1/17 Breaking: A former member of Trump’s voter fraud commission, J. Christian Adams, is being sued for defamation and voter intimidation. His organization, the Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF), is also named. Filing, from @scsj: documentcloud.org/documents/4436…
2/ In ‘16 and ‘17 PILF released reports called Alien Invasion I & II that claimed that 5,500 non-citizens had attempted to illegally register to vote in VA. They included the registration forms of 100s of people w names, phone #s, addresses, who they said fell into this group. 
3/ The 4 individual plaintiffs in the new suit are all legal citizens who were eligible to vote. PILF posted their names & contact info in what PILF called “pages of real evidence” of voter fraud. PILF later removed 2 of them, blaming the state of VA for the error, but 2 remain.
4/ One is Eliud Bonilla. He is now a resident of Maryland but was born in Brooklyn. His name and contact information are still online. He worries he’ll be subject to “birther” conspiracy theories and his family will be harassed.
5/ The second is Luciania Freeman. She is a resident of Virginia and was born in Fayetteville, N.C. She was listed as a non-citizen due to a paperwork error by the county. Her name and contact info are still online, and she fears she’ll be harassed or lose her job.
6/ The third is Abby Jo Gearhart, who was born in Virginia and still lives there. Her name was removed by PILF. She continues to fear her future votes will be disputed.
7/ and the fourth is Jeanne Rosen. She is a Virginia resident who was born in Brooklyn. Her name was removed by PILF. She fears her votes will be disputed, and continues to pay for a security system over fears of harassment. She’s also decreased political activity.
8/ In part the complaint cites comments made on the Breitbart website in 2016 about the “non-citizens” named in the PILF report. They call for them to be “deported,” “shot” and “given a lethal injection” among other things.
9/ The group plaintiff is LULAC – Richmond Region Council 4614. They say Adams/PILF intimidated voters they serve thru an ongoing media campaign that whipped up anger using their factually inaccurate report. Adams also entered the reports into the record of the fraud commission.
10/ In addition to state defamation laws, the lawsuit cites section 11(b) of Voting Rights Act, which you can read here:
11/ ….and the Ku Klux Klan Act that was passed in 1871
12/ The suit was just filed so Adams has not yet responded, but he has consistently defended his reports as accurate attempts to chronicle and fight what he says is rampant voter fraud.
13/ Plaintiffs and multiple VA officials have long said PILFs reports are flawed. The reports do not show non-citizens—they show people who’ve offered inconsistent info about citizenship, often bc of paperwork errors like forgetting to check a box or not responding to a mailer.
14/ Adams even told @PemaLevy he knew that the 5,500 probably included legal citizens, instead blamed the state of Virginia. motherjones.com/politics/2017/…
15/ PILF has a history of suing local elections offices to force them to purge their rolls, arguing that there are more voters on the rolls than in the county. Last month they lost a huge lawsuit, w/ the federal judge overseeing the case calling their numbers “misleading.”
16/ You can read that full opinion and read @Tierney_Megan’s write up here: talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/flor…
17/17 Kris Kobach cited the “Alien Invasion” reports at trial last month as a defense for his proof of citizenship law in KS. This, BTW, is the cover of the report. It shows an alien ship landing behind this sign:
Here's the press release from @scsj on the lawsuit, they are representing the plaintiffs in the case alongside @protctdemocracy southerncoalition.org/prlulacrichmon…
