Seven Democratic senators on Tuesday asked the Department of Justice to explain any involvement it has with President Donald Trump’s commission convened to investigate voter fraud. Justice Department officials have said it has no involvement with the commission, which Trump created in May. But in a Tuesday letter, Democrats said two incidents made them suspicious. In June, the department sent an unusual letter to 44 states asking them for information on their practices for purging voters from the rolls. The same day, the voter fraud panel sent out a request to all 50 states for sensitive voter information. Earlier this month, a public records request by the Campaign Legal Center revealed that a February email from Hans von Spakovsky, a commission member, was forwarded to the Department of Justice with instructions for U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions to read it. In the email, von Spakovsky said Democrats shouldn’t be appointed to the commission and lamented it also might be filled with Republicans whose views were too mainstream.
Critics say the commission is an effort to justify Trump’s claim that millions voted illegally last November. Several commissioners have a history of exaggerating voter fraud, and the panelists have already focused on dubious information to foster the idea that the American electoral system is rife with voter fraud. Several studies and investigations have concluded it is not a widespread issue.
“These developments underscore the concerns many of us have raised about a return to the illegal politicization of the Department’s Civil Rights Division that took place under the Bush administration, and raise questions about the role of Department leadership in the formation and operation of this nakedly partisan commission,” the letter says. ”It would be a low moment for the Department to have been a facilitator of the myth ― perhaps a fraud in its own right ― that widespread voter fraud is a problem plaguing our election system, especially when the Department has itself produced evidence to the contrary.”
Full Article: 7 Senators Demand To Know If DOJ Is Involved With Trump Voter Fraud Probe | HuffPost.