Democracy Clips: December 21, 2022

 

BIG LIE AND ELECTION DENIALISM

 

Trump's Former White House Ethics Lawyer Told Cassidy Hutchinson To Give Misleading Testimony To January 6 Committee, Sources Say. “The January 6 committee made a startling allegation on Monday, claiming it had evidence that a Trump-backed attorney urged a key witness to mislead the committee about details they recalled. Though the committee declined to identify the people, CNN has learned that Stefan Passantino, the top ethics attorney in the Trump White House, is the lawyer who allegedly advised his then-client, former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson, to tell the committee that she did not recall details that she did, sources familiar with the committee’s work tell CNN.” [CNN, 12/20/22]

 

A Pennsylvania County Delayed Certifying The Midterms. That Has Scary Implications For 2024. “More than a month after the midterm elections, Pennsylvania still hasn’t certified its results of the 2022 election. Recount requests are holding up a process that has been playing out in sometimes dramatic fashion at the county level — producing at least one scene that should set off alarm bells for anyone concerned about election deniers refining their strategy ahead of 2024. The state’s counties were supposed to certify their results by November 29 under Pennsylvania law, but nine of them missed the deadline, including Allegheny County, which encompasses Pittsburgh. As of Monday afternoon, all but one county ended up certifying the results, but not without a fight.” [Vox, 12/20/22] 

 

EXPLAINER: How Trump ignored advisers, spread election lies. “The executive summary of the House Jan. 6 committee’s report documents how then-President Donald Trump was repeatedly warned by those closest to him — Cabinet members, campaign officials and even family members — that claims he had lost his reelection due to fraud were false. But Trump spread those lies anyway.” [AP, 12/21/22]

 

What Truly Reckoning With Trump’s Insurrection Would Look Like. “The question as the Jan. 6 committee releases its final report this week is whether this is the beginning of Congress’ work — or the end. Will the work of the committee be seen like the Mueller Report, which landed with a thud on Capitol Hill and met calculated congressional indifference, or will it be treated like Watergate, as the beginning of a period of active reform?” [Politico, 12/21/22]

 

VOTER SUPPRESSION AND INTIMIDATION

 

DOJ Joins Georgia Voter Intimidation Lawsuit Against Right-wing Group True the Vote. “On Monday, Dec. 19, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) accepted a Georgia court’s request to join proceedings in Fair Fight v. True the Vote, a two-year long lawsuit alleging that the right-wing group True the Vote engaged in voter intimidation. Fair Fight, the Georgia-based voting rights organization founded by former gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, sued True the Vote in December 2020 alleging voter intimidation in violation of Section 11(b) of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (VRA). Among other actions, the lawsuit focuses on True the Vote’s attempt to challenge the eligibility of over 350,000 Georgia voters ahead of the Senate runoff election in January 2021.” [Democracy Docket, 12/20/22]

 

DARK MONEY

 

KELLYANNE CONWAY, LEONARD LEO, AND THE QUIET SUPREME COURT JOCKEYING UNDER TRUMP. “It was a good deal for Kellyanne Conway. Not only did the former White House counselor likely rake in millions when she sold her polling firm in 2017 — she also got congressional investigators, who had raised conflict of interest concerns about her continued ownership of the company, off her back. But it may have been an even better deal for Leonard Leo, the conservative activist who appears to have secretly facilitated the move. According to Politico, which first reported the transaction, Leo seems to have used one of his dark money groups to finance the sale of the Polling Company, which Conway founded in 1995, to Creative Response Concepts Inc., a conservative public relations firm he now co-owns — at the same time she was promoting his preferred Supreme Court picks to Donald Trump.” [Vanity Fair, 12/20/22]