Voting rights group demands Trump surrender election deniers' emails

A new lawsuit was filed on Friday by Democracy Docket founder Marc Elias and his group, Democracy Forward. The suit demands information from President Donald Trump's Justice Department, alleging that it is using election-deniers' claims to win judges' approval for information about the 2020 election.

Thus far, a judge in Georgia has approved the FBI's request for copies of 2020 ballots and other information. Instead, the FBI took everything and made no copies of seized documents. The administration is now locked in a legal battle with Fulton County, Georgia. In Arizona, the FBI obtained all the documents related to an election audit conducted by the now-defunct Cyber Ninjas firm, founded by a Trump supporter.

All of it is setting off alarm bells to voting-rights groups, Democracy Docket reported. Critics worry this could be used to build a case that elections are suspicious or rigged, even when there is no evidence of widespread fraud.

“Contemporaneous reporting and documented activities indicate that [the Civil Rights Division] is engaged in the collection, sharing, and analysis of state voter data, including interactions with external actors who have publicly questioned election integrity, raising time-sensitive concerns about transparency, public confidence, and the potential impact of these efforts on election administration and voter participation,” the lawsuit explains.

Trump and his allies have a long history of pushing false claims about the 2020 election, and many of the people now in or near the administration helped spread or support those claims. So, when the DOJ requests voter data or investigates election issues, critics fear it isn't neutral.

The concern isn't just one of the DOJ's lawsuits, however. The Trump administration has been at work trying to change the laws around elections ahead of the November midterms. He's been pressing Congress to pass the "SAVE Act," which would require all voters to confirm their citizenship. Only five out of the 50 states, territories and the District of Columbia indicate citizenship on the Real ID. It might mean every American must re-register to vote or must have their birth certificates, citizenship documents or passports with them to vote. In some states, they've tried to pass their own version of the "SAVE Act."

Voting-rights advocates are afraid that this could ultimately suppress the vote or that voters will feel intimidated when going to the polls.

"In one of its Freedom of Information Act [FOIA] requests, Democracy Forward sought any emails, texts and social media messages Harmeet Dhillon, the DOJ’s civil rights chief," said Democracy Docket. Others targeted by the suit include White House official Kurt Olsen, another election denier and Cleta Mitchell, who founded the so-called Election Integrity Network.

It's only a few of the many requests, however. Another includes "White House officials and Eric Neff, a Republican attorney with a web of ties to election-conspiracy theorists who now serves as acting head of the department’s voting section," the report said.

The emails Democracy Forward wants are anything "containing terms often used in election conspiracy theories. Some examples are things like “Venezuela,” “Maduro,” “voting machines” and “election interference.”