ACLU files FOIA demanding evidence of Trump’s voter fraud claims

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) this week filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request demanding any facts or evidence supporting President Trump’s claim that the 2016 presidential election was affected by voter fraud. 

Trump on Thursday signed an executive order establishing an “election integrity” commission to investigate voter fraud.

The commission will be chaired by Vice President Mike Pence, and Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach will serve as vice chair, the White House announced during Thursday’s press briefing. 

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It will “study the registration and voting processes used in Federal elections” as well as “fraudulent voter registrations and fraudulent voting,” the order says.

On Thursday the ACLU filed their FOIA request with the Office of the Vice President in response to the executive order.

Dale Ho, director of the ACLU’s Voting Rights Project, called the commission a “boondoggle” and part of Trump’s plan to “spread his own fake news about election integrity.” 

“The president … has alleged that ‘millions of votes’ were ‘illegally’ cast ‘for the other side.’ No concrete evidence has been provided thus far to support the president’s serious indictment against American democracy. Yet the president’s allegations are the basis of an executive order … to establish a ‘Commission on Election Integrity,’” the ACLU’s request read. “This FOIA demands that the government release the factual basis and evidence supporting the president’s allegations.”