Release:

On Monday, the Lawyers’ Committee submitted a request under the Federal Advisory Committee Act for all of the Commission’s records to date.  The request includes all emails from Commission members — including Vice President Mike Pence and the Commission’s Vice Chair Kris Kobach — relating to their work on the Commission.  The Federal Advisory Committee Act requires that commissions like this operate transparently, and a key component of that is the legal requirement that all of the commission’s records be open to the public.  By law, the Commission must disclose these records, and it cannot claim exceptions that are usually available under FOIA for internal or deliberative communications.

“The so-called Election Integrity Commission has been operating covertly and its actions, to date, have been shrouded in secrecy,” said Kristen Clarke, president and executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. “Through the Federal Advisory Committee Act, we are using an important statutory tool to expose and curb the illegitimacy of this Commission by requiring that they immediately make materials  available for inspection. In our view, the Commission cannot conduct any meetings before complying with our request.  We will continue to fight to expose all of the Commission’s illegitimate actions. “

The Lawyers’ Committee also requested that the Commission and the White House confirm that all Commission members including Mr. Kobach have been issued federal government email address and have been advised to only use those email addresses for communications related to the Commission.  The Lawyers’ Committee further request confirmation that any emails Mr. Kobach and other Commission members have sent from their personal or state government email addresses have been forwarded to a federal government email address, as required by the Presidential Records Act and the Federal Advisory Committee Act.