[EL] ELB News and Commentary 5/15/18

Tue May 15 07:04:04 PDT 2018

“Distance, language can still pose challenge to Native American voting”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=99063>
Posted on May 15, 2018 6:57 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=99063> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Cronkite News reports<https://cronkitenews.azpbs.org/2018/05/14/distance-language-can-still-pose-challenge-to-native-american-voting/> (h/t Doug Chapin<http://editions.lib.umn.edu/electionacademy/2018/05/15/cronkite-news-examines-challenges-for-native-american-voters/>).
[Share]<https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D99063&title=%E2%80%9CDistance%2C%20language%20can%20still%20pose%20challenge%20to%20Native%20American%20voting%E2%80%9D>
Posted in Voting Rights Act<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=15>

Wisconsin: “Attorney General Brad Schimel concludes for the second time Project Veritas videos show no voter fraud by Dem activist”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=99061>
Posted on May 15, 2018 6:53 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=99061> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel:<https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/politics/2018/05/14/attorney-general-brad-schimel-concludes-second-time-controversial-video-shows-no-voter-fraud-dem-act/607073002/>

For the second time, GOP Attorney General Brad Schimel’s office has concluded there is no evidence a Democratic activist broke voting laws in the run-up to the 2016 election.

Schimel’s office first made that determination in January 2017, but Schimel reopened the investigation<https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/politics/2017/04/28/wisconsin-attorney-general-brad-schimel-schimel-contradicts-office-says-voter-fraud-probe-open/101034286/> after the head of a conservative group threatened to investigate Schimel<https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/politics/2017/04/27/conservative-james-okeefe-threatens-investigate-wisconsin-attorney-general-brad-schimel-over-video-flap/100968610/> and push him out of office.

Seventeen months later, Schimel is back where he started.
[Share]<https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D99061&title=Wisconsin%3A%20%E2%80%9CAttorney%20General%20Brad%20Schimel%20concludes%20for%20the%20second%20time%20Project%20Veritas%20videos%20show%20no%20voter%20fraud%20by%20Dem%20activist%E2%80%9D>
Posted in chicanery<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>

Bob Bauer Leaving Perkins Coie<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=99059>
Posted on May 15, 2018 6:46 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=99059> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Whoa:<https://www.politico.com/newsletters/playbook/2018/05/15/red-state-democrats-support-gina-haspel-269753>
NEW … END OF AN ERA … BOB BAUER, long-time top Democratic political law expert, is leaving Perkins Coie. He has been with the law firm for more than 35 years. The former White House Counsel to President Barack Obama plans to do more teaching at the New York University School of Law and continue his writing and speaking about constitutional law, legal ethics and political reform. He will still continue to represent a number of clients as a solo practitioner and will co-counsel with Perkins Coie for some of those clients.
[Share]<https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D99059&title=Bob%20Bauer%20Leaving%20Perkins%20Coie>
Posted in election law biz<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=51>

“$1 million mystery gift to Trump inauguration traced to conservative legal activists”–And Federalist Society’s Leonard Leo in the Middle of It<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=99056>
Posted on May 14, 2018 3:20 pm<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=99056> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Great sleuthing<https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2018/05/mystery-gift-to-trump-inauguration-from-conservative-activists/> by Robert Maguire/Open Secrets:

While the source of the money used to make the gift was masked from the public, a trail of clues puts the contribution at the doorstep of some of the same actors — most notably Leonard Leo, an executive vice president at the conservative Federalist Society — who have helped promote Trump’s mission, and that of his White House counsel, Don McGahn, to fill judicial vacancies as quickly as he can with staunchly conservative, preferably young jurists.

Set up four months to the day before it made the donation, BH Group’s address, as given in its Virginia incorporation papers<https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/4407177-BH-Group-incorporation.html#document/p3/a420793>, is a virtual office in Arlington, Va.; the only person identified on the filing is a Donna Smith<https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/4407177-BH-Group-incorporation.html#document/p3/a410518>.

That name, while common, matches the name of a longtime paralegal at the political law firm Holtzman Vogel Josefiak Torchinsky, whose Warrenton, Va., office was listed as the Trump inaugural committee’s main address on the tax return it filed last February<https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/4379974-Trump-2016-inauguration.html#document/p2/a418557>.

Holtzman Vogel is a Republican firm known for specializing in creative legal maneuvers that allow donors to conservative causes to remain anonymous, at least to the public.

In March, when a reporter tried to speak with Donna Smith about the BH Group, Michael Bayes, a partner at the firm, responded instead, saying “We don’t have any comment on client matters<https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2018/03/secret-contributions-to-trump-inauguration/>.”

Another connection to the BH Group was revealed in November 2017, when a politically active nonprofit called the Wellspring Committee filed tax documents showing a $750,000 payment to the newly-minted firm for “Public Relations<https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/4254472-Wellspring-Committee-2016.html#document/p8/a388623>.”

That’s a substantial payment, particularly given that the BH Group does not appear to have marketed itself as a public relations firm. The group doesn’t seem to have a website or any listings that advertise its services.

Similarly, the Wellspring Committee is a notoriously secretive Virginia nonprofit, with no demonstrable public-facing operations, no website for publicizing them and only three employees.

It’s also not clear why a group like Wellspring would need costly public relations assistance. Its representatives did not respond to requests to comment for this story.

The group only has a single board member<https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/4254472-Wellspring-Committee-2016.html#document/p7/a388622>, Neil Corkery, and almost all of its money in 2016 went out the door as grants to other conservative organizations or as payment to the BH Group.

Wellspring was practically the sole funder in 2016, to the tune of nearly $23.5 million, of the Judicial Crisis Network — a group that poured millions into stopping the Senate from confirming former President Barack Obama’s Supreme Court pick in the last year of his term, leaving an open slot for Trump to fill.

Legally, experts say there would be no problem with the Wellspring Committee giving $750,000 to the inaugural committee directly or, likely, giving it to the BH Group for that purpose; it’s not clear that straw donor rules apply to inaugural committees.

However, Wellspring’s characterization of the payment might raise issues for the nonprofit, if the check wasn’t in fact for services rendered.
[Share]<https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D99056&title=%E2%80%9C%241%20million%20mystery%20gift%20to%20Trump%20inauguration%20traced%20to%20conservative%20legal%20activists%E2%80%9D%E2%80%93And%20Federalist%20Society%E2%80%99s%20Leonard%20Leo%20in%20the%20Middle%20of%20It>
Posted in Uncategorized<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>

“Politicos beware: Court ruling could prompt more transparent campaign spending”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=99054>
Posted on May 14, 2018 1:19 pm<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=99054> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

CPI:

The Federal Election Commission<https://www.publicintegrity.org/news/Federal-Election-Commission> could begin demanding more information about the vendors and consultants political committees pay, thanks to a federal appeals court decision<http://media.ca8.uscourts.gov/opndir/18/05/163861P.pdf> Friday.

The impact of the decision — which could have implications for how precisely political committees such as President Donald Trump<https://www.publicintegrity.org/news/Donald-Trump>’s re-election campaign and the Democratic National Committee have to detail their spending — will rest on how the FEC chooses to apply it, several campaign finance experts said….

The decision Friday involved three staffers from the 2012 presidential campaign of Ron Paul, R-Texas. The Paul staff members — Jesse Benton, John Tate and Demetrios Kesari — were convicted<https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/three-members-2012-presidential-campaign-staff-guilty-concealing-campaign-expenditures-state> in 2016 of charges connected to $73,000 in payments to an Iowa state senator who, in exchange for the money, switched his Republican presidential primary endorsement from former Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., to Paul shortly before the Iowa caucuses.

The three men made the payments to the state senator, Kent Sorenson, via a third-party video production company. The court said<http://media.ca8.uscourts.gov/opndir/18/05/163861P.pdf> the video production company payment was really a ruse designed to hide the fact that the campaign money was destined for Sorenson, who last year began serving<https://www.rollcall.com/news/iowa-state-senator-sorenson-bachmann-ron-paul-endorsement-scandal>prison time stemming from his bribe acceptance.

Lawyers for Benton, Tate and Kesari argued that the law, and FEC precedents, don’t prohibit a campaign paying a vendor who then pays a subcontractor, even if campaign finance reports only show the name of the original vendor. Prosecutors said it was illegal to hide the purpose of the payments, which were described as “audio/visual expenses,” when they were really made in exchange for Sorenson’s endorsement, and the circuit court’s opinion said that was a factor.
[Share]<https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D99054&title=%E2%80%9CPoliticos%20beware%3A%20Court%20ruling%20could%20prompt%20more%20transparent%20campaign%20spending%E2%80%9D>
Posted in campaign finance<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>

John Gore Will Show Up Without a Subpoena to Explain DOJ’s Role in Census Citizenship Question<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=99052>
Posted on May 14, 2018 1:16 pm<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=99052> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

NPR reports.<https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/05/08/609548162/lawmakers-to-subpoena-doj-official-over-census-citizenship-question>
[Share]<https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D99052&title=John%20Gore%20Will%20Show%20Up%20Without%20a%20Subpoena%20to%20Explain%20DOJ%E2%80%99s%20Role%20in%20Census%20Citizenship%20Question>
Posted in Uncategorized<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>

--
Rick Hasen
Chancellor's Professor of Law and Political Science
UC Irvine School of Law
401 E. Peltason Dr., Suite 1000
Irvine, CA 92697-8000
949.824.3072 - office
rhasen at law.uci.edu<mailto:rhasen at law.uci.edu>
http://www.law.uci.edu/faculty/full-time/hasen/
http://electionlawblog.org<http://electionlawblog.org/>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://webshare.law.ucla.edu/Listservs/law-election/attachments/20180515/5b8f619e/attachment.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image001.png
Type: image/png
Size: 2021 bytes
Desc: image001.png
URL: <http://webshare.law.ucla.edu/Listservs/law-election/attachments/20180515/5b8f619e/attachment.png>