Voting regulators warned lawyers and a network of groups, some of whom promoted Donald Trump’s big lie after the 2020 election

Last modified on Tuesday, December 14, 2021 03.02 EST

A strong network of conservative election lawyers and groups connected to Donald Trump has spent millions of dollars promoting new heavy voting laws, and many key battlefield states such as Georgia and Texas have enacted these. law.

These actions prompted the United States’ election and voting rights regulators to warn that non-white voters who are designed to provide Republicans with an advantage in the upcoming elections are being suppressed.

The lawyers and groups that took the lead in adopting self-proclaimed election integrity measures include figures who promoted Trump's baseless allegations of fraud after the 2020 election. Leading advocates include Cleta Mitchell and the Conservative Partnership Institute; J Christian Adams of the Public Interest Law Foundation; Hans von Spakowski of the Heritage Foundation; Jason Snead of the Honest Election Project; and America First J Kenneth Blackwell of the Policy Research Institute.

Although many courts, an overwhelming majority of voting experts, and even former senior Trump officials such as former Attorney General Bill Barr believe that there are no serious problems in the 2020 election, these conservative institutions tout their goal to curb major voter fraud.

Regulators said that tightening state voting laws jeopardizes the rights of black voters and other communities of color that have historically supported the Democratic Party because they have established new rules restricting absentee voting and registration on the day, as well as implementing other voting restrictions.

Among election lawyers and groups advocating stricter voting laws, senior conservative lawyer Mitchell is the most well-known and has caused the most scrutiny. She participated in a conference call on January 2 and Trump urged Georgia Secretary of State Brad Ravensberg to "find" approximately 11,780 votes to overthrow Joe Biden's victory there. After detailed information about Mitchell's role in the conference call appeared, Foley & Lardner, where she had worked for nearly 20 years, conducted an internal review and then resigned.

The former prosecutor said that Trump’s January 2 call also triggered a criminal investigation by the District Attorney of Fulton County, Georgia, which may cause trouble for Mitchell and may exacerbate the House Committee’s complaints on January 6. Review of the Japanese Parliament Building attack.

According to reports, Mitchell raised $1 million to fund an unfounded audit of the largest county in Arizona that Trump vigorously promoted. Last month, she was appointed to the Advisory Board of the Federal Electoral Assistance Committee. With the support of her close legal ally Adams, it sparked more controversy. Foundation Mitchell chair.

The lawyer used her position at CPI and another article on liberal FreedomWorks earlier this year to announce a seven-state reform of voting laws led by Mitchell, and she helped promote the new state The electoral measures have prevented two Congressional bills — the John Lewis Voting Progressive Act and the Free Voting Act — and the Democrats have been trying to enact these bills to counter the wave of NSW laws.

According to the latest news from the Brennan Justice Center in October, 19 states have enacted 33 new laws this year that "will make it more difficult for Americans to vote."

In order to promote the new state voting law, Mitchell worked closely with some key groups that silently supported the new measures, such as the U.S. Legislative Exchange Committee, a powerful and shady group of state legislators. Historically, she served as an external consultant to promote Model bill.

According to the center’s report, at the Alec meeting held in California on December 1, Mitchell helped lead a secret "process working group" meeting dedicated to discussing changes in election and voting laws and related matters, including Several top legal allies such as Adams and von Spakowski are the media and democracy, and record.

The Adams Foundation received approximately $300,000 from the Bradley Foundation in 2020. The foundation’s board of directors includes Mitchell. The foundation has filed a lawsuit to defend Texas and other states’ Some strict new voting laws.

According to public records, the top funders of the right-wing fleet include billionaire Richard Uihlein (Richard Uihlein), Bradley Foundation (Bradley Foundation) and two black money giant Concord Fund (Concord Fund) A family foundation connected to the Donors Trust.

The legal watchdog expressed strong concerns about the new laws being promoted by the right in many states, including Georgia and Texas, and pointed out that the arguments for changing the voting rules seem to be contradictory.

“During the 2021 legislative session, we saw anti-voter organizations pushing for uniform legislation that restricts voting rights in the national legislature,” said Danielle Long, senior director of voting rights at the Non-Party Campaign Law Center

“The same language appears in one state after another, regardless of the state’s special needs. For example, states that have fully positive voting by mail in 2020 have severely restricted access to voting by mail," she added.

Such complaints did not prevent Mitchell from engaging in a legislative blitz with coalition lawyers and groups across the country to change voting laws.

Mitchell declined to answer the Guardian’s questions about her voting law work or the Georgia investigation, although in an interview with the Associated Press earlier this year, she boasted “I like the legislature and work with lawmakers” and revealed that she "Talking to Trump quite frequently", but did not provide any details.

The relationship between Mitchell and Trump’s former chief of staff, Mark Meadows, is also obvious, including post-election madness and unfounded efforts to overthrow Trump’s failure.

According to the "Washington Post" magazine, on December 30, Mitchell wrote to Meadows and "offered to send about 1,800 pages of documents claiming to support the allegations of election fraud."

Meadows, who also held a senior position in the CPI, is now facing charges of contempt because he violated his testimony to the House of Representatives panel regarding the January 6th Capitol attack and earlier efforts to prevent Biden from taking office.

As the Fulton County District Attorney's investigation progresses, Mitchell's efforts to support Trump's baseless case during the January 2 call with Ravensberg may cause new problems for the lawyers. . During the call, Mitchell claimed that there was evidence of voter fraud, but a senior lawyer in Ravensberg’s office replied that she had made a mistake and accused her of the data.

Former U.S. Attorney of Georgia, Michael J. Moore, said: “You can’t allow yourself to be a participant in Trump’s efforts that day, instead of actually making a statement during the call.” “That’s what Ms. Mitchell did. Only. This behavior is enough to attract the attention of the prosecutor. Whether it is enough to trap her in a trap, only DA and the grand jury can answer."