Trump lawyer who tried to overturn the 2020 election gets named to US Election Assistance Commission: report
President Donald J. Trump listens as Cleta Mitchell delivers remarks during an event on the 100th Anniversary of the Ratification of the 19th Amendment Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2020, in the Blue Room of the White House.
Cleta Mitchell, who helped then-President Donald Trump try to overturn the election results in Georgia and later helped funnel funds to the pro-Trump "fraudit" in Arizona, has been named to the Board of Advisors of the federal Election Assistance Commission.
The Election Assistance Commission (not to be confused with the Federal Election Commission, or FEC,) works with states on voting system guidelines, redistricting, cybersecurity, state voter files, voting by mail, and recounts and audits.
Mitchell, a "fiercely partisan Republican election lawyer" whose work in years past included anti-LGBTQ efforts, was on the infamous call to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger when Trump asked him to "find 11,780 votes," recorded audio revealed in January. The release of that tape led to Mitchell's resignation from her law firm, Foley & Lardner.
The news of Mitchell's appointment was reported by the editorial director of Votebeat:
Breaking: Cleta Mitchell \u2014 an attorney who who was integral in helping Trump craft the false narrative he won the 2020 election \u2014 has been named to the board of advisors for the Election Assistance Commission.pic.twitter.com/aerONsu1tD— Jessica Huseman (@Jessica Huseman) 1637015767
The Guardian's Sam Levine adds that Mitchell was also "involved in efforts to coordinate new voting restrictions in states this year," pointing to this damning Guardian article from April.
As Huseman notes, Mitchell told The New Yorker's Jane Mayer in August, "I don't think we can say with certainty who won" the 2020 presidential election, which is false.
Mitchell is a member of the secretive and "shadowy" far right wing Christian nationalist and plutocratic Council for National Policy. Among the group's alleged other members are Turning Point USA's Charlie Kirk, Family Research Council's Tony Perkins, Liberty Counsel's Mat Stavers, and American Family Association's Tim Wildmon.
