This Week: While Investigations of Trump Intensified, State Politicians Continued To Undermine Elections
This week, federal investigations against former President Donald Trump intensified. Prosecutors investigating the mishandling of classified documents and obstruction of justice by the former president “issued a wave of new subpoenas” and obtained the “confidential cooperation” of an insider witness who was employed at Mar-a-Lago, while the special counsel investigating Trump’s role in the January 6th insurrection zoomed in on possible criminal charges.
State-level investigations against former President Trump continued as well. In New York, Trump’s lawyers tried to have the criminal case against him for falsifying business records related to an alleged “hush money payment” to porn star Stormy Daniels moved out of state court. In Georgia, where Trump is under investigation for attempting “to subvert the 2020 election,” eight of the 16 “so-called fake electors” who falsely tried to declare Trump the victor in the 2020 election accepted immunity, according to a court filing by their lawyer.
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp signed legislation to allow the state to remove elected district attorneys from their jobs. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who is investigating Trump for trying to overturn the 2020 presidential election, vocally opposed the legislation, which could be used to retaliate against her for investigating the former president.
In Arizona, Kari Lake’s lawyers were fined by the state Supreme Court for pushing “unequivocally false” claims of election fraud in the 2022 gubernatorial election, and the Michigan Attorney Grievance Commission filed a formal complaint for misconduct against Trump’s lawyers for abusing the courts in their 2020 challenge of the presidential election results in the state.
In Wisconsin, a judge ordered the state elections commission to reconsider a complaint against fake electors who tried to cast the state’s electoral ballots for Trump in 2020.
In states across the country, election deniers are considering running for elected office. For example, Tudor Dixon, a 2022 Michigan gubernatorial candidate, and Doug Mastriano, a 2022 Pennsylvania gubernatorial candidate, are both considering running for the U.S. Senate.
In Texas, election deniers voted for and the Senate passed a bill to allow the state to use technicalities to overturn elections in Harris County, which is the largest and most diverse county in the state.
In Georgia and Nevada, governors continued their efforts to undermine elections. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp signed legislation to prohibit underfunded local governments from accepting contributions from outside groups to help run elections smoothly, and in Nevada, Gov. Joe Lombardo continued to back legislation requiring voters to have identification to vote.
