“Scoop: GOP plan targets foreign dark money for 2024”

campaign finance

From Axios:

House Republicans are working on new legislation to prevent foreign nationals from influencing America’s political process, Axios has learned.

Why it matters: The last two presidential elections have been colored by allegations that foreign influence helped the GOP.

  • Now House Republicans are trying to flip to script and draw attention to foreign donations to Democrat-aligned and progressive nonprofit organizations.
  • Non-U.S. citizens can’t contribute to candidates, campaigns, or super PACs, but they can give to 501(c)(4) organizations, which are tax-exempt groups that can engage in general issue advocacy, and support state ballot initiatives.

Driving the news: Rep. Bryan Steil (R-Wis.) chair of the House Administration Committee, is introducing legislation to ban such groups from contributing to political committees for four years if they accept foreign donations. He also wants to bar foreign nationals from giving to state ballot initiatives.

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“Election law at the heart of Michigan voting machine investigation”

fraudulent fraud squad, voting technology

The Detroit Free Press has a deep dive into the state’s law on access to voting machines:

At the heart of the investigation into an alleged conspiracy to seize voting machines in the wake of the 2020 presidential election lies a question about Michigan election law: Who is allowed to have access to the voting machines and when?

DJ Hilson, the special prosecutor investigating the alleged plot, has asked the court to weigh in on the matter, filing a request earlier this year seeking a legal interpretation of Michigan election law in Oakland County Circuit Court. It’s a move he and Oakland County Circuit Court Judge Phyllis McMillen — who’s presiding over the case — acknowledge is unusual….

Hilson asked the Oakland County Circuit Court in March to issue a declaratory judgment finding that the “undue possession” of voting machines prohibited under the law is “possession that is not authorized by the Secretary of State or by court order.” By his reading, Michigan election law does not “allow for a clerk to unilaterally relinquish the custody of a voting machine.”

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“The Case That Could Be Fox’s Next Dominion”

election subversion risk

NYT:

Of all the distortions and paranoia that Tucker Carlson promoted on his since-canceled Fox News program, one looms large: a conspiracy theory that an Arizona man working as a covert government agent incited the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol to sabotage and discredit former President Donald J. Trump and his political movement.

What’s known about the man — a two-time Trump voter named Ray Epps — is that he took part in demonstrations in Washington that day and the night before. He was captured on camera urging a crowd to march with him and enter the Capitol. But at other points, he pleads for calm once it becomes clear the situation is turning violent. He can be seen moving past a line of Capitol Police at the barricades, but never actually goes inside the Capitol.

Federal prosecutors have not charged Mr. Epps with a crime, focusing instead on the more than 1,000 other demonstrators who acted violently or were trespassing in the Capitol. The Justice Department’s sprawling investigation into the attack remains open, however, and Mr. Epps could still be indicted.

Yet for more than 18 months, Mr. Carlson insisted that the lack of charges against Mr. Epps could mean only one thing: that he was being protected because he was a secret government agent. There was “no rational explanation,” Mr. Carlson told his audience, why this “mysterious figure” who “helped stage-manage the insurrection” had not been charged….

Now lawyers representing Mr. Epps and his wife are proceeding with plans to sue Fox News for defamation.

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Guest Blogging Through July 30

Uncategorized

As Rick noted, I’ll be doing the daily blogging for the next three weeks. Taking a few weeks at the helm of Election Law Blog is becoming an annual thing for me, and I’m grateful to him for giving me the opportunity, as well as for everything he does to keep us all informed.

Please do feel free to send me suggestions and to let me know if there’s anything I’ve missed or misstated. Since becoming Dean of University of Wisconsin Law School three years ago, I don’t generally have time to follow day-to-day developments in the field as closely as I once did, so you’re tips are especially welcome. I can’t promise to post everything I receive, but always appreciate the suggestions.

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“Social media injunction unravels plans to protect 2024 elections”

cheap speech

WaPo:

A July 4 injunction that places extraordinary limits on the government’s communications with tech companies undermines initiatives to harden social media companies against election interference, civil rights groups, academics and tech industry insiders say.

After companies and the federal government spent years expanding efforts to combat online falsehoods in the wake of Russian interference on the platforms during the 2016 election, the ruling is just the latest sign of the pendulum swinging in the other direction. Tech companies are gutting their content moderation staffs, researchers are pulling back from studying disinformation and key government communications with Silicon Valley are on pause amid unprecedented political scrutiny.

With voting in the 2024 primaries just months away, tech companies also are facing new election threats as leaps in artificial intelligence give bad actors new tools to create fake videos, photos and ads.

Amid that rapidly changing social media landscape, civil rights groups say U.S. District Judge Terry A. Doughty’s order will be a boon for election lies.

“As the U.S. gears up for the biggest election year the internet age has seen, we should be finding methods to better coordinate between governments and social media companies to increase the integrity of election news and information,” said Nora Benavidez, a senior counsel at Free Press, a digital civil rights group.

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