Skip to main content
Defend Our Country Digest

Defend Our Country Digest — October 4, 2022

By October 4, 2022No Comments

Driving the Day: 

Must Read Stories

DHS Warns Of Threats To Elections As Concerns About Misinformation And Insider Threats Increase 

  • Wall Street Journal: U.S. Warns of Security Threats Ahead of Midterm Elections: The midterm elections next month face a widening range and volume of domestic and international security threats, including foreign cyber operations, disinformation campaigns and rising threats of physical violence against election workers, U.S. officials said Monday. Many of the challenges present in the lead-up to the Nov. 8 election were consistent with the nature of threats faced in recent presidential and midterm cycles, officials said. The Biden administration hasn’t seen foreign actors specifically target U.S. election systems with cyber operations this year as they have done during past cycles, the officials said, but added that they were on guard for potential attacks in the coming weeks. Still, the diversity of issues, combined with a steep surge in reported physical threats, posed a heightened risk to a peaceful election process and public confidence in voting results, the officials from multiple federal agencies said.
  • Politico: Election Officials Confront A New Problem: Whether They Can Trust Their Own Poll Workers:  Election officials are growing concerned about a new danger in November: that groups looking to undermine election results will try to install their supporters as poll workers. The frontline election workers do everything from checking people in at voting locations to helping process mail ballots — in other words, they are the face of American elections for most voters. And now, some prominent incidents involving poll workers have worried election officials that a bigger wave of trouble could be on the horizon. 
  • The Atlantic: Bad Losers:  By the time November 3, 2020, arrived, Trump had already constructed his elaborate narrative of a rigged election. Republican leaders did little to keep their voters from falling for the president’s deception. In fact, most of them enabled and even participated in it. What began as a fringe movement after Bush v. Gore has spread into the GOP mainstream: Polls continue to show that more than half of all Republican voters believe that the 2020 election was stolen. They are acting on Trump’s lies, flooding into local party offices, demanding to be stationed on the front lines of the next election so they can prevent it from being stolen. They have nominated scores of candidates who deny the legitimacy of Biden’s victory; seven are running to become the chief elections official in their state. Several of these Republicans—Mark Finchem in Arizona, Kristina Karamo in Michigan—are hinting at administrative actions that would reverse decades of progress in making elections more transparent and accessible, in turn leaving our system more vulnerable. The great threat is no longer machines malfunctioning or ballots being spoiled. It is the actual theft of an election; it is the brazen abuse of power that requires not only bad actors in high places but the tacit consent of the voters who put them there.
  • CNET: This Is the Biggest Threat to Our Election System: The office of Ingham County Clerk Barb Byrum is being inundated with Freedom of Information Act requests.  The filings asking for the county records aren’t coming from the local media or even political candidates looking to dig up the voting records of their rivals. They’re being sent by seemingly regular people. What they all have in common is they’re looking for information about how the county conducted the 2020 presidential election. Most of the requests feature the same text, but the county is required by law to respond to each of them in a timely manner. So instead of focusing on the upcoming November elections, Byrum says, her staff is spending a large part of its time and resources to deal with one that was supposed to be settled two years ago. She isn’t alone. Election officials across the country have reported big spikes in FOIA requests. Most, like the ones Byrum has received, are clearly coming from supporters of former President Donald Trump who continue to promote the lie that the 2020 election was stolen. […] Elections officials say the spike in FOIA requests is just the most recent attack against the elections system at the state and local level from those who seek to undermine trust in the system for their own political gain. When people lose that trust, they don’t vote, or they vote for candidates they might not otherwise consider, they say. That could be especially disastrous in a non-presidential year like this one with generally lower voter turnout.

The Supreme Court Is Set To Hear Consequential Voting Rights Cases This Term 

  • Washington Post (Analysis): How The Supreme Court Could Give Republicans More Power With Elections: As conservatives on the Supreme Court plan to take on affirmative action and gay rights this fall, the court will also hear two gerrymandering-related cases that could give Republicans in particular much more power in determining how people vote, or even whose vote counts, in the 2024 presidential election. Here are the two big cases the court is looking at, and what they could mean for elections. Case No. 1: What does the law say about how to fairly represent minorities in redistricting?  What the justices might do: This is one of the first cases out of the gate as the court starts a new term; arguments begin Tuesday. The justices already decided to keep the questionable Alabama map in place for the midterms. Now, the court is likely to ask whether Alabama, or any state, needs to take race into account at all when drawing congressional districts.   […] Case No. 2: Could politicians have more control over how to run elections? What the justices might do: Seriously consider a once-marginal conservative theory that state legislatures alone — and no other structure of state power — have the ability to determine how elections are run.
  • Five Thirty Eight: The Supreme Court Is On The Verge Of Killing The Voting Rights Act: The beginning of the end for the Voting Rights Act started more than 30 years ago. On Oct. 4, the end of the end is likely to begin. This term, the Supreme Court is hearing a case about whether Alabama’s newly drawn congressional maps violate Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which prohibits voting practices or procedures that discriminate on the basis of race. In a seven-district state, the new maps included only one majority-Black district even though the state has a population that is more than one-quarter Black. The groups challenging the maps say that because it would be relatively easy to draw a map with two majority-Black districts, the state is legally obligated to do so. But Alabama Republicans countered by arguing they don’t have a requirement to use the plaintiffs’ maps, because creating a second majority-Black district would violate other race-neutral criteria used in redistricting. The justices’ ruling could have implications that go far beyond Alabama, potentially neutering what remains of the Voting Rights Act — a seminal piece of legislation that is ostensibly permanent yet constantly imperiled. 

Oath Keepers Trial Begins With Prosecutors Alleging The Group Sought To Overthrow The Government “By Any Means Necessary” On January 6 

  • CBS: Oath Keepers Acted On Jan. 6 To Overthrow Government And Fight Biden’s Presidency “By Any Means Necessary,” Prosecutors Say:  Leaders of the far-right Oath Keepers militia group worked to “shatter a bedrock of American democracy” when they planned and executed a coordinated attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, the Justice Department alleged in federal court Monday, on the first day of their trial. “They banded together to do whatever was necessary, up to and including using force,” prosecutor Jeffrey Nestler told a jury at the trial of five members or affiliates of the group charged with seditious conspiracy and other crimes stemming from their alleged involvement in the Capitol breach.  Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes and codefendants Kelly Meggs, Kenneth Harrelson, Jessica Watkins, and Thomas Caldwell were part of the group whose goal was to “stop by any means necessary the lawful transfer of power, including the taking up arms against the United States government,”  Nestler said, during the government’s opening argument.

New Records Revelations: A Trump Attorney Refused His February 2022 Request To Say All Documents Were Returned, National Archives Alerted Lawyers Of Missing North Korea Letters As Early As May 2021 

  • Washington Post: Trump Lawyer Refused Trump Request In February To Say All Documents Returned: Former president Donald Trump asked one of his lawyers to tell the National Archives and Records Administration in early 2022 that Trump had returned all materials requested by the agency, but the lawyer declined because he was not sure the statement was true, according to people familiar with the matter. As it turned out, thousands more government documents — including some highly classified secrets — remained at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence and private club. The later discovery of those documents, through a May grand jury subpoena and the Aug. 8 FBI search of the Florida property, are at the heart of a criminal investigation into the potential mishandling of classified material and the possible hiding, tampering or destruction of government records. Alex Cannon, an attorney for Trump, had facilitated the January transfer of 15 boxes of presidential records from Mar-a-Lago to the National Archives, after archives officials agitated for more than a year to get “all original presidential records” back, which they are required by law to do. Following months of stonewalling by Trump’s representatives, archives officials threatened to get the Justice Department or Congress involved. Trump himself eventually packed the boxes that were returned in January, people familiar with the matter said. The former president seemed determined in February to declare that all material sought by the archives had been handed over, said the people, who like others interviewed for this article spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal conversations.
  • CNN: National Archives Alerted Lawyers For Trump About Missing Letters With North Korean Leader In May 2021, Records Show:  The National Archives alerted lawyers for former President Donald Trump in May 2021 that Trump’s letters with North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un – and two dozen boxes of records – were missing, according to new correspondence the Archives released on Monday. Gary Stern, general counsel for the National Archives and Records Administration, wrote to former Trump White House lawyers Patrick Philbin, Mike Purpura and Scott Gast on May 6, 2021, alerting them that the letters Trump had exchanged with Kim and the letter he received from his predecessor, President Barack Obama, were missing, according to the correspondence released Monday in response to dozens of Freedom of Information Act requests. In the email, Stern asked for the lawyers’ help to ensure the Archives received all presidential records as required under law. “It is also our understanding that roughly two dozen boxes of original Presidential records were kept in the Residence of the White House over the course of President Trump’s last year in office and have not been transferred to NARA, despite a determination by Pat Cipollone in the final days of the Administration that they need to be,” Stern wrote. “I had also raised this concern with Scott during the final weeks.”

In The States 

MICHIGAN: Conspiracy Theorists Set Sights On Monitoring Ballot Dropboxes 

  • Michigan Advance: Conspiracy Theorists Flood The Election Process, Set Sights On Monitoring Ballot Drop Boxes:  In the 2020 presidential election, there were upwards of 150 poll workers in Detroit.  Then came the onslaught of right-wing conspiracy theories and lies that the 2020 election was stolen from former President Donald Trump – and the baseless claim that heavily Democratic Detroit had played a starring role.  In the wake of these lies, more than 400 Republican poll workers from throughout the state descended upon Michigan’s largest city, which is majority Black, for the August primary. […] And it’s not just polls that Republicans are determined to swarm on Election Day. As with Republicans nationwide, they’ve increasingly set their sights on ballot drop boxes in the weeks leading up to November’s election. The Macomb Republican Party, which was recently embroiled in ugly internal disputes over the control of the party, days ago called for Republicans to become “drop box monitors.”

MONTANA:  Judge Strikes Down GOP’s Restrictive Voting Laws 

  • Associated Press: Montana Judge Knocks Down Republicans’ Tighter Voting Laws: A Montana judge struck down as unconstitutional three laws that restricted voting in the state, saying there was no evidence of the widespread voter fraud that the 2021 Republican-sponsored laws ostensibly were targeting. The laws ended same-day voter registration, imposed new identification requirements on students and restricted third-party ballot collections. The restrictions were put on hold in April under a temporary injunction later upheld by the Montana Supreme Court. Election officials declined to say if they would appeal the latest ruling to the state high court. And with the election just over a month away, it’s uncertain if justices would render a decision before Nov. 8. Native American tribes that sued over the laws argued the student ID and ballot collection measures would hurt voters on remote reservations, where many people live far from polling places and are dealing with poverty and other challenges. Montana Secretary of State Christi Jacobsen, who oversees elections in the state, requested the voting measures last year as Republicans around the country changed voting laws in the wake of the November 2020 election. The moves followed claims made by former President Donald Trump and parroted by his supporters that the election was stolen.

What Experts Are Saying

Michael Luttig, a former federal judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit: “The Supreme Court will decide before next summer the most important case for American democracy in the almost two and a half centuries since America’s founding. In Moore v. Harper, the Court will finally resolve whether there is a doctrine of constitutional interpretation known as the ‘independent state legislature.’ If the Court concludes that there is such a doctrine, it would confer on state legislatures plenary, exclusive, and judicially unreviewable power both to redraw congressional districts for federal elections and to appoint state electors who quadrennially cast the votes for president and vice president on behalf of the voters of the states. It would mean that the partisan gerrymandering of congressional districts by state legislatures would not be reviewable by the state courts—including the states’ highest court—under their state constitutions. Such a doctrine would be antithetical to the Framers’ intent, and to the text, fundamental design, and architecture of the Constitution.” The Atlantic

Rick Hasen, an election law expert and director of UCLA Law’s Safeguarding Democracy Project: “‘There are lots of places where people who don’t act in good faith could attempt to subvert election results,’ said Rick Hasen, an election law expert and director of UCLA Law’s Safeguarding Democracy Project. ‘It could be down to poll workers in a precinct or a governor who signs a bogus certification of electors.’ ‘The point is that our decentralization [of voting], which serves to be a strength in some ways, can also turn to be a weakness.’” Axios 

Ruth Ben-Ghiat, historian at New York University: “‘The secretaries of state are key and no one knows about them,’ said New York University’s Ruth Ben-Ghiat, author of ‘Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present.’ ‘These are figures who work in the background if democracy is robust.’” Axios 

Harry Litman, former US attorney, re: Washington Post reporting “Trump lawyer Alex Cannon declined in February to say all documents returned”: “Unless I’m mistaken, this is the first direct attribution to Trump of the direction to falsely attest to the docs’ return.  This could be killer testimony.” Tweet 

Joyce Vance, former US attorney: “If this reporting holds up, “Trump himself eventually packed the boxes that were returned in January,” his conduct would have been so egregious that DOJ will have to indict to maintain the rule of law-anyone else would be indicted, he must be too.” Tweet 

Headlines

The MAGA Movement And The Ongoing Threat To Elections

The Atlantic: The Next Presidential Election Is Happening Right Now in the States

McClatchy: ‘Call 911’: Trump’s ‘death wish’ post condemned by one McConnell ally. Others are silent.

New York Times: How a Tiny Elections Company Became a Conspiracy Theory Target

USA Today: FBI officials: No credible threats to US election systems ahead of midterms

January 6 And The 2020 Election

CNN: Supreme Court allows defamation lawsuit against MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell to proceed

Daily Beast: Man Behind Sketchy ‘Audit’ of Pennsylvania’s Voting Machines Has Ties to Failed Arizona Recount

NBC: Oath Keepers leader regretted not having guns on Jan. 6, prosecutors say at seditious conspiracy trial

Other Trump Investigations 

New York Times: Trump Sues CNN for Defamation, Seeking $475 Million

Opinion

The Atlantic (J. MIchael Luttig): There Is Absolutely Nothing to Support the ‘Independent State Legislature’ Theory

In The States 

AL.com: Alabama GOP chairman made the photo ID he used to vote

Arizona Republic: New poll shows Arizona voters believe in the election system