“Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office taking over voter registration fraud investigation in Lancaster County”

chicanery, voter registration

WGAL:

The Lancaster County District Attorney’s Office provided the following breakdown of ballots that were reviewed.

  • Detectives from the Lancaster County District Attorney’s Office reviewed 1,203 applications.
  • Applications were provided by the Lancaster County Voter Registration Office.
  • 367 applications were verified.
  • 383 applications were found to contain fraud.
  • 453 applications were unable to be verified and are suspected to be fraudulent.

According to investigators, indicators of fraud included:

  • Incorrect or non-existent addresses.
  • False personal identification information.
  • False names.
  • Incorrect Social Security information.
  • In other cases, applications contained accurate voter identification information, but the application was determined to be forged.
Share this:

“Justice Department Orders a Halt to Civil Rights Work”

Department of Justice

NY Times:

The Justice Department has ordered an immediate halt to all new civil rights cases or investigations — and signaled that it might back out of Biden-era agreements with police departments that engaged in discrimination or violence, according to two internal memos sent to staff on Wednesday.

The actions, while expected, represent an abrupt about-face for a department that had for the past four years aggressively investigated high-profile instances of violence and systemic discrimination in local law enforcement and government agencies.

The first of two short memos sent by Chad Mizelle, the chief of staff at the department, ordered a “litigation freeze” at the department’s Civil Rights Division to decide whether Trump appointees want “to initiate any new cases,” according to a screenshot of the document viewed by The New York Times.

Mr. Mizelle also barred lawyers working for the division from filing “motions to intervene, agreed-upon remands, amicus briefs or statements of interest,” unless they receive the approval of senior Trump appointees. It is the clearest sign yet that the hard-line conservatives taking over the department intend to swiftly sweep away the previous administration’s liberal agenda….

Share this:

“‘The gloves are off’: Trump appears poised to cash in from his presidency in new ways”

conflict of interest laws

Fredreka Schouten for CNN:

President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump released meme coins just days before he took the oath of office. A splashy pre-inaugural party was held at a property his company owns. And a Saudi-backed golf tournament is headed to a Trump club this spring.

Trump’s latest money-making moves are raising alarms among ethics watchdogs who say that, just days into his presidency, the Republican appears poised to benefit financially from his final term in office in new and lucrative ways.

During his first four years in office, Trump’s team paid “lip service” to ethics guardrails, said Lisa Gilbert, co-president of the liberal group Public Citizen, which this week sued the Trump administration over a separate issue – claiming that Trump’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency is operating in violation of a federal transparency law that governs advisory panels….

Share this:

“In blow to GOP, NC Supreme Court won’t fast-track lawsuit seeking to throw out 60,000 ballots” (Divided opinions suggest an ultimate possible 3-3 tie in this case)

judicial elections

Will Doran of WRAL:

North Carolina’s Republican-majority state Supreme Court ruled partially against the Republican candidate seeking to join its ranks, rejecting his effort to fast-track a lawsuit seeking to throw out more than 60,000 people’s 2024 ballots.

The case — which could decide a razor-thin, undecided race for a seat on the high court — must go to trial first, the justices ruled ruled Wednesday, shooting down what it called an “extraordinary” effort to skip a trial, bypass the state Court of Appeals, and have the issue decided quickly and directly by the state’s highest court.

Wednesday’s decision was essentially unanimous. However, in an indication that the justices are aware of the close attention on the case, every member of the court wrote a separate opinion explaining his or her decision — except for Riggs due to her recusal.

The majority opinion sending the case back to trial was written by Republican Justice Trey Allen. The court’s other Republican justices — Chief Justice Paul Newby and justices Phil Berger Jr., Tamara Barringer and Richard Dietz — each wrote concurring opinions. The court’s other Democratic justice, Anita Earls, wrote an opinion that concurred in part and dissented in part.

Earls said she would have gone a step further and fully denied Griffin, allowing Riggs to be officially declared the winner. Allowing the election to remain in limbo while this goes back to trial, she said, sets a troubling precedent for future elections. “It sets up courts to be the arbiters of election outcomes instead of voters, and weakens faith in the democratic processes of this state,” she wrote.

You can find the set of opinions at this link. It is possible the Court will ultimately divide 3-3 over what to do, which could leave the lower court opinion in place unless NC has a different way of dealing with tie votes on courts than the normal procedure.

Share this: