This Week: As Former President Trump’s Legal Problems Deepen, Judges Push Back Against Pro-MAGA Efforts to Roll Back Voting Rights
This week, the judge in the 37 felony-count case against former President Donald Trump, stemming from whether Trump obstructed justice and willfully retained national security secrets at Mar-a-Lago, ordered that the prosecution cannot hide the names of potential witnesses from the public and scheduled the first hearing in the case. Meanwhile, the prosecution started turning over evidence to Trump’s lawyers.
The special counsel investigating Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election gave immunity to potential accomplices from Nevada who were part of the unsuccessful “effort to put forward slates of fake electors.” Secret Service agents and a Trump campaign official also testified before the grand jury in this case.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the North Carolina Supreme Court did not violate the Constitution by invalidating the state’s congressional map, rejecting the “Independent State Legislature theory pushed by supporters of former President Donald Trump.” The “controversial” legal theory, which would have given state legislatures “unchecked power” to set rules for federal elections, was cited by pro-MAGA lawyers “in various cases during the 2020 presidential election and its aftermath.”
In North Carolina, the state senate passed a bill pushed by MAGA election deniers to curtail absentee voting and discourage same-day voter registration. An opponent warned the bill would “‘dissuade people from voting, throw out ballots and suppress the votes of certain voters.’”
Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs vetoed a bill pushed by Trump supporters to allow counties to hand-count ballots, which is less accurate than using tabulation equipment.
Also in Arizona, election denier and failed gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake has been accused of defamation by Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer, who claims she falsely alleged that he caused her defeat by sabotaging the 2022 gubernatorial election.
After a long performance review, Georgia’s State Election Board voted against taking over elections in Fulton County, the largest county in the state, despite complaints by pro-MAGA conspiracy theorists about the 2020 election.
A court in Pennsylvania unanimously blocked an attempt by Trump supporters to invalidate a 2019 law that created mail-in voting in the state. The ruling was praised by voting rights advocates, who noted that “more than 7.5 million Pennsylvanians have voted by mail” in the past three years.
In Michigan, a federal appeals court upheld sanctions against Trump lawyer Sidney Powell for filing “baseless” and “frivolous” allegations of “massive election fraud” in the 2020 presidential election.
Also in Michigan, “far-right” pro-MAGA former gubernatorial candidate Ryan Kelley made a deal to take a plea agreement to avoid going to trial over his role at the U.S. Capitol during the January 6th insurrection.
