News Roundup: Jan. 6, the Big Lie, and Cyber Ninjas’ Refusal to Comply with Court Order

As new details emerge about the planning of the deadly Jan. 6 Capitol riot, proponents of the Big Lie — including lead Arizona “audit’ contractor Cyber Ninjas — are fighting to keep details of their efforts hidden from the public.

Jan. 6 and Efforts to Overturn the Election: Last weekend, Rolling Stone published an eye-opening report on the involvement of several members of Congress and their staff in meetings with organizers of the protests that preceded the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. The report is based on information from two anonymous protest organizers, who said that Rep. Paul Gosar assured them of a “blanket pardon” from President Trump. They also said that White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows was warned that a rally at the Capitol could turn violent.

The same week as the attack, according to a new Washington Post report, Trump allies, including Rudy Giuliani and Steve Bannon, were using an upscale D.C. hotel as a “command center” for their plot to overturn the election using a dubious (and dangerous) legal strategy.

• “Also present was John Eastman, the scholar, who outlined scenarios for denying Biden the presidency in an Oval Office meeting on Jan. 4. … The effort underscores the extent to which Trump and a handful of true believers were working until the last possible moment to subvert the will of the voters.”
• Eastman is reportedly expected to be subpoenaed by the Jan. 6 select committee.
• After being held in contempt of Congress last week, Bannon appeared at a local Republican dinner in Pennsylvania. He was joined by state Sen. Doug Mastriano, who has been pushing for “election audits” in three counties and had helped organize buses to Washington on Jan. 6.

The Influence of the Big Lie and Far-Right Ideology on Local Politics: The presence of far-right militia members at the Jan. 6 attack has led to increased scrutiny of the reach — including within government — of groups like the Oath Keepers.

• Rolling Stone identified dozens of Oath Keeper members who signed up to join the anti-government militia using their government email addresses.
• Edward Durfee Jr., an Oath Keeper who was at the riot, is running for a seat in the New Jersey General Assembly. He heads his town’s Republican committee.
• WFYI Indianapolis reported this week on a state senator linked to the Oath Keepers; ProPublica has also identified dozens of state and local officials who appeared on a list of more than 35,000 members, including 10 sitting state legislators.
• A new report has found that the anti-government group founded by activist Ammon Bundy (who is running for governor of Idaho) “is rapidly expanding nationwide and making inroads into Canada,” as reported by the Washington Post.

The Big Lie of a stolen election, along with increasingly dangerous rhetoric, also continues to permeate state and local politics. “Constant threats” of violence against secretaries of state who have been targeted by Trump’s voter-fraud lies have led to requests for more protection. And those who back those lies are seeking to replace any Republican election officials who upheld 2020’s election results.

• In Virginia, where residents will next week vote for a new governor, an “influx” of poll watchers has been driven by lies about widespread voter fraud. “In some trainings,” reported the Washington Post, “prospective poll watchers have been taught to see themselves as a bulwark against election fraud, and some groups have been corralling their own poll watcher armies.”
• While not specifically related to the Big Lie, a similarly partisan effort to reshape local school boards has surged across the country, driven mainly by opposition to masks and teaching about racism. Threats against and harassment of board members have increased, leading to the Justice Department announcing this month that it would be investigating the spike in threats.

Bogus Election Reviews: Of course, one of the most visible consequences of the Big Lie remains the proliferation of election “audits” and demands for ballot reviews. In Wisconsin, where we’ve sued for the release of records related to the partisan investigation initiated by Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, Republicans are using the results of a separate audit by the state’s Legislative Audit Bureau to call for yet another election review, seizing on the auditors’ recommendations for new rules.

Vos said this week that his investigation, led by attorney Michael Gableman, could stretch into 2022 and could involve even more subpoenas. He also called for the resignation of the Wisconsin Elections Commission’s administrator, Meagan Wolfe. Meanwhile, Gableman has hired a taxpayer-funded lawyer to fight to keep the investigation alive. And a woman named Carol is helping with the review — but as the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel wrote, “just don’t ask Carol or her bosses what her last name is.” Here are some headlines from other states:

• Conservative group alleges voter fraud in Illinois’s DuPage County, but experts say evidence is weak (Chicago Tribune)
• Michigan’s Macomb County GOP on board with Trump election conspiracy (Macomb Daily)
• Pennsylvania judge grants voters party status in election audit lawsuit (Bucks County Courier Times)

Cyber Ninjas’ Not-So-Transparent Audit: Cyber Ninjas, the lead contractor who ran the Arizona Senate’s partisan election “audit,” promised it would conduct “the most transparent election audit” in U.S. history. But despite court orders ruling that its records related to the “audit” are public and must be released, the company still refuses to turn them over.

• In a letter sent on Tuesday, Arizona Senate President Karen Fann, who hired Cyber Ninjas, said the company was in breach of its contract because of its failure to give the Senate relevant documents. Fann’s letter came more than a month after the Arizona Supreme Court effectively upheld a lower court order to release the documents and just days before the Senate was due in court for contempt hearings.
• CEO Doug Logan even went so far as to tell supporters to contact American Oversight and the Arizona Republic to voice opposition to our lawsuits seeking the release of public records, including by sending “a public records request to make the point.”
• Check out this video about our efforts to bring transparency to the Senate’s sham “audit.”

On the Records

Ken Paxton’s ‘Bats–t Insane’ Election Lawsuit

We obtained records, reported on by the Tampa Bay Times, that show officials in the Florida attorney general’s office mocking the December 2020 lawsuit, brought by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, seeking to overturn the election results. Attorneys ridiculed the widely criticized lawsuit as “batshit insane” and “weird,” and speculated about whether it was Paxton’s “request for a pardon” from Trump. Read more here.

Immigration Judge Hiring Under Trump and Biden

We conducted an analysis of 171 résumés of successful candidates hired by the Trump administration in 2017 and 2018 for the Justice Department’s Executive Office for Immigration Review, and found that 143 listed backgrounds in immigration enforcement, prosecution, or other law enforcement. The Biden administration, which has been criticized by immigration reform advocates for similar hiring practices, this week announced 24 new immigration judges that appear to come from more diverse backgrounds.

Trump Administration Food Box Politicization

Earlier this month, the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis published a report on the Trump administration’s Farmers to Families Food Box program, finding that USDA awarded large contracts to unqualified companies and used the program for political gain. The report cites records obtained by American Oversight, including emails regarding a self-praising Trump-signed letter that contractors were required to include in the food boxes.

New Arizona ‘Audit’ Communications

This week, the Arizona Senate released more records in response to our lawsuit. The records offer new details about the involvement of election conspiracy theorist Jovan Hutton Pulitzer, including emails suggesting that Cyber Ninjas’ team shipped data to Pulitzer. 

The Council for National Policy

On Monday, the Washington Post published an investigation of the secretive Council for National Policy, detailing how the conservative group came to embrace Trump and its involvement in the push for more voting restrictions. “I came to see that it would be a mistake to underestimate the group’s significance,” reporter Robert O’Harrow Jr. wrote. The article mentions an invitation we obtained for a CNP strategy summit this month called “Saving the Country: The Pathway Forward.”

Other Stories We’re Following

The Coronavirus Pandemic

• Florida bucks Biden, strips federal aid from mask mandate schools (Politico)
• FDA vaccine advisers vote to recommend Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine for children 5 to 11 (CNN)
• Another struggle for long Covid patients: disability benefits (New York Times)
• U.S. communities want to share unused vaccines with Mexico, but the White House won’t let them (Washington Post)

National News

• Old power gear is slowing use of clean energy and electric cars (New York Times)
• Men shot by Kyle Rittenhouse can be called ‘rioters’ and ‘looters’ but not ‘victims,’ judge rules (Washington Post)
• Special Counsel John Durham ‘still in action’ investigating origins of Trump-Russia probe, AG Garland says (Yahoo News)
• Former top DHS officials Chad Wolf and Ken Cuccinelli are asked to speak with House committee investigating January 6 (CNN)
• Immigration arrests fell to lowest level in more than a decade during fiscal 2021, ICE data shows (Washington Post)
• Border agents who made violent, lewd Facebook posts faced flawed disciplinary process at CBP, House investigation finds (Washington Post)
• Stephen Miller brings his Trumpist crusade to the courts (Bloomberg)
• Burr’s brother-in-law called stock broker, one minute after getting off phone with senator (ProPublica)

In the States

• Reporter who notified Missouri officials of website flaw did ‘nothing out of line,’ emails show (StateScoop)
• Unexplained exits becoming the norm for Missouri Gov. Mike Parson’s cabinet (Missouri Independent)
• Missouri AG Schmitt’s office reverses story, says campaign paid for Texas trip, not state (Kansas City Star)
• Full list of Republican politicians attending QAnon convention in Las Vegas (Newsweek)
• A ‘shoot to incapacitate’ policy puts Georgia police chief and town in the spotlight (Washington Post)
• As some police fight vaccine rules, DeSantis says Florida will pay them $5,000 to relocate: ‘We’ll treat you better’ (Washington Post)