October and a total of $12.7 million since 2014. RAGA's fundraising arm, the Rule of Law Defense Fund,sent out robocalls urging supporters to "march to the Capitol building and call on Congress to stop the steal" on Jan. 6.

The Judicial Crisis Network has multiple legal aliases it uses for other initiatives, including The Concord Fund and Free to Learn Action.That latter group has launched a $1 million ad campaign focused on "critical race theory" in schools, an issue Youngkin and other conservatives have seized on. The group is spending $1 million attacking McAuliffe for arguing that parents should not dictate school curricula.

The Judicial Crisis Network is also closely aligned and shares staff with the Judicial Education Project and its Honest Elections Project, a conservative initiative pushing voting restrictions. The Judicial Education Network is almost entirely funded by the Donors Trust, a dark-money group backed by the Koch network. Donors Trust in 2019 gave more than $20 million to at least a dozen groups who would later question the results of the election. Last year, the Honest Elections Project announced a six-figure ad campaign stoking fears of a "brazen attempt to manipulate the election system for partisan advantage" before the election even happened.

Youngkin has tried to walk a fine line on Trump's election lies as he tries to solidify his Republican base without alienating independent and suburban voters in the increasingly blue state. He refused to acknowledge President Biden's election victory while seeking the Republican nomination, doing so only after he had already triumphed over Republican rivals. And while Youngkin has said he would have voted to certify the election results, he is nonetheless calling for an "audit" of voting machines in Virginia (something the state already does) and boosting election conspiracy theorists.

Youngkin, the former CEO of the private equity firm the Carlyle Group, is also the primary funder of Virginia Wins, contributing $1 million to back Republican candidates in down-ballot races. The PAC has funneled tens of thousands to candidates who attended the Stop the Steal rally, organized transportation for others to attend the event, defended Capitol rioters or pushed election conspiracy theories, Mother Jones reported on Thursday.

Youngkin did not respond to a request for comment.

"It's no surprise that some of the most powerful, pro-insurrection dark money forces are rushing to Glenn Youngkin's side in this campaign," Manuel Bonder, a spokesman for the Virginia Democratic Party, said in a statement to Salon. "They are supporting Youngkin because he's all in on their agenda — and they have full confidence that if elected, Glenn will do exactly what Donald Trump says. He belongs nowhere near the governorship."

===

:{

}:

Cash matters, but O’Keefe’s personal connectionsare where the depth and seamlessness of this coordination with the Republican Party become truly apparent. They also offer a glimpse into the vast network that has formed to suppress the vote this fall—a network years in the making, of which Project Veritas is but a humble node.

Take litigator William Consovoy, the legal point man on many of the conservative-funded election integrity cases pursued during the Trump era. He is, like O’Keefe, a New Jersey native with a long history in local Republican politics. A former law clerk for Clarence Thomas, Consovoy is also reportedly a friend of Federalist Society Executive Vice President Leonard Leo, whose nephew David Maxham has been a friend of O’Keefe’s since their undergraduate years at Rutgers. (Maxham, naturally, was also invited to O’Keefe’s wedding.)

This year, Leonard Leo has stepped aside from day-to-day management of the Federalist Society to run a new conservative donor group, CRC Advisors, that is pouring money into Consovoy’s legal challenges in key battleground states across the country. CRC has been steering money into something called the “Honest Election­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­s Project,” a fictitious name filed in Virginia for Leo’s old group the Judicial Education Project,now officially called the 85 Fund. As The Guardian reported, 99 percent of the Judicial Education Project’s funding in 2018 was a single $7.8 million donation funneled through Donors Trust.guk?

With generous assistance from the Honest Election­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­s Project and the RNC, Consovoy’s firm Consovoy McCarthy PLLC has recently brought cases against the re-enfranchising of felons in Florida and sued to block California’s plans to deliver absentee ballots to all of the state’s registered voters.Consovoy has contributed to related motions filed in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Nevada, Michigan, and Texas, where Ken Paxton’s victory against mail-in voting in May earned praise from President Trump on Twitter. 

==

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https://www.axios.com/leonard-leo-crc-advisors-federalist-society-50d4d844-19a3-4eab-af2b-7b74f1617d1c.html

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conservative powerhouse Leonard Leo tells Axios that he'll step aside from the daily running of the Federalist Society to focus on a new venture — inspired by Arabella Advisers on the left — that will funnel big money and expertise across the conservative movement.

Why it matters: Leo is considered one of the most powerful conservatives in the country, playing a key role in shaping President Trump's selections for the Supreme Court and raising hundreds of millions of dollars to fill the nation’s courts with conservative judges.

• One of the first projects will be a "minimum of $10 million issue advocacy campaign focusing on judges in the 2020 cycle," Leo told Axios.
• The new venture will be called CRC Advisors. Leo will remain co-chair of the Federalist Society's board.

Behind the scenes: Leo told Axios that he and his business partner, conservative communications executive Greg Mueller, studied tax filings that led them to Arabella, a little-known yet powerful consulting firm that advises liberal donors and nonprofits about where to spend their money.

• Politico recently detailed its stunning reach and influence as part of "an unprecedented gusher of secret money" that "boosted Democrats and liberal causes in 2018."
• The liberal network involves an organization called "the Hub Project," first covered in depth by the New York Times, and a non-profit called the Sixteen Thirty Fund, which Politico reported "spent $141 million on more than 100 left-leaning causes" in the 2018 midterms. That spending was fueled by "massive anonymous donations, including one gift totaling $51.7 million."
• The network was tied to at least four dozen different trade names in 2018, "many of which have benign-sounding local titles like Arizonans United for Health Care and Floridians for a Fair Shake," per Politico.

Leo and Mueller told Axios that after studying Arabella's structure they were impressed — and saw the opportunity to build a replica on the right.

• A spokesperson for Arabella Advisors took issue with Leo’s comments characterizing Arabella as a partisan organization aligned only with causes on the left, telling Axios: "Arabella Advisors is a consulting business that supports philanthropy. It provides advice and implementation support to clients with very different ideological and political viewpoints and many clients for whom politics and policy are not areas of interest."

Between the lines: The new venture will go beyond the anonymous money networks they've already built and weaponized in the conservative legal movement movement.

• CRC Advisors will evolve out of Mueller’s existing conservative communications firm, CRC Strategies.
• Mueller and Leo say they plan to work withtwo existing non-profit groups, which will be rebranded as the Concord Fund and the 85 Fund, to funnel tens of millions of dollars into conservative fights around the country.
• The two men and their teams have plenty of experience raising and spending millions for judicial battles — including the recent fight to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court — but they want to expand this to other issues like deregulation at the state and federal level.

Go deeper:

• Leonard Leo attacks George Conway's "Checks and Balances" group
• How the Supreme Court will upend 2020

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