News Roundup: Trump Accountability, White Supremacy in Military Lawsuit, Arizona and Wisconsin Election Reviews

This week, Donald Trump became the first former president in U.S. history to face federal charges.

On Thursday, the U.S. Department of Justice indicted Trump on seven charges related to his mishandling of classified documents. Earlier this spring, he was charged in New York state court with 34 counts related to hush-money payments during his 2016 campaign.

Operating as if he were above the law was a hallmark of Trump’s presidency. And we’re still learning more about his abuses of office as he seeks a second term, including his unprecedented profiteering from his presidency through his refusal to divest from his businesses — a refusal that led to the spending of millions in taxpayer money at properties he owns.

Just this month, we uncovered records revealing that between July 2017 and November 2019, the Department of Defense spent nearly $1 million at Trump Organization properties — far higher than previously known totals and a stark reminder of the self-enrichment that was a feature of his time in office.

• As noted by Zach Everson of Forbes, which reported on the records, the previous publicly known high for Pentagon spending at Trump businesses appears to be $300,000, but there’s “no full public accounting of how much taxpayers shelled out to the Trump Organization during the Trump administration.”
• The records were released in response to a FOIA request we submitted in 2019. “While we expect to receive receipts of government spending at Trump properties for years to come, we urge the government to pick up the pace so that the American people have this information” before the next election, our executive director Heather Sawyer told Forbes.

Suing for Records Related to White Supremacy in Military
On Thursday, we filed two lawsuits seeking the release of records detailing incidents of white supremacy or racist extremism across the U.S. armed forces.

• The lawsuits against the Army, Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard, National Guard, Defense Department and the army national guards of four states (Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and Texas) came after each failed to properly respond to our FOIA requests.
• Documents we obtained in earlier investigations have illustrated how branches of the military have failed to adequately track incidents of white supremacy within their ranks. Here’s a USA Today story from 2021 about those records.
• Recently, we obtained documents from the Navy and Marine Corps that include records of reported incidents; read more about them here.

Victory for Accountability in Wisconsin
Last year, we filed a lawsuit (represented by Democracy Forward and Pines Bach LLC) asking the court to require the Wisconsin Office of Special Counsel — the entity established by the state Assembly to conduct a partisan and baseless investigation of the 2020 election — to retain its public records and to disclose documents related to the review. On Monday, the Dane County Circuit Court denied OSC’s motions to dismiss the lawsuit, and granted a temporary injunction against any further deletion of records by the office.

• The ruling is an important victory for accountability, because it affirms that OSC — and any future version of it — must comply with the state’s record retention laws.
• Despite indications that the investigation has been closed for months, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos has continued to authorize the legal costs for OSC’s ongoing fight against transparency.
• In the ruling, Judge Jacob B. Frost wrote that OSC had “throw[n] a variety of arguments against the wall to try to avoid the Retention Law” and that those arguments “all fail.” Read more here.

On the Records

Arizona ‘Audit’ Texts of Doug Logan and Christina Bobb
Cyber Ninjas CEO Doug Logan was originally slated to participate in Wisconsin’s election review, according to records released by the Arizona Senate that were previously held by Cyber Ninjas.

The records contain text messages exchanged by Logan and Trump-allied lawyer Christina Bobb in 2021, and include discussion about the discredited Maricopa County election “audit.”

• Bobb told Logan to expect calls from attorney Michael Gableman, who headed the Wisconsin inquiry, and Wisconsin Rep. Janel Brandtjen, a vocal election denier. In one message, Bobb said that she’d told Brandtjen that “we need to square away the funding before launching anything,” then asked Logan: “But once the funding is done, you’d be available to audit WI?”
• Texts from Bobb, who helped fundraise for the “audit” and later joined the Trump legal team, reference conversations with the former president about the “audit.”
• The messages also include Logan’s stated determination not to turn over requested public records. “I’m going to refuse to comply,” he wrote in September 2021. More details here.

Other Stories We’re Following

Election Denial and Threats to Democracy

• YouTube will no longer take down false claims about U.S. elections (NPR)
• True the Vote leadership accused of using donations for personal gain (ProPublica) 
• The Gableman investigation is long over, but it keeps losing in court. A judge handed it another defeat Monday (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)
• Plenty of conspiracies, but few facts at large election fraud summit in Ravalli County (Daily Montanan)
• As Mohave County pursues a plan to hand-count all 2024 ballots, Secretary of State steps in (Arizona Mirror) 
•  ​’Our numbers are screwy’: Cyber Ninjas CEO admits he couldn’t tally hand count of ballots ​(Arizona Republic)
• Arizona ‘audit’ leader traded messages with dozens of ‘Stop the Steal’ partisans, texts show (Arizona Republic)

Voting Rights

• Supreme Court rules in favor of Black voters in Alabama redistricting case (Associated Press)
• N.C. Republicans push major election law changes (Axios)
• Disabled Mississippians now face even more hurdles in voting (Mother Jones)
• How much influence did Trump attorney have on NC elections bill? Leaked documents shine a light (WRAL.com)
• How a fringe legal theory became a threat to democracy (New Yorker)
• How the far right tore apart one of the best tools to fight voter fraud (NPR)

In the States

• Florida taxpayers pick up bill for Ron DeSantis’s culture war lawsuits (Guardian)
• Oklahoma school board approves what would be the 1st taxpayer-funded religious school in U.S. (Associated Press)
• Facing youth prison crisis, Texas lawmakers opt to build new facilities and funnel more kids to adult system (Texas Tribune) 

National News

• Smoke clouds bring a warning: There’s no escaping climate’s threat to health (Washington Post)
• Billionaire Harlan Crow’s lawyer agrees to speak with Senate panel probing Clarence Thomas gifts (NBC News)
• Justice Thomas delays disclosures after reports of travel, property sale (Washington Post)
• Moms for Liberty among conservative groups named ‘extremist’ by civil rights watchdog (NPR)

LGBTQ Rights

• 19 states have laws restricting gender-affirming care, some with the possibility of a felony charge (CNN)
• Missouri governor signs bill banning gender-affirming care for transgender minors, some adults (Associated Press)
• Missouri hires an anti-abortion marketing agency (St. Louis Post-Dispatch) 
• A Kansas City library system has banned LGBTQ Pride book displays in children’s areas (KCUR Kansas City) 
• Federal judge freezes Florida gender-affirming care bans (Axios)
• Transgender adults in Florida are blindsided that a new law also limits their access to health care (Associated Press)
• Gov. Greg Abbott signs legislation barring trans youth from accessing transition-related care (Texas Tribune)
• Trump-appointed federal judge rules Tennessee law restricting drag shows is unconstitutional (CBS News)
• Louisiana lawmakers pass ban on transgender health care for minors (New York Times)

Abortion and Reproductive Rights

• Abortion providers sue Kansas over longstanding waiting period, new medication rule (Associated Press)
• Ohio Sec. of State LaRose admits making constitution harder to amend is ‘100% about … abortion’ (Ohio Capital Journal) 
• Missouri AG had no authority to inflate cost of abortion amendment, auditor argues (Missouri Independent)
• South Bend abortion clinic closes, drops out of legal challenge to Indiana’s near-total ban (South Bend Tribune)

Government Transparency and Public Records Law

• After a week’s delay, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick signs bill to increase transparency in public records law (Texas Tribune)
• Alabama House committee advances bill to overhaul open records law (Alabama Reflector) 

Immigration

• Florida arranged migrant flights to California, where officials are considering legal action (CBS News)
• Texas sheriff recommends criminal charges in DeSantis’ migrant flights to Martha’s Vineyard (Miami Herald)
• Texas to install floating barriers in Rio Grande to block migrants (Washington Post)
• Florida notches another legal win over Biden on immigration (Politico)
• After flying migrants to California, DeSantis calls for multi-state border partnership (Miami Herald) 

Trump Accountability

• Trump made over $80 million from UK and Ireland while president (CREW)
• Mark Meadows testified to federal grand jury in special counsel probe of Trump (CNN)
• Trump’s lawyers meet with Justice Department officials following complaints about special counsel probe (CNN)

Jan. 6 Investigations

• Trump-funded studies disputing election fraud are focus in two probes (Washington Post) 
• Two more Oath Keepers members receive sentences for sedition in Jan. 6 case (New York Times)
• Atlanta prosecutors contact firms that consulted with Trump campaign (New York Times)
• Jan. 6 cases yield courtroom wins but no change in extremist threat (Washington Post)
• Trump ally Bannon subpoenaed in special counsel Jack Smith’s Jan. 6 grand jury probe (NBC News)