PA Senate Republicans are meeting to subpoena elections info from the state for their "audit." They're not actually requesting ballots, they want lists of everyone who voted in Nov 2020 election and May 2021 primary including name, DOB, DL number, last 4 digits of social
They're also asking for all communication between the PA Department of State (which runs elections) and all county election directors from May 2020 - May 2021, every directive the Dept of State gave to counties related to those elections ... in other words a lot of paper
Sen. Anthony Williams, the top Dem on the committee, was cut off for accusing GOP of trying to overturn an election. Not before noting: "For the government to have access to your Social Security numbers should be scary to all of us ... will be forwarded to a private vendor."
Acting PA Secretary of State Degraffenreid (D) has not participated in the "audit" antics so far, citing ongoing litigation. Fulton County is suing after the state decertified their voting machines for doing their own audit, which found nothing. buzzfeednews.com/article/sarahm…
Dems press GOP chair Dush on why they need Social Security and DL numbers
A: “Those documents are part of any audit that the auditor general would conduct or anybody who is looking to verify the identity of individuals and their place of residence and their eligibility to vote.”
Dems note nearly 7M people voted in PA in Nov. Why does the Senate need to verify their identities?
Dush: “Because there have been questions regarding the validity of people who have been— who have voted whether or not they exist," says they're just "investigating"
Dem Sen Santarsiero pushes GOP Chair Dush on whether the private vendors the Senate will hire for its “audit” have any ties to Sidney Powell, Dush says the question is “off topic.”
Dush (R) says he and his legal team will decide how much of Pennsylvania voters’ private information will be passed onto their private vendor(s?)
It’s worth noting, again, that this is going to be funded by taxpayers
Senate Pres. Jake Corman (R) is now defending using taxpayer money for their audit, saying it lends credibility, adding for example, “Republicans wouldn’t like it if George Soros was paying for this investigation.”
My feed isn’t excellent so I missed the context but a Dem senator just mentioned the insurrection which GOP Chair Dush did not like. He cut the session for a bit
Forgot to tweet: Yes, PA Republicans succeeded in voting to subpoena millions of voters' personal information and other documents for their "audit."
After the vote, Senate Democrats said they plan to file suit to try to stop the subpoenas later this week
My latest on all this:
Pennsylvania Republicans Are Subpoenaing Millions Of Voters’ Personal Information To Determine "Whether Or Not They Exist"
Republicans standing by Trump seem to be coalescing around: Let’s have some “unity” even though I voted to overturn the election results after a riot based on things I knew were lies
It’s one thing to call for healing and unity after that kind of attack — it’s quite another to say, “Give me a few more hours to try to overturn the election first, THEN we can unify.”
I wrote a bit more about the attempts by Republicans who voted to overturn the election — trying to give Trump and the rioters what they wanted — now saying we need unity buzzfeednews.com/article/sarahm…
NEW: DOJ announces arrest this morning of Henry Kyle Frese, a DIA employee who allegedly leaked classified information to two journalists
The FBI says they intercepted certain portions of Frese's text messages and telephone calls, in which he allegedly leaked classified information to two reporters at news outlets "owned by the same parent company."
Indictment: documentcloud.org/documents/6464…
According to an FBI affidavit, they believe Frese was living and romantically involved with one of the journalists he leaked classified information to and that he leaked to the second journalist in part to help Journo 1's career