This Week: As Legal Cases Against Trump Move Ahead, Pro-MAGA Legislators and Activists Continue to Threaten Voting Rights
This week, in the federal case against former President Donald Trump for allegedly leading a coup attempt after losing the 2020 election, the judge rejected his claim that the case should be dismissed because as president he had “absolute” immunity.
In the New York civil fraud case in which the judge ruled that Trump and his businesses committed fraud by overvaluing their assets, an appellate court reinstated a gag order on Trump.
In Nevada, the state’s investigation into “individuals who acted as fake electors in the state following the 2020 election” ramped up. Simultaneously, in the Fulton County, Georgia, case against Trump for allegedly leading a vast multi-state criminal enterprise to overturn the 2020 presidential election in seven states, including Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, Trump’s lawyers urged the court to delay the case so that it does not interfere with the presidential election. They also argued that if Trump wins the presidential election the case should be delayed until his presidency is over.
Meanwhile, threats to election integrity from pro-MAGA elected officials and activists continue.
In Georgia, pro-MAGA legislators proposed a gerrymandered congressional map that appears to defy a judicial ruling to draw maps that do not violate the Voting Rights Act, while in North Carolina, a group of Black and Latino voters filed a lawsuit claiming the congressional map recently drawn by pro-MAGA legislators violates the Voting Rights Act.
In Georgia, an “army” of pro-MAGA activists “fueled by doubts about the 2020 election” continued to dig through voter registration records looking for technicalities to purge from the rolls young and minority voters. These activists convinced “heavily” pro-MAGA Columbia County to adopt a new voter information database that the “election denial movement” claims will make it “easier to purge” voters.
In Wisconsin, a group of pro-MAGA Assembly members proposed legislation to dissolve the bipartisan Wisconsin Elections Commission and turn election oversight over to the state legislature. Election-denying “conspiracy theorists” have accused the nonpartisan administrator of the Commission of “helping to steal” the 2020 presidential election.
In Michigan, the governor signed “bills expanding voting rights,” including a bill to make it easier for vulnerable residents to register, over the objection of pro-MAGA legislators.
In North Carolina, a judicial panel blocked a new law supported by pro-MAGA legislators to let the state legislature step in to overturn election results.
In Arizona, pro-MAGA Cochise County Supervisors Tom Crosby and Peggy Judd were indicted on felony election interference charges for delaying the certification of 2022 election results.
