Trump’s voter fraud commission; NO EVIDENCE of Widespread Voter Fraud

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Researcher for President Trump’s voter fraud commission arrested for child porn
BYJASON SILERSTEIN
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Updated: Sunday, October 15, 2017, 9:36 AM
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Ronald Williams II had child porn files on his phone, according to police.
(MARYLAND STATE POLICE)
The Washington Postthat Williams worked as a researcher for Trump’s Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity. He was working on secondment from the U.S. Office of Special Counsel.

Williams was terminated from the panel around the time of his arrest, the official said. It’s unclear how long he worked for the voter commission.

Trump's voter fraud chief wanted to roll back voter protections

He now faces six counts of possession of child pornography and five counts of distribution.

Trump formed the voter panel based on his false assertion that millions of illegal voters prevented him from beating Hillary Clinton for the popular vote. It is led by Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach — who has been accused of voter suppression in his state in multiple lawsuits — and co-chaired by Vice President Pence.

The panel has turned up no evidence of widespread voter fraud in its first months of work.

It has, however, already racked upseveral legal challengesfrom civil rights groups, which have accused the panel of violating federal open government laws by running many major operations in secret.
 

QueEx

Rising Star
Super Moderator
Conflict Mounts Inside Voting Fraud Commission in the Wake of Child Porn Arrest

Two commissioners say they were in the dark not only about the arrest of a researcher for the commission — but also about the fact that he was working there in the first place.

by Jessica Huseman
Oct. 17, 6:45 p.m. EDT


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A sign for the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity outside the meeting room at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington, D.C. (Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images)


The arrest, on child pornography charges, of a researcher for the controversial Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity is intensifying conflict inside the group, with two Democratic members asserting again that a small band of conservatives holds disproportionate power. The researcher, Ronald Williams II, who was arrested late last week, previously worked as an intern at the Department of Justice on a case with J. Christian Adams, who is now a Republican member of the commission.

Democratic commissioner Matt Dunlap contends Williams’ involvement with the commission is the latest in a series of discoveries suggesting a few conservative members wield outsize clout; Dunlap claims that Democratic members have been largely excluded from planning. Today he wrote a letter to the commission demanding information.

“I am seeking information because I lack it,” stated the letter, a copy of which was given to ProPublica. “I am in a position where I feel compelled to inquire after the work of the Commission upon which I am sworn to serve, and am yet completely uninformed as to its activities.” The letter demanded copies of “any and all communication between members of the commission” beginning in May.

Dunlap called the arrest of Williams the last straw in what he characterized as a series of actions by several commissioners to manipulate the commission. In September, an email was released showing that Republican Commissioner Hans von Spakovsky lobbied against the inclusion of Democrats on the commission. And earlier this month, filings in a lawsuit showed that, before they joined the commission, von Spakovsky and Adams played a role in the commission’s most consequential action to date: a letter sent to states requesting sweeping quantities of voter data.


Both Dunlap and Alan King — a Democratic commissioner and probate court judge in Jefferson County, Alabama — said the commissioners were never told about any staff members apart from Andrew Kossack, the person running the commission. They said they did not know of Williams until they read about him in a Washington Post article describing his arrest in Maryland on 11 counts of possessing and distributing child pornography. (Williams, who no longer works for the commission, was released on $150,000 bail. Attempts to reach him by phone and email were unsuccessful.)

“It seems like you have the core of the commission — J. Christian Adams, Hans van Spakovsky and [Kris] Kobach — and then you have the rest of us, who are kind of like mannequins,” Dunlap said in an interview. He said he was surprised to learn of Williams’ history working alongside Adams.

Williams was an intern at the DOJ during the administration of George W. Bush. He worked alongside Adams on litigation the department filed against Noxubee County, Mississippi, in 2006 — the first time the DOJ used the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to protect white voters.

Adams recognized Williams’ work on the Noxubee case in the acknowledgements of his 2011 book, “Injustice: Exposing the Racial Agenda of the Obama Justice Department.” “Thanks to the Noxubee team,” Adams wrote, “including Joshua Rogers, Ron Williams, and Joann Sazama, who made litigation enjoyable.” The DOJ declined to comment on Williams’ role in the litigation.

Adams declined to answer questions about Williams’ role on the commission, or whether he helped hire Williams. Adams did provide a written statement:

“Ronald Williams worked at the Criminal and Civil Rights Division at the Department of Justice where presumably he underwent regular background checks. The alleged behavior is appalling and incomprehensible, particularly given his long tenure at DOJ handling sensitive matters. It would be hyper-partisan overreach to say that any grotesque behavior in his personal life is in any way a reflection of the vitally important work the Commission is doing for the American people.”

Williams appears to be the intern mentioned in a 2013 report by the DOJ’s Office of the Inspector General, which recounted complaints of alleged hostile treatment by fellow DOJ employees after Williams’ involvement in the Noxubee litigation. “You know why they asked you to go down there … they used you as a token,” a black intern — whose mother was also employed by the DOJ — stated he was told, according to the report. Williams, who is black, was an intern assigned to the Noxubee case and his mother was a long-time employee at the DOJ.

The OIG report noted that the intern “perceived a broader ‘whisper campaign’ in the office about his participation in the Noxubee case,” and that “the remarks angered and insulted him by suggesting he was duped into working on the matter.”

Dunlap said despite the widespread media coverage of Williams’ arrest, no one on the commission was provided any explanation. He expressed frustration over this in his letter to the commission, which indicates he found out about the arrest through a journalist.

The Office of the Vice President of the United States — Mike Pence is the co-chair of the commission — did not respond to multiple questions about Williams’ role, or when he began his work. (Kobach and von Spakovsky also did not respond to emails seeking comment.) Williams was pictured sitting behind the commissioners at the first meeting of the voting commission in mid-July.

David Becker, the executive director of the Center for Election Innovation & Research, said the commission continues to operate in a “shroud of secrecy.”

“Despite being asked repeatedly for information about its activities, sometimes by fellow commissioners themselves,” he said, “it takes a revelation like this to learn anything about what this panel is doing behind closed doors at taxpayer expense.”

Update: On Oct. 18, Democratic senators sent two letters requesting information from the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity. One, from Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, cited ProPublica’s reporting — that members of the commission were unaware of the names of staff assigned to work for the commission — and expressed “alarm.”

“If the Commission’s own members do not know who is working under its direction, how can the Commission ensure accountability and transparency?” wrote Klobuchar, who requested a list of staff and information about the commission’s vetting process. “Knowledge that a member of the Commission’s staff was arrested for possession and distribution of child pornography only reinforces our concern about who has access to [widespread voter data requested by the commission] and how it is being maintained.”

A second letter, signed by 18 Democratic senators, also expressed concerns about data security and the commission’s plans for the voter data it requested from states. The letter repeated questions posed to the commission in a July letter, asserting that none of them have been answered.

When the letters were sent on Wednesday to the commission’s public email address, an automatic response email stated that the account no longer accepts public comments. Instead, commenters were directed to an “eRulmaking [sic] portal” or to submit written comments to “Mr. Ron Williams, Policy Advisor, Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity” — the individual arrested on child pornography charges last week. The commission did not return a request for comment.



https://www.propublica.org/article/...d-commission-in-the-wake-of-child-porn-arrest



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QueEx

Rising Star
Super Moderator
Member of Trump's voter fraud commission says lack of evidence 'reveals a troubling bias'

"That the Commission predicted it would find widespread evidence of fraud actually reveals a troubling bias," said Maine's Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap.


NNC News
by Farnoush Amiri
Aug.05.2018

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Voters cast their ballots at the Luxe Hotel polling station for the 2016 US presidential election in Los Angeles, California, on Nov. 8, 2016.Mike Nelson / EPA file


President Donald Trump’s dismantled voter fraud commission uncovered no evidence to prove his claim that millions voted illegally in the 2016 presidential election, according to an analysis of administration documents by a former member.

"That the Commission predicted it would find widespread evidence of fraud actually reveals a troubling bias," Maine's Secretary of State and former commission member, Matthew Dunlap, stated in a letter issued Friday.

In the letter addressed to Vice President Mike Pence and Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, Dunlap, a Democrat, wrote that he joined the commission in “good faith” and with “optimism,” but that his experience with the bipartisan group left him skeptical of the intention of the study.

“Unfortunately, my experience on the Commission quickly caused me concern that its purpose was not to pursue the truth but rather to provide an official imprimatur of legitimacy on the President Trump’s assertions that millions of illegal votes were cast during the 2016 election and to pave the way for policy changes designed to undermine the right to vote,” Dunlap said in the letter.

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The commission released documents on June 27 after Dunlap filed a lawsuit in November against it in an effort to gain access to materials and documentation he felt was being kept from him and other members of the committee. The suit alleged that Pence and Kobach were in violation of the Federal Advisory Committee Act, which has special emphasis on open meetings.

"It's calling into the darkness, looking for voter fraud," Dunlap, told The Associated Press. "There's no real evidence of it anywhere."


The Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity, which Trump created in May 2017 and then shut down in January of this year, after citing "endless legal battles" was headed by Vice President Mike Pence, even though it’s vice chair, Kobach, became the face of the commission's controversies.

“For some people, no matter how many cases of voter fraud you show them, there will never be enough for them to admit that there’s a problem,” said Kobach told the Associated Press in a statement. The secretary is running for Kansas governor on Tuesday against the incumbent, Jeff Colyer, in the Republican primary.

Dunlap also wrote that although there is “no single document that reveals there is no widespread voter fraud” but instead, the totality of the documents released by the judge’s ruling showcase the lack of evidence to prove the president’s claims.

The group was originally created to address the president’s unsubstantiated claims that between 3 million and 5 million ballots were illegally cast in the last election. Critics from both sides of the aisle, including Dunlap, have rejected these claims of widespread voter fraud. Since its creation, the group has only met twice, with their final meeting on Sept. 12, according to White House records.


https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/ncna897796


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QueEx

Rising Star
Super Moderator
Trump voting commission had no evidence of widespread voter fraud, former member says

By Clare Foran
CNN
Sat August 04, 2018


Washington (CNN)The now-disbanded commission that President Donald Trump set up to investigate election integrity did not find evidence of widespread voter fraud, a former member of the panel said on Friday, citing internal documents he obtained related to commission activities.

"I have reviewed the Commission documents made available to me and they do not contain evidence of widespread voter fraud," Maine's Democratic secretary of state, Matthew Dunlap, wrote in a letter to Vice President Mike Pence and Kansas' Republican secretary of state, Kris Kobach.

In May 2017, the President established the commission after falsely claiming that "millions of people" voted illegally for Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election, costing him the popular vote. Trump named Pence as chairman and Kobach -- a noted proponent of voter fraud theories and related policies -- as vice chair of the commission.


Dunlap was also named to the panel, but he suedthe commission in US district court in November 2017, alleging that the group had withheld key information from him. A judge ruled in his favor the next month and said the panel should provide him with the documents he requested.

Trump then moved to dissolve the commission in January 2018.

In his letter, Dunlap wrote that he "joined the Commission in good faith," but soon became concerned that "its purpose was not to pursue the truth but rather to provide an official imprimatur of legitimacy on President Trump's assertions that millions of illegal votes were cast during the 2016 election and to pave the way for policy changes designed to undermine the right to vote."

The Maine secretary of state also accused the White House and Kobach of making false statements and said that the commission showed "troubling bias."

The letter highlights a White House statementannouncing the dissolution of the commission, which asserts that there is evidence of "substantial" voter fraud. Dunlap wrote, however, "after months of litigation that should not have been necessary," he can now report that the White House statement was false.

"Indeed, while staff prepared drafts of a report to be issued by the Commission, the sections on evidence of voter fraud are glaringly empty," he wrote.

The White House and the vice president's office did not immediately provide CNN with comment.

Kobach said in a statement to CNN on Saturday that it appeared Dunlap was "willfully blind to the voter fraud in front of his nose."

The commission was presented with more than 1,000 convictions for voter fraud since 2000, and convictions represent a tiny percentage of the total number of incidents, the statement said. In addition, the commission was also presented with about 8,400 instances of double voting in the 2016 election looking at 20 states. If the commission had looked at all 50 states, "the number would have been exponentially higher," Kobach said.

"For some people, no matter how many cases of voter fraud you show them, there will never be enough for them to admit that there's a problem," his statement said.

Dunlap wrote in his letter, however, that he did not "expect the public simply to accept my conclusions," and noted, "there is no single document that reveals there is no widespread voter fraud." But, he said, "I rely on the lack of any evidence in the totality of what I reviewed."

An associated web page contains links to a variety of documents and states that "these materials have been provided by the White House."

CNN's Tal Kopan and Eli Watkins contributed to this report


https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cn...raud-commission-evidence-documents/index.html


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