Newsletter: Mark Robinson’s Anti-Abortion Communications; Stefanie Lambert’s Arrest

As lieutenant governor, North Carolina’s Republican candidate for governor indicated support for a six-week abortion ban and received sample legislation from a right-wing group, records we obtained show.

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Records obtained by American Oversight and reported on this week by the New York Times include emails from last year in which North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, who is currently running for governor, indicated support for a six-week abortion ban and received sample legislation from a right-wing group.

As the Times lays out, Robinson — who in the past has supported former President Trump’s stolen-election lies — has a “long history of inflammatory statements” that illustrate his far-right worldview and support for injecting his religious beliefs into government, including his opposition to abortion rights.

According to the records, Robinson met with the N.C. Values Coalition in January 2023 to discuss a bill that would ban abortion after the detection of a fetal heartbeat, usually around the sixth week of pregnancy.
Robinson asked the group which lawmakers to pressure to support the policy. The N.C. Values Coalition followed up with a list of nine state senators and 26 state representatives to target, which was then shared by Robinson’s chief of staff with other people in his office.
While North Carolina did not pass that measure, the legislature did ban abortion after 12 weeks that May.

We’ve been investigating efforts to restrict reproductive rights across the country, filing public records requests in several states for communications, messaging guidance, and analyses about potential or current abortion bans.

We also filed several requests seeking information about the potential use of surveillance technology to identify and prosecute abortion seekers in certain states. Read more about our investigation into efforts to restrict abortion rights here.

Stefanie Lambert’s Election Denial Activities in Michigan

Attorney Stefanie Lambert was a key player in post-election hunts for non-existent widespread fraud, and last August was indicted in Michigan in connection with a plan to illegally access and tamper with voting machines in 2021.

On Monday, those charges caught up with her while she was in federal court representing Patrick Byrne, the former Overstock CEO active in Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 election, who is being sued by Dominion Voting Systems for defamation.
At the conclusion of a hearing in Byrne’s case in Washington, D.C., Lambert was arrested on a bench warrant.

When she was arrested, Lambert reportedly had just been questioned about having shared Dominion documents — case evidence she had signed a protective order agreeing not to share unless the judge allowed — with Sheriff Dar Leaf of Barry County, Mich.

Leaf is another familiar name in the election denial movement, having advanced baseless claims about fraud through his own long-running investigation.
Leaf is now fighting a subpoena related to his investigation, claiming that turning over the subpoenaed documents would “usurp” the investigation.

We previously obtained records that shed light on Lambert’s and Leaf’s activities in Michigan and demonstrate how several of the same activists worked closely together to undermine trust in the election’s results.

We obtained text messages from Lambert and others about accessing and running tests on voting equipment in March and April 2021.
Last August, we reached a settlement agreement with Leaf in a lawsuit that forced his office to release several records of its communications with prominent election deniers.
The records included copies of communications between Leaf and Catherine Engelbrecht, the voter fraud alarmist who founded True the Vote.
We also obtained an August 2022 email in which Leaf shared information with four other county sheriffs about a joint meeting with Engelbrecht and “Greg” from True the Vote, likely referring to director Gregg Phillips.

On the Records

New College of Florida Hiring Records

American Oversight has obtained additional records that shed light on the controversial hiring and recruitment practices at New College of Florida. The documents include resumes of newly hired visiting professors, some of whom appear to have conservative political connections, like David Ellis, a visiting associate professor of political science who has promoted false claims about transgender people on a conservative blog he runs.

We previously obtained documents that showed some recent hires had little to no prior education experience — but did have close ties to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis or conservative politics.
The records help shed light on DeSantis’ efforts to reshape the public liberal arts college into a conservative institution. Read more about our investigation into right-wing attacks on education here.

Join Us for a Virtual Event!

On March 26 at 2 p.m. ET, we’ll be joined by voting-rights and election-administration experts from All Voting is Local, the Brennan Center, and the Campaign Legal Center for a discussion of how the election denial movement and far-right misinformation pushed nine states to reject the nonpartisan Electronic Registration Information Center.

Register now for “Democracy Under Threat: The Campaign to Dismantle the ERIC Voter List System” to hear from our panelists on the anti-voter networks pushing the withdrawals from ERIC, the grave impacts of the exodus, and what it means for the 2024 election. We will share highlights from our in-depth investigation and report, and attendees will be able to ask questions. Panelists include:

Alex Gulotta, State Director at All Voting is Local, Arizona
Andrew Graber, Democracy Counsel at the Brennan Center
Brad Ashwell, State Director at All Voting is Local, Florida
Chioma Chukwu, Deputy Director at American Oversight
Jonathan Diaz, Director of Voting Advocacy and Partnerships at the Campaign Legal Center

Newsletter: Mark Robinson’s Anti-Abortion Communications; Stefanie Lambert’s Arrest

Stefanie Lambert’s Election Denial Activities in Michigan

On the Records

New College of Florida Hiring Records

Join Us for a Virtual Event!

Other Stories We’re Following

Election Denial and Threats to Democracy

Voting Rights

In the States

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LGBTQ Rights

Abortion and Reproductive Rights

Threats to Education

Government Transparency and Public Records Law

Immigration

Trump Accountability