Thread by @weareoversight

This week marks American Oversight’s five-year anniversary.

For five years, we’ve fought to restore integrity, promote transparency, defend democracy, and fight for a government accountable to us.

Here’s what we’ve investigated and uncovered in the last half-decade.

1. Corruption and Abuse of Power: The Trump administration brought unprecedented corruption, misconduct, and abuse of office to all levels of the federal government — from the Ukraine scandal to family separation to its response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Through public records requests and litigation, we worked to uncover the facts.

In early 2017, we obtained records proving that former Attorney General Jeff Sessions lied about his Russian contacts on his security clearance application.
americanoversight.org/after-american…

Former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos’ calendars showed that she prioritized charter and religious schools over public schools, and that she took more than 11 long weekends in her first six months in office.
americanoversight.org/unexcused-abse…

Former EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt’s calendars demonstrated that he was coordinating closely with lobbyists and executives from polluting industries to shape policy decisions.
americanoversight.org/epa-administra…

We also investigated former White House Senior Adviser Stephen Miller’s influence across the federal government. Miller, the man behind some of the Trump administration’s cruelest immigration policies, notoriously took great pains to avoid putting much of his work in writing.

We assembled a timeline of all the communications we’ve uncovered between Miller and his allies, and even today, we’re still receiving new, related documents in response to our FOIA requests.
americanoversight.org/investigation/…

In September 2019, we published hundreds of photos from inside detention centers for unaccompanied migrant children, including images of living areas and photos of handwritten complaint forms.
americanoversight.org/photos-from-in…

We also obtained documents regarding the Trump White House’s scheme to pressure Ukraine to interfere in the election — including records that were ultimately cited in the first impeachment trial.

One of those records was an email from a career DOD official, stating clearly that Trump was the reason for the holdup in congressionally authorized aid for Ukraine.
americanoversight.org/final-decision…

In Nov. 2019, we obtained State Dept. documents showing that Rudy Giuliani had been in touch with with Mike Pompeo in March 2019, at the time that the smear campaign against then-Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch was in full swing.
americanoversight.org/behind-the-sce…

We also launched numerous investigations into the poor coordination that defined the Trump administration’s mishandling of the coronavirus pandemic, and are examining how external private interests have influenced the administration’s decisions.
americanoversight.org/timeline-trump…

2. Voting Rights. Voting rights are under attack across the country. Unfounded claims of voter fraud, purges of voter rolls, closing of polling places, and more have created new barriers to voting. We’ve been investigating.

In 2017, Trump created a “voter fraud” commission. Officially, the purpose was to promote improvements to election systems, but in reality, its goal was perpetuating Trump’s false claims of fraud.

Trump allies on the commission excluded other members from participating and kept their work secret. We represented one commission member in his lawsuit to gain access to the group’s own work.
americanoversight.org/investigation/…

After a federal judge ruled in our client’s favor and ordered the commission to stop excluding him, Trump disbanded the body. Ultimately records revealed that the “voter fraud” commission found no new evidence of widespread problems.
americanoversight.org/voter-fraud-co…

Throughout the Trump administration, voting-restriction activists touted the myth of widespread voter fraud to state and local leaders.

The Covid-19 pandemic’s arrival in the spring of 2020 provided extra fuel for the alarmist rhetoric of voter-fraud activists.

As election officials attempted to expand early voting or voting by mail as the Covid-19 pandemic arrived in spring 2020, state leaders used their own powers to boost the nonexistent threat of widespread fraud.

In August 2020, voting restriction activist Hans von Spakovsky led a meeting for Republican state election officials to “strategize” about “election integrity” measures.
propublica.org/article/no-dem…

Leaders in Georgia, Kentucky, and Nevada created “fraud task forces,” purportedly to safeguard fair elections. Our investigation in Georgia found that the state’s “absentee ballot fraud task force” met only once — six months before the election.
americanoversight.org/georgia-offici…

In Texas, we uncovered documents showing that Attorney General Ken Paxton had poured taxpayer resources into an “election integrity unit” that resolved just 16 prosecutions, all relatively minor offenses that didn’t lead to jail time.
houstonchronicle.com/politics/texas…

We found that in 2019, one voting restriction activist group sent officials in Palm Beach County, Fla., a list of 100 people whom it claimed were deceased and had votes cast in their names.

Investigative reporters at @reveal went through the names on the list and found no evidence of fraud.
revealnews.org/article/john-j…

We also obtained emails that show officials from the Election Assistance Commission — the federal agency tasked with helping states administer secure elections — communicated with anti-voting rights groups in the months surrounding the election.
americanoversight.org/new-emails-sho…

As efforts to undermine voting rights continue to grow, we’re investigating at the federal and state level. Learn more about our ongoing efforts here:
americanoversight.org/areas_of_inves…

3. Threats to democracy. Conspiracy theories & lies about stolen elections have escalated beyond rhetoric to very real threats of seditious & extremist violence. We’re working to expose public officials who have promoted the violence & dangerous lies that imperil our democracy.

We’re investigating the “Big Lie,” including the bogus voter-fraud myth at its core; the attempts to stop the certification of the 2020 election; the Jan. 6 attacks; new voting-restriction bills; and sham election reviews.
americanoversight.org/from-voter-fra…

Since the Capitol riot, we have been working to shed light on what happened on Jan. 6, 2021, and the surrounding days. We outlined our findings — and what we’re still asking for — regarding that frightening day.
americanoversight.org/investigating-…

We’re also working to shed light on ways federal and state officials abetted Trump’s efforts to undermine the election results by promoting baseless claims of voter fraud and to undermine the election’s legitimacy.

We obtained fake electoral certificates that Trump supporters in seven states submitted to Congress as part of an effort to overturn the 2020 election results.

Now, efforts to hold those involved accountable are spreading.

We’ve also been investigating the partisan and baseless election reviews that have been conducted in Arizona, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Wisconsin.

Our investigation into the “audit” in Arizona already forced the release of more than 80,000 pages of records, including emails revealing its partisan bias and the involvement of conspiracy theorists.
americanoversight.org/investigation/…

In Wisconsin, we’re fighting in court for the release of records related to its partisan election review.

Earlier this month, a Wisconsin judge ordered the immediate release of 700+ pages of related records.
americanoversight.org/investigation/…

Since our launch in March 2017, we've used public records requests and litigation to expose corruption, uncover and publish over 1 million pages of records, and hold government officials accountable. Keep up with the latest here: americanoversight.org/mail-lists