CNN:

A conservative lawyer who helped Donald Trump try to overturn the 2020 election was named to a federal election advisory board this month, a move that illustrates how the former President still casts a long shadow over the federal government even after leaving office.

Cleta Mitchell, who was on the phone with Trump in January when he urged Georgia’s secretary of state to “find” the votes Trump needed to win the 2020 presidential election, was quietly appointed to the board of advisors for the Election Assistance Commission, which was created in 2002 to help states meet federal voting requirements.

Mitchell’s appointment came through the US Commission on Civil Rights, a six-decade-old commission intended to develop civil rights policy and help enforce federal civil rights laws. Her selection came as a result of a partisan feud on the Civil Rights commission following Trump’s appointment of two new members last year, making the commission split 4-4 between Democrats and a Republicans, commission members told CNN….

Michael Yaki, a Democratic commissioner on the Commission on Civil Rights, charged that the four conservative commissioners, led by Trump appointee J. Christian Adams, held the “entire agenda of the Commission hostage” until they were given power to name an election board designee. Ultimately, the Civil Rights Commission agreed to have the Republicans put forward two names for the election advisory board, and the Democratic commissioners would choose between them.The Republicans put forward Mitchell — and Adams — for the Democrats to choose between.

“This was a Hobson’s choice between the lesser of two great evils to keep the Commission running: a lawyer who has led the right-wing efforts to destroy the voting rights of black and brown people in this country, or a lawyer who backed-up Trump’s election lies that resulted in the January 6th insurrection,” Yaki told CNN.

Adams said in an interview with CNN that if anyone wants to complain about Mitchell’s appointment, they should voice their concerns to the Democratic commissioners. “It was their pick. They picked Cleta Mitchell,” he said. “I think the Democrats on the commission made a good choice. Of course, they could have picked me too. We gave them two really good choices.”

In response to Yaki’s criticism of his record on civil rights, Adams said, “I’ve done more for African American voting rights in the last 10 years than he’s done in a lifetime.”