New Reports Help Connect Dots of the GOP Conspiracy
Giving states the right to overturn elections is a decades-long strategy
For at least two decades, a below-the-radar effort by right-wing millionaires and political groups embraced the idea that state legislatures could dismiss valid election votes.
This is the planning behind new laws recently passed in some GOP-led states. And it almost received a federal stamp of approval during the final days of the Donald Trump administration.
It failed because top Justice Department officials stood firm against a coup attempt within the agency. Success would have been more detrimental to our democracy than even the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol insurrection.
All of this information has recently surfaced through testimony to Congress and from various news reports. It’s essential to connect the dots to unveil the enormity of the anti-democratic corruption and to avoid being distracted by loud-mouthed conspiracy theorists.
New Yorker writer Jane Mayer tracked the dark money financing behind efforts to overturn the election in the Aug. 9 article “Big Money Behind The Big Lie.” She reported that groups such as the Federalist Society, Heritage Foundation, American Legislative Exchange, along with several millionaire-supported foundations, are financing voter suppression and nullification efforts.
The strategy for expanded state power over elections, Mayer explained, was first hinted at in a concurring opinion in the 2000 Bush v. Gore U. S. Supreme Court decision:
“Chief Justice William Rehnquist, along with Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas, argued that state legislatures have the plenary power to run elections and can even pass laws giving themselves the right to appoint electors. … Today, the so-called Independent Legislature Doctrine has informed Trump and the right’s attempts to use Republican-dominated state legislatures to overrule the popular will.”
After losing reelection, Trump and his supporters tried and failed to persuade lawmakers in several states to do just that. Then GOP attorney generals called for the elections in several states to be voided. Eight Republican senators and 139 House members voted against results in two states — even after a violent insurrection put their lives in danger.
All of that happened even after Attorney General Bill Barr had announced that the election was not fraudulent. Right after Barr resigned in late December, Trump started pushing acting AG Jeffrey Rosen to overturn the elections.
The House Judiciary Committee now has notes from Justice officials about a phone call in which Trump said, “Just say the election was corrupt + leave the rest to me and the R congressmen.”
When top Justice officials refused, Trump’s next move was to elevate environmental lawyer Jeffrey Clark to head the agency’s civil rights division. From that position of authority, the Federalist Society member sought to nullify the election in six swing states where Trump lost.
In a draft letter, Clark alleged that mass voter fraud had compromised the legitimacy of Georgia’s election and advised the legislature to call itself into a special session, investigate the alleged fraud, and appoint “a separate slate of electors” who would cast their votes for Trump.
Rosen and other top officials refused to sign on; the U.S. attorney in Atlanta resigned. Clark then appealed to Trump to put him in Rosen’s job. Justice officials told Trump they would all resign if that happened. Trump decided against it. Next move: the insurrection.
But the plan to nullify valid votes is not over. It’s happening right now in state legislatures, where at least 24 new laws allow legislatures to politicize, criminalize or interfere with elections, according to the nonpartisan States United Democracy Center.
Georgia has already begun implementing a law allowing the GOP-controlled election board to seize control of county elections, including refusing to certify an election outcome. Based on false allegations promoted by Tucker Carlson of Fox News, state officials have targeted Fulton County, which includes most of Atlanta. At issue is a clerical error concerning 200 votes that was corrected during recounts.
As congressional and media investigations continue, we are likely to get more details about Trump’s desperate attempts to remain in office. But what has become clearer is that efforts to deny or void the vote are not misguided attempts at election security. They are part of a well-funded GOP plan to hold onto power by writing off voters they don’t believe matter.
Whether this thinking is reinforced by the current conservative U.S. Supreme Court remains to be seen.
