The time is now to fight GOP 'election subversion' and efforts to 'sabotage democracy': conservative

In a report published by Politico on June 1, Washington, D.C.-based journalist Heidi Przybyla described a plan by GOP operatives to “install” an “army” of “trained recruits” as “regular poll workers” in Democratic precincts — recruits who would be “in direct contact with” Republican Party attorneys. Never Trump conservative Jennifer Rubin, in a June 2 column for the Washington Post, describes this scheme as a recipe for “election subversion” and argues that it merits a comprehensive investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice and Attorney General Merrick Garland.

“In case you thought President Donald Trump’s defeat in 2020, the ensuing investigations of armed insurrectionists and the work of the House January 6 select committee had deterred future attempts to sabotage democracy,” Rubin writes, “think again…. This self-described ‘army’ of 2020 election deniers, coupled with lawyers ready to throw the election into chaos, should set off alarm bells at the Justice Department. While this evidence comes from Michigan, it is a scheme that former Trump adviser Stephen K. Bannon, among others, has been pushing nationwide.”

According to Rubin, “democracy defenders” have been “taking note” of this “scheme.” One of them is attorney Norman Eisen, who was a co-counsel for the House Judiciary Committee during former President Donald Trump’s first impeachment in 2019.

Eisen, interviewed for Rubin’s column, told her, “Elections and government officials, nonprofit groups, pro-democracy political actors, and, if necessary, law enforcement and the courts, can and will rise to the occasion as they’ve done before to respond to these kinds of nefarious activities…. To the extent that (district attorneys) and other officials are planning to suppress voting rights in cahoots with extreme partisan actors, federal and state law enforcement officials will certainly be monitoring the situation closely.”

Rubin argues that the “ongoing plot to disrupt democracy” by far-right MAGA Republicans “underscores the importance of the January 6 committee’s upcoming hearings.” Eisen told Rubin that the hearings could have “an important role to play in exposing the fact that, in a sense, the insurrection never ended.”

Rubin also interviewed Michael Teter of the 65 Project, a group that is seeking punishment for Trump attorneys who filed frivolous and blatantly dishonest lawsuits after the 2020 presidential election. The “65” part, according to the bipartisan group’s website, stems from the fact that “Trump’s Big Lie Lawyers filed 65 lawsuits across swing states to overturn the legitimate election results.”

Teter told Rubin, “Lawyers remain a central part of the Trumpian scheme to sow unwarranted doubt about our democracy and to disrupt our elections. They’ve taken the lessons they learned in 2020 and are going to redouble their efforts…. The state bars need to provide another lesson: that any attorney who lends their law license and the profession’s integrity to the effort will face severe discipline.”

Ben Berwick, counsel for the group Protect Democracy, told Rubin that Przybyla’s reporting in Politico adds to the “mountain of evidence that an anti-democratic faction is intent on subverting future elections if they don’t like the choice of the voters.”

“They are proposing new laws and installing people in key positions to make sure they can succeed in future elections where they failed in 2020,” Berwick warned. “While the tactics are new, this is not the first time a faction has tried to obstruct their fellow Americans from voting.”