Everyone knew this was coming…. The Feds are attempting to get involved in the Maricopa County ballot audit. The DOJ Civil Rights Division has sent a letter [pdf available here] to the Arizona State Senate claiming their review of Lawfare statements and media reports may show evidence of auditing issues that violate federal laws.
Last week a group of Lawfare activists [SEE HERE], including New York University Law School – which leads to Andrew Weissmann, asked the DOJ to get involved.
The ridiculous letter from the Biden DOJ goes on to cite media reports from the Washington Post as evidence to justify their involvement.
Remember, previously the DOJ narrative was that each state makes up its own election rules. Now the DOJ is saying, falsely, that Arizona might be breaking federal laws.
Their first concern [as predicted] centers around ballot security. Again, remember, the Maricopa County election board would not let the auditors use the county tabulation center [SEE HERE] so the ballots and equipment had to be moved to Veterans Memorial Coliseum (AZ State Fairgrounds). Now the DOJ is citing that move as a potential issue for the security of the ballots and auditing procedures.
The first issue relates to a number of reports suggesting that the ballots, elections systems, and election materials that are the subject of the Maricopa County audit are no longer under the ultimate control of state and local elections officials, are not being adequately safeguarded by contractors at an insecure facility, and are at risk of being lost, stolen, altered, compromised or destroyed.
Federal law creates a duty to safeguard and preserve federal election records. The Department is charged with enforcement of provisions of the Civil Rights Act of 1960, 52 U.S.C. §§ 20701-20706. This statute requires state and local election officials to maintain, for twenty-two months after the conduct of an election for federal office, “all records and papers” relating to any “act requisite to voting in such election.”
The DOJ’s second issue is even more obtuse. They cite federal election law for voters rights, as the DOJ is worried that auditors will visit -and intimidate- people and places who have a record of multiple ballots from the same address or non residence:
The second issue relates to the Cyber Ninjas’ statement of work for this audit. Among other things, the statement of work indicates that the contractor has been working “with a number of individuals” to “identify voter registrations that did not make sense, and then knock on doors to confirm if valid voters actually lived at the stated address.” … these federal preservation and retention requirements for elections records is to “secure a more effective protection of the right to vote.”
The statement of work also indicates that the contractor will “select a minimum of three precincts” in Maricopa County “with a high number of anomalies” in order “to conduct an audit of voting history” and that voters may be contacted through a “combination of phone calls and physical canvassing” to “collect information of whether the individual voted in the election” in November 2020. Statement of Work at ¶ 5.1. This description of the proposed work of the audit raises concerns regarding potential intimidation of voters. The Department enforces a number of federal statutes that prohibit intimidation of persons for voting or attempting to vote. For example, Section 11(b) of the Voting Rights Act provides that “No person, whether acting under color of law or otherwise, shall intimidate, threaten, or coerce, or attempt to intimidate, threaten, or coerce any person for voting or attempting to vote, or intimidate, threaten, or coerce, or attempt to intimidate, threaten, or coerce any person for urging or aiding any person to vote or attempt to vote…”
Both issues are moot; but the DOJ effort to intervene in the audit should not be taken lightly. Democrats in Arizona, the Lawfare group, the media and the DOJ are all working together to undermine the audit.
The Arizona State Senate should tell the DOJ to go pound sand; however, the DOJ effort is really an attempt to build a framework to undermine the results of the audit if/when fraud is uncovered.
The DOJ is making a concerted effort to assist the Biden administration in retaining the fraud. That’s the bottom line.
Here’s the letter: (pdf version – AND – Embed pdf below)
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We all know where this is coming from…
Honestly, that statement “the information of which we are aware” in the DOJ letter demands an in-your-face response from the AZ Senate along the lines of, “The people providing you with the information are lying, and they’ve lost repeatedly in state court. It does not come as a surprise to the AZ Senate that the US Department of Justice would not be aware of repeated defeats by its allies in court. And it comes as no surprise to the AZ Senate that the DOJ would write such a letter given DOJ’s long history of both planting false news in the media, and using false news in the media to spawn unlawful investigations. Perhaps instead of watching MSNBC and CNN, the US Department of Justice should adopt a more stringent set of criteria that doesn’t involve acting as legal representation for Lawfare and the Democratic Party.”
Exactly what I meant and much better said.
Just as with the Steel Dossier … DoJ is using the circular logic attack. They feed the media the stories and then use the media stories as a source.
I fully expect DOJ to go “judge-shopping” for an unaccountable federal judge appointed by one of the Democratic presidents or a dedicated NeverTrumper in the mold of John Roberts for this political hatchet job. A judge like that will then be “magically” assigned (it simply must be magic) to the case and issues a TRO or an injunction based on nothing more than sheer conjecture and fact-free allegations of systemic racism or discrimination.
You are 100% correct. IF the Press or DOJ had even an ounce of integrity the hot investigation would be to find out how EVERY time the Left need a court win, the exact correctly leaning judge is magically assigned the case. EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.
Open faced tyranny from corrupt DOJ. Bagpipes Barr left explicit instructions. No election fraud talk will be tolerated. They are all in on it and they know this audit will set off a chain of events occurring in the other corrupt states. They are going to fight this every step of the way. They will try get to somebody that can put a stop to this, they always do. They are no doubt lining up the judges and planning the raid as we speak. Followed by a takeover and a slow walk investigation.
They all knew Trumps popularity had soared and he was unbeatable, their plan all along was to steal the election. There was no other way. Trying to cover their tracks now, may God protect the decent folks who are trying to get the truth out.
I agree.
The real question is what the people will do about it. Yet again we are faced with a chance to stand in the way of their tyranny. Literally. Will we finally begin to confront evil, or will we keep whining about its spread?
Gov. Ducey should call up the AZ National guard to surround the building and then order them to stop anyone without proper credentials from entering the facility. No DOJ, no FBI, nobody. Then let * try to attack with the regular Army.
Do you really think RINO Governor Ducey wasn’t part of the fraud effort in the first place?
Yes. Unfortunately Artslap9’s plan would not work because you are correct.
THIS !!! A thousand times this !!!
The current DOJ is a member of the fraudalent election outcome.
Their actions are expected. Fck them
If my sheriff allows me to be harmed due to any online statement, then he isn’t who I thought he was.
Merrick Garland is just another con man.
Another opportunity: https://justthenews.com/sites/default/files/2021-05/bennettrouters.pdf
Walk in as a protest group of thousands, seize the evidence, and turn it over to the audit group. I mean this literally. Let’s see if Maricopa county would like to start bashing heads over peaceful people whose sole purpose is revealing truth, whatever its outcome.
Federal law creates a duty to safeguard and preserve federal election records. The Department is charged with enforcement of provisions of the Civil Rights Act of 1960, 52 U.S.C. §§ 20701-20706. This statute requires state and local election officials to maintain, for twenty-two months after the conduct of an election for federal office, “all records and papers” relating to any “act requisite to voting in such election.”
And yet, dozens of blue cities have been shredding ballots and all affiliated documentation. Of course no action has been taken against them. The USA is dead. The leftists are in control and have won. There is no hope or going back. This will degenerate in to street level combat.
I have a question for the group.
Everyone is waiting for AZ to be the first domino that triggers the other states to conduct similar forensic audits.
My question is:
Why does AZ have to be the first domino? Why isn’t this level of audit already being conducted in the other states?
I thought we had a majority in most of biggest cheating states.
I have suggested that ‘all’ red districts and counties conduct a similar audit as we don’t need to contend with a corrupt election board. I think vote flipping is more wide spread than is currently known.
Analysis of the Edison Research time series tally data shows that the vote flips occurred in almost all states with electronic voting.
What? A multi-frontal attack on this big cheat? Republicans? Sorry, they are not that aggressive.
Bring in the democrats that crossed over to Trump. They likely have a lot of ideas. Trump fought for so many union jobs and trade jobs.
Hell, they can’t even mention it let alone fight for our freedom.
Moot. Standing. Timeliness. The DoJ didn’t give a f–k about the election integrity at any point prior to the electoral college certification.
The entire DoJ and FBI need to be abolished. Not reformed, not “further training is needed.” Not reassigned. Just done away with. Same with most of our national security apparatus
can’t agree with you more…
I have a huge problem with the Government acting upon a “news article” without checking primary sources FIRST!! Shouldn’t news be coming FROM the Government TO the News, not the other way around?? The Government shouldn’t be taking action based on words from the Town Gossip!
They produce the gossip and then act upon it.
I think it really is illegal. A court that cared at all for actual law and justice would call any unconfirmed news story hearsay from an unreliable source.
I would just ignore them. Voting is a SATE issue, not a Federal Gov. issue.
Great point – simply throw the SCOTUS wet noodle logic back in their faces.
“the federal government has recently affirmed that the method by which we conduct a vote is at the states discretion. Therefore, we kindly ask that you slag off and mind your own business.”
We hear Feds can’t get involved in election process as it is a State run.
How difficult is it to argue the State has right to review that same process?
Audits are necessary in elections.
Its only as difficult as a rational judicial system allows it to be.
As such, you should not plan on a court giving a damn whats right, what the rules are, what came before, etc.
You hear wrong. For election of Representative and Senator, USCONS I/4 gives Congress power to “make or alter such Regulations”. Beyond that, the 1965 Voting Rights Act gave broad oversight authority to DoJ for various aspects of voting.
The Supreme Court has made rulings since the election that if consistent, would nullify/change/ban Federal interference. That is what Cocoon is referring to.
We need to make them eat Rules For Radicals and force them to live up to their own standards. When they make a ruling that is convenient for them, we need to force to to use the same ruling when it is inconvenient for them. When the Supreme Court rules the Federal government cannot hear a case against other States cheating to change the outcome of a national election because what happens in any indivivual State is ONLY subject to oversight by that State, we need to force them to live by the standard that ONLY a State has control of elections, as they have ruled when they liked the outcome that produced.
When the DOJ enters like this, without jurisdiction, it allows the FBI to raid individuals and groups.
Prolonging the process and shifting the attention.
That’s the goal here.
Anybody associated with the recount should know their communications have been monitored.
That’s the truth here.
I’m no lawyer and you need lawyers to word this in legalese, but the Arizona Legislature needs to draft a reply to the DOJ letter that runs something like this;
To The Very Partisan DOJ;
The current Supreme Court of The USA has set precedent that elections, federal or otherwise, are solely in the control and jurisdiction of the indivual states and exceptions are are rare or nonexistant, particularly concerning whether actions taken by a state may effect the outcomes and thereby disenfranchising citizens of other USA states of their right to a free and fair election. The Supreme Court has spoken; you, as representing the federal government have no standing. While we appreciate the concern on on your part, you DO NOT know what is good for the citezns of Arizona better than their duly elected officials whom, according to the Supreme Court of the USA, have the SOLE responsibility to ensure fair elections in the state of Arizona. Even if we would like for you to help us ensure fair elections, the Supreme Court of the USA says you are not allowed to help us. YOU HAVE NO STANDING OR JURISDICTION. So leave us alone.
Even if you had standing to help us protect and oversee our ballots, you, at the DOJ, have set precedent yourself by ignoring of widely reported and very strong evidence of numerous cases of states , such as Georgia for one, absolutely NOT protecting ballots and LIKELY aiding and abetting the destruction of elction ballots. You have presented us with no new evidence that hasn’t already been ruled against in our state courts, which the Surpreme Court of the USA says falls strictly within the jursdiction of the States. This means you have no standing. Unless you launch investigations and seizures in the several States which have authintic ballot security issues FIRST, to avoid treating Arizona citizens UNEQUALLY under the law, you CANNOT launch LEGAL investigations into the Arizona ballots that HAVE PROVEN to our state courts to be secrure and NOT in volation of the law. On this issue, again, you have no standing through these several diffent legal approaches. Leave us alone.
IF you prove you have standing to our State courts, because the Supreme Court has already ruled the Federal government has no standing and we will force the Supreme Court to stand behind its ruling OR overturn it and accept the fraud cases presented to it about the last federal election, and prove to our State coursts until all appeals have been exhausted, or after a reversal by the Supreme Court giving standing for affected parties and States rights to ALLOW the Federal government to once again have standing in legal issues with State elctions and win your case to investigate Arizona without investigating the ACTUAL cases of States not protecting the ballots, which would not be equal protection for Arizona citezens under the law, OR you present your case to investigate to the State courts, the ONLY way you MAY have standing, according to the Supreme Court of the USA at this time, and after the Stae Legislatsure has exhasted all appeals to the State court, we will stand by the courts ruling.
If however you do not go through the proper legal channels, the DOJ nor any other Federal Department will NOT be allowed to approach the Arizona Ballot Audit. Any approach will be met with the arrest of ANY federal employee who might possibly interfer with the Audit. The first arrest will be fully prosecuted for trespassing and additional arrests will began at felony criminal trespassing and possibly more serious charges. The Legislature will, by law if necessary, surround the Audit with State Patrol and volunteers from Sheriffs departments from across the State.
You have no standing. You are not wanted or needed. Leave us alone.
Didn’t realize how long that had gotten until I posted it. Sorry
“MAY”= WE NEED TO INVESTIGATE…SEE YOU SOON
So glad the camera are livestreaming everything 24/7. Hard to make those allegations when there are so many eyes on the process
The correct response from Arizona would be to say that neither the federal executive nor the federal legislature nor the federal judiciary have any jurisdiction, and that any federal officers who attempt to interfere in the audit will be arrested by state troopers. They should further de late that federal judicial injunctions and orders are a usurpation of the clear Constitutional authority of the state legislature and will be ignored.
An allegedly independent DOJ voicing concerns without so much as a shred of any evidence, based solely on the letters sent to them by a number of Democratic partisan political organizations, is nothing more than a thinly disguised attempt by the Main Justice to protect the outcome of clearly stolen 2020 election and to protect this president.*
Lawfare strikes again.
There is no more DOJ. There is only the American version of the Gestapo.
FBI and DOJ apparently have no limits.
Even when they publicly state it’s States Right to determine their election process, auditing same comes under Federal scrutiny? Like audits aren’t part of a free and fair election process?
Sadly,recent history has shown, anyone attached to this audit should assume their communications are being monitored.
And maybe those two hops away as well.
I believe this challenge to the Legislative sponsored audit has no merit. The Constitution gives plenary authority to the States regarding election issues. Clearly this is another delaying tactic by attorneys who know better.