Reporter Yunior Rivas noted Wednesday evening: “‘ICE’ was the first headline word in seven out of 10 stories published today.” That nicely sums up the level of hustling the team did (and is still doing!) to break down and share important information from internal government documents we obtained. Those records revealed that immigration enforcement agents are playing an unprecedented part in President Donald Trump’s desperate hunt for voter fraud.
More on this and other must-know stories from the week below.
Sally Holtgrieve · Senior Editor, News and Operations
VOTER DATA
ICE amassed millions of voter records in sweeping fraud hunt, documents reveal
By Jacob Knutson
· Reporter
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) amassed tens of millions of voting records and tried to use them for law enforcement operations, government documents released in a lawsuit this week revealed. The documents, which were extensively redacted, also showed that:
ICE’s investigative arm, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), probed hundreds of organizations across the U.S. that help people register to vote.
HSI obtained 48.4 million voter records from “independent sources” connected to Heather Honey, an activist with a history of promoting false election claims who is now a senior Department of Homeland Security official.
HSI considered deploying undercover agents as part of the probes to “initiate prosecutions and dismantle illicit facilitation networks.” The records do not indicate whether HSI carried out any undercover operations.
HSI tried to upload some of those voter records into a controversial data tool that the software giant Palantir developed for ICE’s immigration enforcement operations. A person familiar with the matter told Democracy Docket the data was never uploaded into the tool.
Trump’s DOJ sent some pretty troubling people to watch the polls
By Yunior Rivas · Reporter
Trump’s DOJ says it plans to deploy roughly 1,000 federal personnel to polling places next month — what officials have described as the largest election-monitoring operation in DOJ history. Our reporting is showing what that could look like.
Among the people DOJ has already sent to monitor elections this year, according to government documents we obtained:
Criminal prosecutors and an FBI agent— a troubling departure from the department’s traditional use of civil rights attorneys to protect voting access.
David Michael Levin, who, we’ve revealed, served jail time after illegally hacking government election websites.
Christopher J. Gardner, another DOJ lawyer we revealed helped advise Trump’s fake electors scheme after the 2020 election.
William F. Mohrman, a senior Voting Section lawyer, who, we revealed, worked to challenge Wisconsin’s 2020 election results and also represented George Floyd’s killer.
Meanwhile, civil rights leaders say DOJ’s monitoring mission is shifting away from protecting voting access toward hunting “for evidence related to unfounded claims of widespread voter fraud.” The NAACP is now suing for records on who else DOJ plans to deploy, where they’re going and what they’ve been told to do.
Blockers. It wasn't a compliment. In the new Washington, being a Blocker—a holdover, an impediment, someone who didn't belong—was the fastest way to lose your job. Michael Lewis's new audiobook, Blockers: Rebels in the Deep State, tells the true stories of six people branded that way and asks: If public servants can't survive in government, what does that say about us?
You may recall, Trump is actually a mail voter himself – he recently cast a mail ballot in Florida’s GOP primary in August. That hasn’t stopped him from trying to impede mail voting for as many people as possible. It isn’t hard to guess why. Democrats tend to vote by mail more than Republicans.
Join the ACLU for an online session “Organizing to Protect Democracy: Protecting the Outcome of the Election” on Tuesday, Oct. 13 at 8 p.m. EDT / 5 p.m. PDT to learn about and discuss the core roles activists will play during the post-election phase when rapid response and mass mobilization are crucial.
The ACLU said during this session, attendees will:
Understand the counting and certification processes, and the role of transparency organizing during this phase;
Learn how to prepare for rapid response organizing; and
Hear about sustained mobilizations and the unique tactics needed to continue organizing as long as it takes.
.png?upscale=true&width=1120&upscale=true&name=Blockers%20DD%20Newsletter%20(1).png)
.png?upscale=true&height=50&upscale=true&name=Bluesky_Logo-grey%20(2).png){kind=logo}
