Sitting in the airport about to go to Kansas for the third time in as many weeks, for the #ACLUvKobach trial that was supposed to last 4 days. I want to share a particularly fascinating portion of the trial. Screenshots of the transcript included.
Before this trial, Kobach was forced to produce a draft of an amendment to the National Voter Registration Act and a handout that mentioned an NVRA amendment he took to a meeting w trump. Youll remember he was fined $1000 for misleading the court abt these washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2…
The draft amendment changed the NVRA from requiring minimum information to requiring anything the state deems necessary. Here’s a screenshot: 
Turns out, months before he wrote that, the ACLU wrote a brief in this case saying the NVRA would have to be amended in that exact way for Kobach’s proof of citizenship law to be legal. Kobach appears to have, word for word, taken the ACLU’s idea. Heres a screenshot of the brief:
Kobach declined to testify in this case, so the ACLU played the video of his deposition in court where they asked Kobach about this word borrowing. He flatly denied it. Relevant portions of the transcripts are highlighted here. ACLU is yellow, Kobach is green.
Kobach’s team fought hard for the deposition not to be shown at trial. They argued it was irrelevant and the transcript could be read instead of showing the video. The judge disagreed. The ACLU showed it for a reason - Kobach was visibly upset during the whole deposition.
Why write an amendment to the NVRA if he felt his proof of citizenship law was already legal under it?Kobach said it was a last resort and would bring the interpretation of the NVRA back to its original intent, which he said was to allow states to require what they felt necessary
Kobach gave Steve King a copy of the proposed amendment and presented a version of the idea to Trump while the litigation was ongoing. Did he intend to end run the case, and change the law? He said no - this was meant to be a last resort for if he lost the case.
Anyway that’s all. More tomorrow, when there will be a contempt hearing over whether Kobach ignored the judge’s orders on putting suspended voters back on the roles and treating them as fully registered voters.
