This Week: As State and Federal Investigations of Former President Trump Continue, MAGA Politicians Continue their Assault on Free and Fair Elections
This week, the investigation into attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election continued. Lawyers for former President Trump said there is “no need” for him to appear before a federal grand jury to explain his actions, while convicted former New York City Police Commissioner Bernie Kerik, who was part of the “Giuliani team that tried to find fraud” after 2020 presidential election, turned over thousands of documents to the special counsel.
In “a major juncture in the criminal investigation” into “attempts to overturn his 2020 election defeat in Georgia,” Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis reportedly is weighing racketeering and other charges against Trump, while his lawyers continue trying to block the investigation by attempts to disqualify Willis.
In the case against Trump stemming from whether he obstructed justice and willfully retained national security secrets at Mar-a-Lago, the judge moved the trial date from December 2023 to May 2024, rejecting Trump’s request to delay it until after the 2024 presidential election.
Days after Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel filed charges against 16 “fake electors” who signed documents falsely claiming that Trump had won the 2020 election, a town clerk who was among those charged was barred by the state from running elections while charges against him are pending.
In Arizona, the attorney general is continuing investigations into multiple efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election results in the state, including the fake elector scheme to falsely declare Trump won the state, and “the so-called ‘audit’” of the election results in the largest county in the state that was “financed and organized” by MAGA supporters trying to prove the election was stolen.
Voting rights advocates in Wisconsin filed a lawsuit over absentee ballot rules, “including witness signature requirements” and a ban on drop boxes. These voter suppression rules were imposed by MAGA supporters after Trump criticized absentee voting in the state.
MAGA supporters in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives filed another appeal to try to strike down the state law that expanded mail-in voting, while the North Carolina Senate passed MAGA-supported legislation to make their state “the strictest” in the country for absentee voting.
Texas announced it is leaving the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC), which states use to share data to ensure accurate voter rolls and prevent voter fraud. ERIC “has been undermined by right-wing attacks and defections by Republican-led members.”
In Georgia, a federal judge set trial dates for three lawsuits that argue that new state legislative and congressional district maps “illegally discriminate against Black voters.”
