il rights leaders who met with Attorney General Jeff Sessions Tuesday asked him to urge President Donald Trump not to proceed with his plans for a blue-ribbon panel to investigate Trump’s own claims that millions of people voted illegally for his opponent in last year’s presidential race. “I asked him to counsel the president against the creation of such a task force and a commission because that commission will be seen to intimidate our communities,” said Sherrilyn Ifill, president of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. “In the absence of any evidence of voter fraud, he should be counseling the president away from such a course….We don’t need an investigation into something that doesn’t exist. We should not be crediting the fantasies of this president at the cost of African Americans and Latinos feeling secure that they’re not being intimidated from voting and participating in the process.”
Trump told Congressional leaders at a January meeting that he believes he lost the popular vote to Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton because of 3 million to 5 million votes case illegally in last November’s election. He’s provided no evidence to support the claim, which has been roundly rejected by experts in the field.
Two days later, Trump tweeted that he was “asking for a major investigation into VOTER FRAUD.” Aides later said he planned to issue an executive order on the subject. No such order has been forthcoming, but White House press secretary Sean Spicer said late last month that Trump was setting up a task force on the issue under the oversight of Vice President Mike Pence.
Full Article: Civil rights leaders ask Sessions to scuttle Trump voter fraud probe – POLITICO.