In July 2020, then President Trump directed the Census Bureau to exclude undocumented residents from the count used for congressional reapportionment. We FOIA’d for communications between the Census Bureau & the White House from the week before the order. Here's what we found:
A political appointee named Nathaniel Cogley was placed in the Census Bureau shortly before the executive order that directed the exclusion of undocumented immigrants from apportionment counts. It appears that Cogley had a direct line with the White House chief of staff’s office.
For example, on the day Trump issued the executive order — July 21, 2020 — Cogley emailed a scheduler in the chief of staff’s office to set up a meeting for the next day. #FoiaFriday
Later that same day, John Fleming, who was then deputy chief of staff, emailed Cogley a news story about the Census Bureau extending its deadline for census responses until October 31. americanoversight.org/document/comme…
Cogley responded that it was “a good question as to who approved the Census Bureau making public announcements and redistricting timelines before Congress and the President actually passed a law to that effect."
Cogley’s appointment to a top Census Bureau position in June 2020 raised questions from researchers and members of Congress, as Cogley had no previous experience with the policy issues associated with the role. sciencemag.org/news/2020/07/m…
The close contact between Cogley and the White House appears to further reflect Trump’s politicization of the 2020 census.
New: The Arizona Senate has now asked Cyber Ninjas to make “audit” records available to the Senate. This follows yesterday’s order from the Arizona Supreme Court that effectively upholds lower court rulings that the documents are public records. americanoversight.org/document/ameri…
“[P]lease immediately make available to the Arizona State Senate all records within your custody or control...with a substantial nexus to the audit,” Arizona Senate President Karen Fann wrote to the Cyber Ninjas firm yesterday.
”[D]ocuments with a substantial nexus to the audit include without limitation all documents and communications relating to the planning and performance or execution of the audit, all policies and procedures used in connection with the audit…
This week, we’re doing a deep dive on the Big Lie. On Monday, we discussed the years of voter-fraud activism that laid the foundation. Yesterday, we talked about attempts to stop the certification of the 2020 election. Today, we’re talking about the Jan. 6 attack.
The myth of a stolen election built through the sheer force of a unified lie came to a head on Jan. 6, 2021, when a “Stop the Steal” rally led by Donald Trump turned into a violent mob that stormed the Capitol while lawmakers prepared to certify the presidential election results.
One Capitol Police officer and four Trump supporters died in the attack on the Capitol; four law enforcement officers who responded to the attack died by suicide in the following months.
Michael Gabelman, the lawyer hired to run Wisconsin’s bogus election investigation, has been consulting with Shiva Ayyadurai, an election conspiracy theorist.
Records we obtained show Ayyadurai and Gabelman’s connections to the Arizona “audit.” jsonline.com/story/news/pol…
On Aug. 1, Christina Bobb from One America News asked Arizona Senate President Karen Fann if she could share her contact information with former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman. Fann replied, “Absolutely of course.”
Gableman was also in contact with Arizona “audit” spokesman Randy Pullen. Records we obtained show that in August, Pullen sent Gableman "three big political points" about the sham “audit.”
BREAKING: The Arizona Supreme Court has denied a petition from the Arizona Senate, leaving in place two lower court rulings that records in the physical custody of “audit” election contractor Cyber Ninjas are public records and must be released. americanoversight.org/arizona-suprem…
The court’s decision also dissolves the stay on a state judge’s order that the Arizona Senate produce documents held in the physical custody of election “audit” contractor Cyber Ninjas.
Each day this week, we’re breaking down an element of the Big Lie. Yesterday, we discussed the years of anti-voting activism that laid the foundation. Today, we’re talking about attempts to stop the certification of the 2020 election. americanoversight.org/from-voter-fra…
When polls closed on Nov. 3, 2020, the result of the presidential election was unclear, in part because of the additional challenges of counting absentee ballots. Four days after Election Day, all the major networks and news agencies called the race for Biden.
Trump and his supporters turned up their efforts to undermine confidence in the results, with a particular focus on the states where the vote had been the closest: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.
NEW: County officials in Pennsylvania have been ordered to begin releasing election “audit” documents within 30 days in response to our records requests. americanoversight.org/pennsylvania-c…
Fulton County, Penn., was an early testing ground for the use of sham “audits” to cast doubt on the 2020 election — including the involvement of at least one company that would go on to play a major role in Arizona.
Fulton’s “audits” in Dec. 2020 and Feb. 2021, backed by pro-Trump Sen. Doug Mastriano and others, were conducted by the company Wake TSI — which worked as a contractor to a nonprofit operated by Sidney Powell, who represented Trump in election challenges. azmirror.com/2021/05/24/gro…