BREAKING: Trump repeatedly asked the DOJ to undermine election results

 

BREAKING: The Senate Judiciary Committee just released a report showing that former President Trump explicitly asked the Department of Justice to undermine the results of the 2020 election nine times, with support from DOJ lawyer Jeffrey Clark. The report details how Trump and Chief of Staff Mark Meadows pushed the Department of Justice to validate their false claims of election fraud. Trump also considered replacing his acting Attorney General with Jeffrey Clark, a vocal supporter of election fraud conspiracies, to help his case. The report has made clear what we already know: Trump’s conduct following the 2020 election was a flagrant abuse of presidential power. These findings clearly implicate members of Trump’s Department of Justice in perpetuating the Big Lie. Now the Department of Justice must take steps to hold Trump, Clark, and their associates accountable for all federal crimes they may have committed. Share our petition on Facebook and Twitter: Tell Attorney General Merrick Garland to establish an independent Department of Justice task force to investigate and, if necessary, prosecute Trump and his associates. Free Speech For People is leading the campaign for an independent US Department of Justice task force to investigate any potential federal criminal or civil violations that may have been committed by former President Trump, members of his administration, or his campaign, business, or other associates. According to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin, Trump’s actions in the wake of the 2020 election brought the United States very close to “a full-blown constitutional crisis.” But without action from the Justice Department, Trump and his allies cannot be held accountable for attempting to subvert our democracy. Over 200,000 people, including you, have demanded that the Department of Justice investigate President Trump and his associates for federal criminal and civil violations. But we need to spread the word and show the DOJ that this campaign has widespread support. Forward this email to a friend and tell them to sign our petition. Because nobody – not even the president – is above the law. In solidarity, John Bonifaz President, Free Speech For People

Democracy for Massachusetts, Not Corporations

 

In March 2010, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in SpeechNow.org v. FEC opened the door to super PACs by holding that the federal law limiting contributions to political committees to $5,000 per person each year could not be applied to a political committee that promised to make only “independent expenditures.” Alongside the rise of super PACs, the nation has also witnessed money from corporations with significant foreign ownership flowing into our elections as a result of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2010 ruling in Citizens United, which swept away longstanding precedent barring corporate money in our political process. For example, Amazon, which is more than 5% foreign-owned, spent over $1.5 million to try to influence the outcome of the 2019 Seattle City Council elections. That amount was more than the combined total amount of money raised by candidates not supported by Amazon. It led the Seattle City Council to pass our model law banning foreign-influenced corporate spending in elections. Now Massachusetts has a chance to pass statewide laws to ban foreign-influenced corporate spending in our elections and abolish super PAC spending. S.454 and S.455, introduced by Senator Jo Comerford, and H.839 and H.840, introduced by Representative Erika Uyterhoeven, can help Bay Staters reclaim our democracy and lead the national movement for campaign finance reform. Both bills have been referred to the Joint Committee on Election Laws, and will be considered at a virtual hearing on Wednesday, September 15. To pass these bills, our legislators need to hear from us. Will you testify in support of these model bills? Register to submit written and/or video testimony by Monday, September 13 at 5 pm to show your support for S.454, S.455, H.839, and H.840! When you register, check the boxes for S.454, S.455, H. 839, and H840. If you choose to submit video testimony, you’ll have up to 3 minutes to make your statement at this virtual hearing. You could also check the boxes for H.772, introduced by Representative Michael Day, a companion bill that would also abolish super PACs, and for S.482, introduced by Senator Mark Montigny, a companion bill that would also prohibit foreign influenced-corporate spending in elections. Click here to view talking points to guide your testimony. Free Speech For People is proud to have helped to draft and to support this legislation. With your help, we can reclaim a democracy by and for the people of Massachusetts. Submit testimony by September 13 to support the end of corporate dominance in our elections. In solidarity, Alexandra Flores-Quilty Campaign Director, Free Speech For People Paid for by Free Speech For People contact@freespeechforpeople.org

Voting system vendors shouldn’t write their own regulations

 

I’m honored to be giving a presentation at 2:30 ET today at DEFCON 29’s Voting Village in Las Vegas, where some of the world’s leading cybersecurity experts have come together to answer one question: Does the United States have the will to demand vendors provide highly secure, accurate, voter-verifiable voting systems? Unfortunately, this is TBD. Recently, the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC) deleted key provisions in proposed federal voting security standards to allow the inclusion of wireless networking devices, significantly degrading the security of our voting systems. We uncovered that this was done at the urging of voting machine manufacturers. These standards were drafted over the course of several years, in a weedy, wonky federal process. At Free Speech For People, we committed to watchdogging every step of that process, and we relentlessly monitored the EAC and all its actions. We clued into evidence indicating that the EAC was holding illegal, secret meetings with voting machine vendors and filed Freedom of Information Act requests for those communications. When the EAC refused to produce those communications, we sued, forcing the EAC to produce documents that established the fact that the EAC was meeting privately with the voting system vendors to unlawfully solicit vendors’ comments on the federal voting system standards, at the expense of the most basic cybersecurity best practices. We stayed on top of the situation and when it was clear the EAC had removed a ban on wireless networking, we enlisted computer security and election experts to speak out to oppose the changes. The EAC failed to listen -- so we sued to reinstate the wireless ban under federal laws that require the federal voting systems standards be developed in a completely transparent and public process. Though the EAC has not banned wireless devices (yet), our advocacy has already succeeded in Ohio, where the Secretary of State and Board of Voting System Examiners were swayed by the information we publicized and banned wireless devices in voting machines throughout the state. This is just one of the many ways Free Speech For People is fighting for free and fair elections. We are taking state elections officials to court for voter suppression and unequal voting practices. We are advancing our victory in our Minnesota voter intimidation case, brought on behalf of the Council on American-Islamic Relations of Minnesota and the League of Women Voters of Minnesota, as a model for challenging voter intimidation across the country. And, we are working with allies across the country to demand the US Senate end the filibuster and pass the For the People Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act to protect our democracy and the fundamental right to vote. Thank you for being part of our nationwide movement to ensure every American has an equal voice and an equal vote in our democracy. Your support is critical as we continue to fight to defend our democracy. In solidarity, Susan Greenhalgh Senior Advisor for Election Security, Free Speech For People