The Public Interest Legal Foundation advised election officials in all 50 states today that the Department of Justice has exceeded its authority in trying to prevent state election audits.
We do not want a federal takeover of elections! pic.twitter.com/5Q7d0x31BD
— PublicInterestLegal (@PILFoundation) August 9, 2021
“The bottom line is this: current leadership at the Civil Rights Division is trying to prevent any audits because they are satisfied with the results of the 2020 election and would prefer not to raise any questions about potential problems,” wrote PILF President J. Christian Adams to the election officials.
Last month, the DOJ issued guidance to states that certain audits controlled by states could violate the civil rights of voters in the opinion of the DOJ.
“Whether through litigation or the issuance of official guidance, we are using every tool in our arsenal to ensure that all eligible citizens can exercise their right to vote free from intimidation, and have their ballots counted,” wrote Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke, who oversees the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division.
But PILF said radicals within the DOJ were simply trying to overturn election authority that existed prior to COVID.
“This overreach by DOJ is not surprising considering that the Department is being run by Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Pamela Karlan, an ideological extremist with a long history of partisan enforcement of civil rights laws and Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke who has exhibited hostility toward equal enforcement of voting laws,” said a statement by PILF.
Several left-wing executives used the pandemic as a pretense to assert controversial “emergency” powers that allowed them to ignore legislative safeguards against voting fraud during the 2020 election cycle.
As a result, battleground states including Arizona, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Georgia have all discussed the possibility of undertaking partial audits of the voting.
Arizona‘s independent audit, commissioned by the state’s GOP-led Senate, recently concluded, and the soon-to-be-released results are expected to show vote-fraud that far outpaced the narrow margin of around 10,000 votes.
In Wisconsin—where Biden was declared winner by a margin of around 20,000 votes after late-night shenanigans in the wee morning hours of Nov. 4—new evidence emerged this week prompting House Speaker Robin Vos to reverse his stance and support a forensic audit.
Pennsylvania‘s GOP Senate leader also has pledged to hold committee hearings, with the possibility that it may lead to an eventual audit, despite threats from the state’s far-left attorney general, Josh Shapiro.
In other states, however, GOP attorneys general have begun pushing back against the federal DOJ threats.
In June, Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich wrote a letter to Georgia AG Christopher Carr, pledging his support after US Attorney General Merrick Garland threatened to wage federal lawsuits against the state.
“As the Attorney General of Arizona, another state where the DOJ is attempting to intimidate local officials, please know that we stand with you in this fight and will do whatever we can to push back against this blatantly political and unmerited attack,” Brnovich wrote.
Headline USA’s Ben Sellers contributed to this report.
