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Defend Our Country Digest

Defend Our Country Digest — July 29, 2022

By July 29, 2022No Comments

Driving the Day: 

Must Read Stories

More January 6 Texts Are Missing From Key DHS Officials 

  • Washington Post: Jan. 6 Texts Missing For Trump Homeland Security’s Wolf And Cuccinelli: Text messages for former President Donald Trump’s acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf and acting deputy secretary Ken Cuccinelli are missing for a key period leading up to the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, according to four people briefed on the matter and internal emails. This discovery of missing records for the senior-most homeland security officials, which has not been previously reported, increases the volume of potential evidence that has vanished regarding the time around the Capitol attack.

January 6 Committee Expands Inquiry Into Trump’s Cabinet And The Potential Use Of The 25th Amendment 

  • ABC: Jan. 6 Committee Interviews Mnuchin As Probe Expands Into Trump Cabinet: Sources: The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol is working to secure testimony from a growing number of officials in former President Donald Trump’s Cabinet, sources familiar with the matter tell ABC News. Trump’s former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who reportedly discussed the possibility of invoking the 25th Amendment as a vehicle to remove Trump from office with then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, recently sat with committee investigators for a transcribed interview, the sources said. ABC News previously reported that Pompeo is expected to speak with the committee in the coming days, though his interview is not officially scheduled.

As DOJ Probe Continues To Expand, Concerns Grow That Agency Resources Are At The Breaking Point 

  • NBC: As Jan. 6 Probe Expands, Officials Worry DOJ Resources Are At A Breaking Point: It’s the “most wide-ranging investigation” in Justice Department history: the unprecedented manhunt for hundreds of rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Donald Trump’s behalf on Jan. 6, 2021, and the criminal inquiry into efforts to stop the peaceful transfer of power. It’s also a logistical nightmare. As cases against Capitol rioters work their way through the court system and a federal grand jury hears testimony about Trump’s role in Jan. 6, some federal officials are raising concerns that it could bring the already stretched investigation of Jan. 6 to a breaking point. In conversations with NBC News in recent months, more than a dozen sources familiar with the sprawling Jan. 6 investigation expressed varying degrees of worry about whether the resources the Justice Department has allocated to the effort are sufficient for such a vast criminal investigation. 
  • New York Times: 2016 Campaign Looms Large as Justice Dept. Pursues Jan. 6 Inquiry:  As the Justice Department investigation into the attack on the Capitol grinds ever closer to former President Donald J. Trump, it has prompted persistent — and cautionary — reminders of the backlash caused by inquiries into Mr. Trump and Hillary Clinton during the 2016 presidential campaign. Attorney General Merrick B. Garland is intent on avoiding even the slightest errors, which could taint the current investigation, provide Mr. Trump’s defenders with reasons to claim the inquiry was driven by animus, or undo his effort to rehabilitate the department’s reputation after the political warfare of the Trump years. Mr. Garland never seriously considered focusing on Mr. Trump from the outset, as investigators had done earlier with Mr. Trump and with Mrs. Clinton during her email investigation, people close to him say. As a result, his investigators have taken a more methodical approach, carefully climbing up the chain of personnel behind the 2020 plan to name fake slates of Trump electors in battleground states that had been won by Joseph R. Biden Jr. That has now led them to Mr. Trump and his innermost circle: Justice Department lawyers are questioning witnesses directly about the actions of Mr. Trump and top advisers like his former chief of staff, Mark Meadows.

QAnon Conspiracy Theorists And Election Deniers Are Winning Republican Primaries Across The Country 

  • Grid: 15 QAnon-Linked Candidates Have Won Key Primaries In 2022. The GOP And Its Leaders Are Embracing Them: Halfway through this year’s primaries, at least 15 candidates linked to the QAnon conspiracy movement have advanced to November’s general elections for congressional or statewide offices, Grid has found. Deep-pocketed mainstream Republican groups and party leaders are pitching in to support many QAnon-linked candidates who have survived their primaries. More Q-linked politicians could advance in primaries over the next month, as elections are held in Arizona and Florida, where QAnon has appeared popular. One candidate linked to the fringe QAnon conspiracy movement has already won a congressional seat in the 2022 election cycle. 
  • NPR: Election Deniers Are Running To Control Voting. Here’s How They’ve Fared So Far:  Election officials and democracy experts are sounding the alarm, as Republicans who deny the 2020 election results have now moved closer to overseeing the voting process in five different states. Arizona could become No. 6 on Tuesday, when GOP voters there will decide in that state’s primary whether they want to nominate one of the two election deniers running for secretary of state. “These are the people who set the rules, who count the votes, and ultimately who are responsible for defending the will of the people,” said Joanna Lydgate, the executive director of States United Democracy Center, a nonpartisan organization that has been tracking election-denying candidates running for governor, attorney general and secretary of state nationwide. States United shared its most recent findings exclusively with NPR ahead of their release.

In The States 

NEVADA:  Nearly A Dozen Election Deniers Will Be On The Legislative Ballot In November 

  • KUNR: ‘Big Lie’ Candidates’ Primary Success Could Further Erode Democracy, Advocates Say: Hundreds of donors poured nearly a quarter million dollars into the primary campaigns of Nevada legislative candidates who publicly expressed support for the “Big Lie.” An examination of campaign finance documents by The Nevada Independent and KUNR revealed contributions made between January and June came from various sources: a conservative pro-business nonprofit, Republican Senate hopeful Adam Laxalt’s campaign committee, a sheriff’s deputy association, a cryptocurrency entrepreneur and numerous individual donors. The donations helped prop up the candidates, providing the financial backing for a growing movement taking place on both a national and local scale. Now, half of the candidates perpetuating the stolen election myth are moving on to the general election — and experts warn that could undermine democracy and be a precursor for rising extremism. […] Before the June primary election, 16 legislative candidates – representing about a third of all districts in the state – had promoted former President Donald Trump’s false allegations that widespread voter fraud marred the 2020 election, according to an analysis by The Nevada Independent and KUNR. Further reporting revealed an additional candidate supporting the “Big Lie” running in North Las Vegas’ Assembly District 11 — bringing the total number to 17, with 15 of those candidates running as Republicans, one as a Libertarian and one as a Democrat. Official election results show nine of those candidates (eight Republicans and one Libertarian) are moving on to the general election in November. Two of those nine candidates are running in a district that leans Democrat based on analyses of voter registration numbers. One is in a district that leans Republican, one in a district considered safe for Republicans and one in a safe Democrat district. The remaining four candidates are in swing districts that could favor Republicans if a predicted “red wave” occurs.

MICHIGAN: Trump Is Funding A Drive To Restrict Voting Rights In Michigan 

  • ABC: Trump PAC Made Large Donations To Michigan Group And Others Pushing Voting Restrictions Or False Election Claims:  As former President Donald Trump continues to push false claims of voter fraud in the 2020 election, his political action committee has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to organizations and candidates that are pushing to tighten voting laws or spread unproven claims of election fraud, new FEC filings show. Among the donations is a $150,000 payment to a little-known organization, Secure MI Vote, that’s spearheading a petition to clamp down on voting requirements in the state of Michigan, which Trump lost in 2020 after winning the state in 2016. The group’s director says the donation from Trump’s Save America PAC has been a big help.

WISCONSIN: Judge Rules Wisconsin Election Investigation Found “Absolutely No” Fraud 

  • Associated Press: Judge: Wisconsin Probe Found ‘Absolutely No’ Election Fraud: A Wisconsin judge said Thursday that a Republican-ordered, taxpayer-funded investigation into the 2020 election found “absolutely no evidence of election fraud,” but did reveal contempt for the state’s open records law by Assembly Speaker Robin Vos and a former state Supreme Court justice he hired. Dane County Circuit Judge Valerie Bailey-Rihn awarded about $98,000 in attorneys’ fees to the liberal watchdog group American Oversight, bringing an end in circuit court to one of four lawsuits the group filed. Vos’s attorney, Ron Stadler, said he was recommending that Vos appeal the ruling. The fees will be paid by taxpayers, which is why the judge said she was not also awarding additional punitive damages against Vos. Costs to taxpayers for the investigation, including ongoing legal fees, have exceeded $1 million.

WISCONSIN:  Abetted By A Trump-Supporting Sheriff, Right Wing Activists Commit Criminal Voter Fraud To “Make A Point” 

  • Washington Post: Wisconsin Anti-Voting-Fraud Activist Commits Voter Fraud To Make A Point: A Wisconsin man this week ordered absentee ballots for himself in the names of a mayor and top state lawmaker in what he says was an attempt to expose vulnerabilities in the state’s voting system. Harry Wait, who leads a group in southeastern Wisconsin that has focused on voting issues, said Thursday that he was willing to go to jail to prove his point. The stunt angered many state elections officials, especially those who have spent the last several years fighting baseless claims of widespread voter fraud. “I would be willing to take that hit for the country,” Wait said of facing jail time. “You can’t have ballots going all over the place, unsecured.” “I committed a crime when I did it,” he said, “but do you think criminals care when they do it?” Wait said he used the state’s online elections portal Tuesday to request absentee ballots for the Aug. 9 primary to be sent to his home in the names of Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R) and Racine Mayor Cory Mason (D). Wait has clashed with both of the officials repeatedly as the president of the group HOT Government, which takes its name from an acronym for “honest, open and transparent.” 
  • Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: After Residents Commit Voter Fraud To Make A Point, Racine Sheriff Seeks To End Online Ballot Requests Instead Of An Investigation: Racine County Sheriff Christopher Schmaling, who has campaigned for former President Donald Trump and has spread baseless claims of widespread voter fraud, was notified of a successful plot to commit voter fraud by a group of conservative activists who believe Trump’s 2020 election loss was illegitimate but the sheriff is blaming state election officials for the violations instead of pursuing charges against the offenders. Members of a Racine County-based group that promotes false claims of voter fraud in the 2020 election committed election crimes by submitting false information to obtain absentee ballots — in some cases posing as prominent officials, including Assembly Speaker Robin Vos — to show violations of the law are possible.  Instead of promising to investigate the crimes, Schmaling publicized the plot on social media as being helpful in rooting out vulnerabilities in the state election system and blamed the Wisconsin Elections Commission, calling on commissioners to remove a way voters can easily request ballots online.

What Experts Are Saying

Preet Bharara, former US attorney for the Southern District of New York: No Paywall: Interview With WaPo’s Carol Leonnig: What Does it Mean That DOJ is Investigating Trump? CAFE

Kim Lane Scheppele, Laurance S. Rockefeller Professor of Sociology and International Affairs at Princeton University and expert on Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán: “The Trumpist side of the Republican Party is coming for the rhetoric, but staying for the autocracy…I’m worried the attraction to Orban is only superficially the culture war stuff and more deeply about how to prevent power from ever rotating out of their hands.” Los Angeles Times 

Jeffrey C. Isaac, James H. Rudy Professor of Political Science at Indiana University, Bloomington: “The entire Republican party, up and down the ballot, with perhaps a handful of exceptions, is now a threat to democracy. And the party as a whole must [be] defeated in November and in 2024 if liberal democracy is to be preserved.” Common Dreams 

Headlines

The MAGA Movement And The Ongoing Threat To Elections

Associated Press: New USPS election division will oversee mail-in ballots

Washington Post: GOP Pa. governor nominee under fire for ties to white nationalist site

January 6 And The 2020 Election

CBS: Secret Service director to “briefly delay” retirement amid multiple investigations into agency

CBS: New Jan. 6 revelations prompt questions of legal hurdles for Trump

CNN: Trump DOJ official cooperating with Justice Department’s criminal Jan. 6 probe

CNN: Georgia GOP chair appears before Atlanta-area grand jury in election probe

NBC: Trump presses his claim of legal immunity from Jan. 6 lawsuits

Politico: Jan. 6 committee has a formal path to share investigative material with DOJ, its chair says

Politico: Jan. 6 committee tees up 20 witness transcripts for DOJ

WUSA: ‘Stop the Steal’ speaker Brandon Straka gave FBI info on rally organizers, more than a dozen others as part of plea deal

Other Trump Investigations

The Guardian: Paul Manafort admits indirectly advising Trump in 2020 but keeping it secret in wait for pardon

Opinion

The Bulwark (Frederick Hoxie and Dennis Aftergut): Who Would Staff a Second Trump Term?

Political Violence

New York Post: Lee Zeldin attacker remains in custody as court questions his mental health

Politico: Man who threatened Gaetz sentenced to six months home detention

Seattle Times: Seattle man charged with felony stalking for targeting U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal, prosecutors say

In The States 

Associated Press: Pen misinformation bleeds into Arizona primary

Associated Press: Colorado GOP primary losers ask for another recount

Axios: Robson bashes Lake, but not Trump, for election fraud claims

Washington Post: GOP’s Meijer voted to impeach Trump. Now Democrats are targeting him.

Washington Post: Rusty Bowers testified in D.C. Now he might lose his primary in Arizona.