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Defend Our Country Digest

Defend Our Country Digest — October 27, 2022

By October 27, 2022No Comments

Driving the Day: 

Must Read Stories

Wednesday Saw A Flurry Of Legal Activity In Cases Related To The Attempts To Subvert The 2020 Election 

  • Atlanta Journal Constitution: SC Judge: Mark Meadows Must Testify Before Fulton Grand Jury: A South Carolina judge ruled Wednesday that former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows must testify before the Fulton County special grand jury investigating attempts to overturn Georgia’s 2020 election. Following a 45-minute hearing in this small city in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, Circuit Court Judge Edward W. Miller denied Meadows’ attempt to quash a petition seeking his testimony, and said that appearing in Atlanta would not present an “undue hardship.” “Well, you have eloquently enumerated your arguments, which I think perhaps an appellate court can review, but based on what’s before me today I’m going to find that the witness is material and necessary to the investigation,” Miller told James W. Bannister, Meadows’ attorney, from the bench.
  • CNN: Elena Kagan Temporarily Stays House Jan. 6 Committee’s Subpoena For Arizona GOP Chair’s Phone Records: Lawyers for Arizona Republican Party Chair Kelli Ward and her husband Michael Ward filed an emergency motion with the Supreme Court on Wednesday asking the justices to block a subpoena from the House select committee investigating January 6, 2021, for phone and text records.Hours after the filing, Justice Elena Kagan – who supervises the appeals court that ruled in the case – issued a temporary order blocking the subpoena. The administrative stay was likely issued to give the justices more time to consider the matter and may not reflect the court’s final disposition. Kagan also asked for a response from the House committee by Friday.
  • Politico: Trump Team Receives Subpoena From Jan. 6 Committee: Attorneys for Donald Trump have accepted service of a subpoena issued by the Jan. 6 select committee demanding documents and testimony from the former president by next month. A person familiar with the matter confirmed that attorneys for the former president agreed to formally receive the committee’s summons. Matthew Sarelson — an attorney with The Dhillon Law Group, which is representing Trump in his dealings with the committee — accepted service of the subpoena on Monday. A Trump spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Jan. 6 panel wants Trump to provide relevant documents by Nov. 4 and appear for a deposition by Nov. 14, though neither deadline is likely to hold. Trump has given no public indication about whether he will challenge the subpoena in court, a process that would all but ensure he never testifies before the panel.
  • Politico: Judge To Consider Unsealing Trump Grand Jury Filings: A federal judge is considering whether to unseal secret court documents detailing former President Donald Trump’s effort to prevent former aides from providing testimony to a grand jury investigating efforts to subvert the 2020 election. Chief Judge Beryl Howell of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on Wednesday asked the Justice Department to weigh in on unsealing requests made by two media organizations: POLITICO on Oct. 18 and the New York Times on Oct. 21.Howell’s request comes as Trump has been quietly waging — and losing — a court battle in recent weeks to prevent former aides from testifying to the grand jury. Marc Short, former chief of staff to Vice President Mike Pence, testified before a grand jury last Thursday just hours after a federal appeals court panel rejected a last-ditch appeal by Trump lawyers seeking to raise executive privilege concerns about the appearance.

Tensions Rise In Arizona With Election Workers Threatened And Katie Hobbs’ Office Burglarized 

  • Vice: ‘We Will Find You’: Election Officials in Arizona Are Receiving Threats Before the Midterms: Arizona’s election officials have once again been targeted with violent threats ahead of next month’s midterms, and the secretary of state has confirmed that at least one direct threat against her and her staff has been sent to the FBI. The threat was made in an email sent to Secretary of State Katie Hobbs that also addressed other election officials, including Kori Lorick, who is Hobbs’ director of election services. “Attention ALL Corrupt and Treasonous Government Officials…If you Cunt Lickers continue to fuck with the integrity of the AZ Elections…I guarantee you, We the People will remove you from office…Additionally, if you own a home…We will find you through the Tax Assessors Website…Remember the French revolution of 1799??” the email’s author wrote, according to a copy of the message seen by VICE News. Last week the FBI identified Arizona as one of the top states for threats to election officials and poll workers. Earlier this month, an Iowa man was arrested for threatening to kill Maricopa County Supervisor Clint Hickman and an official at the Arizona Attorney General’s Office. This latest uptick in threats related to the upcoming midterms comes as Hobbs confirmed that she has sent an additional five incidents of alleged voter intimidation to the Department of Justice, related to groups of poll watchers staking out drop box locations in the state. Last week Hobbs, who is facing off against GOP pick Kari Lake in the governor’s race next month, referred one incident of voter intimidation to the DOJ.
  • Arizona Republic: Break-In At Arizona Governor Candidate Katie Hobbs’ Campaign Office In Phoenix; Several Items Taken: The Phoenix campaign headquarters of Democratic gubernatorial candidate Katie Hobbs was burglarized earlier this week, Phoenix police and a campaign official said Wednesday. Police responded to a commercial burglary call at the office in midtown Phoenix on Tuesday afternoon. “Information was learned that items were taken from the property sometime during the night,” a police statement said. “No suspects have been identified. This is still an active investigation with detectives checking all security cameras in attempts to identify and locate the subject involved.” The campaign released photographs of a person it said was identified as the suspect by the Phoenix Police Department after police reviewed the surveillance footage. The images show a younger man wearing shorts, a short-sleeved T-shirt and a backpack.

Forty Percent Of Voters Fear Intimidation At The Polls

  • Reuters: Two In Five U.S. Voters Worry About Intimidation At Polls -Reuters/Ipsos: Two in five U.S. voters say they are worried about threats of violence or voter intimidation at polling stations during the country’s midterm elections, according to a new Reuters/Ipsos poll. So far no violence has been reported at any early voting centers or ballot drop-off locations ahead of the Nov. 8 elections, when Republicans are favored to win control of the U.S. House of Representatives and possibly the Senate. But officials in Arizona, a key battleground, have already asked the federal government to probe a case of possible voter intimidation, after people casting ballots were conspicuously filmed and followed. An official complaint noted that the self-appointed monitors called the voters “mules,” a reference to a conspiracy theory popularized by supporters of former President Donald Trump’s false claim that his 2020 defeat was the result of widespread fraud. The Reuters/Ipsos poll, completed on Monday, also found that two-thirds of registered voters fear that extremists will carry out acts of violence after the election if they are unhappy with the outcome.

Election Season Is Increasingly Dominated By Lawsuits As Republicans Seek To Sow Doubt In Results 

  • Associated Press: Election Day Is Nov. 8, But Legal Challenges Already Begin: Election Day is 12 days away. But in courtrooms across the country, efforts to sow doubt over the outcome have already begun. More than 100 lawsuits have been filed this year around the upcoming midterm elections. The suits, largely by Republicans, target rules over mail-in voting, early voting, voter access, voting machines, voting registration, the counting of mismarked absentee ballots and access for partisan poll watchers. It’s the most litigation ever before an election and it’s likely a preview of a potentially contentious post-election landscape. The strategy was born in part of the failure of allies of former President Donald Trump to successfully challenge and overturn the free and fair results of the 2020 presidential election. But while the 2020 election effort was an ad hoc response fronted by a collection of increasingly ill-prepared lawyers that included Rudy Giuliani, today’s effort is a more formalized, well-funded and well-organized campaign run by the Republican National Committee and other legal allies with strong bona fides. Party officials say they are actively preparing for recounts, contested elections and more litigation. And there are thousands of volunteers in place primed to challenge ballots and hunt down evidence of malfeasance.
  • Washington Post: How Votes Are Cast And Counted Is Increasingly Decided In Courtrooms: In the United States, election season has turned into lawsuit season. One legal challenge in Michigan seeks to remove thousands from the voter rolls. Two lawsuits in Wisconsin seek to have more absentee ballots counted, even if they are missing some information. In Arizona, a judge is reviewing a new law requiring voters to provide proof of citizenship to register to vote. And in Pennsylvania, lawsuits challenge the state’s no-excuse absentee voting law, as well as the policy to count undated mail-in ballots. Disputes over redistricting, voter IDs, voting hours, recounts and other election-related policies have long run parallel to political campaigns, but the numbers are rising. The increase began after the Supreme Court decided the 2000 presidential election, and the trend reached a high in 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic prompted a host of new voting rules. The pace quickened after that election, when Donald Trump and his allies brought a slew of lawsuits that unsuccessfully sought to deliver him a second term as president. Those battles appear to have established a new baseline for election litigation. Election experts say courts have the power to clarify vague laws or policies and resolve key questions before ballots are cast, but many also contend that the barrage of lawsuits increases the chances of last-minute rulings that can spur voter confusion.

In The States 

ARIZONA: Cochise County Backtracks On Plans To Hand Count Ballots 

  • Votebeat: Arizona County Backtracks On Proposal For Full Hand-Count Of Ballots In Midterm Election: Cochise County will not hand-count all ballots cast in the midterm election, as its officials seriously considered as recently as Monday, but will instead increase the number of ballots to be hand-counted under the usual, state-prescribed audit. The county supervisors approved a plan Monday to expand the hand-count audit, and gave the impression that they would be hand-counting all ballots. On Wednesday, they clarified that actually, the audit would just be expanded to hand-count some votes exclusively on ballots cast in-person on Election Day, more than the 2% of those ballots that the audit typically examines. And the audit will only look at four contests on the ballot, not every race, as supervisors originally envisioned. Under state law, the audit will also manually tally votes cast on 1% of early ballots.

MICHIGAN: Three Men Convicted Of Helping The Plot To Kidnap Governor Gretchen Whitmer 

  • Washington Post: Three Men Convicted Of Aiding Plot To Kidnap Michigan Gov. Whitmer: A jury on Wednesday convicted three men of aiding a plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) in a case that deepened fears about the spread of right-wing extremism and potential violence directed at politicians. The three men — Joseph Morrison, Paul Bellar and Pete Musico — were found guilty in Jackson County Circuit Court of providing material support for terrorist acts, possessing a firearm while committing a felony, and being members of a gang. They face up to 20 years in prison. Whitmer, who is running for reelection in November, has said that she considers the plot an attempt to kidnap and kill her.

NEVADA: Rural Nye County Begins Conspiracy-Fueled Hand Count Of Ballots 

  • Associated Press: Nevada County Set For Conspiracy-Inspired Ballot Hand Count: Volunteers in a rural Nevada county where voting machine conspiracy theories led to an unprecedented hand-count of mail-in ballots came face-to-face with one messy reality of their plan Wednesday: It’s more time-consuming than anticipated. After a full day in the Nye County office building in Pahrump, 60 miles (96 kilometers) west of Las Vegas, some 60 volunteers had counted about 900 of the 1,950 mail-in ballots that the county has received so far. It was the first day that counting could start under a state Supreme Court ruling that said officials must prevent the public release of early results. The court also blocked a plan to livestream the vote-counting, saying video could be released only after polls close on Nov. 8. The American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada unsuccessfully sought to block the counting on the grounds that it could allow election results to be made public before many voters had even weighed in. The ACLU was preparing to ask the state high court to intervene again, spokesman Wesley Juhl said Wednesday night. The ACLU contends the county failed to comply with Friday’s order.

PENNSYLVANIA:  Pennsylvania House Republicans File Articles Of Impeachment Against Duly Elected Philadelphia District Attorney 

  • Philadelphia Inquirer: Pa. House Republicans File Articles Of Impeachment Against Philly DA Larry Krasner: Pennsylvania House Republicans filed two articles of impeachment Wednesday against Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner, charging him with not adequately enforcing state laws and implementing policies they say have contributed to a spike in gun violence. The charges say Krasner, a Democrat, engaged in “misbehavior in office” — which the state constitution says can be a basis for impeachment — and obstructed the efforts of a legislative committee investigating him. […] The legislation to impeach Krasner, announced Wednesday morning in Harrisburg by a sizable contingent of House GOP members, represented an extraordinary move less than two weeks before the midterm elections, which Republicans nationwide have tried to make about crime and rising violence in cities. Democrats across the ideological spectrum slammed the impeachment drive and cast the effort as a politically motivated attempt to overturn the will of Philadelphia voters.

What Experts Are Saying

Noah Bookbinder, president of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) and a former federal corruption prosecutor: “Following the final hearing of the congressional investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, the evidence is overwhelming: The Department of Justice must bring criminal charges against Donald Trump and many others for their culpability for the attack. The evidence of criminal conduct by the former president is so strong, and the offenses so consequential to the continued viability of American democracy, that indictment is the only appropriate outcome — and I believe the DOJ will indict.” Salon Op-Ed: Donald Trump must be indicted — and this time, I believe Merrick Garland will act

Harry Litman, former US attorney, re: court order that Mark Meadows testify in Georgia grand jury investigation: “The order to Meadows came from a South Carolina judge. Meadows also argued the special grand jury is civil in nature but Georgia already has ruled otherwise, and in theory that ruling should get applied in other states. Exec priv is big looming issue” Tweet 

Joshua Stanton, previously served as public defender in Tennessee; Norm Eisen, served in the White House as special counsel and special assistant to the president for ethics and government reform; E. Danya Perry, former Deputy Chief of the Criminal Division for the Southern District of New York: “As Americans across the country start the early voting process and prepare to return to the polls for the midterms, election officials should do everything possible to encourage one thing: voting. Instead, Florida’s new “election police” appear to be suppressing it by illegally targeting good faith voting mistakes. Fortunately, the Florida justice system is pushing back, and rightly so. This is an important test case for American democracy in the newfound battles over voter suppression.” Just Security: Democracy at Risk: Are The Florida Election Police Violating the Law?

David H. Gans, Director of the Human Rights, Civil Rights & Citizenship Program at Constitutional Accountability Center (CAC): “”The so-called independent state legislature theory is a fabrication that cannot be squared with the Constitution’s text and history.” — @MyConstitution’s David Gans on the brief we filed today at #SCOTUS” Tweet | Press Release | CAC’s Moore v. Harper Case Page 

Headlines

The MAGA Movement And The Ongoing Threat To Elections

ABC: Trump allies using false election claims, images of war to recruit ex-military as poll workers

CNN: The future of American elections could depend on these five races

New York Times: Senators Ask Supreme Court to Reject Once-Fringe Theory in N.C. Elections Case

New York Times: How Mike Lindell’s Pillow Business Propels the Election Denial Movement

Politico: Arizona’s Bulwark Against Trumpism Was Just a Mirage

Washington Post: At small-town radio station, the right-wing misinformation effort goes local

Washington Post (Analysis): The strange twists and turns of an alleged election conspiracy

Other Trump Investigations 

New York Times: Prosecutors Seek Testimony on Trump’s Claims to Have Declassified Documents

Opinion

Washington Post (Greg Sargent): Trump lets the truth slip about the MAGA base — and today’s GOP

Political Violence

Washington Post: Three men convicted of aiding plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Whitmer

In The States 

Associated Press: Judge considers stopping Phoenix ballot drop box watchers