[EL] ELB News and Commentary 11/13/19

Tue Nov 12 21:16:57 PST 2019

“Democrats Look to Build Case That Trump Tried to Bribe or Extort Ukraine”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=108055>
Posted on November 12, 2019 9:15 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=108055> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

NYT:<https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/12/us/politics/impeachment-strategy-republicans.html>

A top Democratic official said the witnesses — William B. Taylor Jr., the top diplomat in Ukraine, and George P. Kent, a senior State Department official — would lay out a timeline of serious misconduct by Mr. Trump and describe how the president sought to “bribe, extort, condition or coerce” the leader of another country. The official spoke on condition of anonymity without authorization to publicly describe internal strategy, but the language echoed the definition in the Constitution of behavior that warrants impeachment and removal from office.

Representative Adam B. Schiff, the California Democrat who is chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, promised that the two witnesses, who still serve in Mr. Trump’s administration, will reveal the president’s actions to be “a corrupt undertaking that is evident from his own words.”

In a taste of the epic partisan battle to come, Republicans readied their arguments that the president did nothing wrong — and certainly nothing impeachable — and raged against a process they have denounced from the beginning as unfair and illegitimate.

“We want to make sure the truth gets out,” said Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, the minority leader. “There is no reason for the president to be in this impeachment.”

House investigators have spent seven weeks methodically assembling evidence through closed-door interviews that Mr. Trump used security aid as leverage to force President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine to publicly announce investigations into former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and debunked claims that Democrats conspired with Ukraine to interfere in the 2016 election.
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Posted in bribery<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=54>, campaigns<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>, chicanery<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>

Parnas and Fruman Got Access to Trump to Call for Dumping Ambassador By Promising Big Contribution to Trump Super PAC<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=108052>
Posted on November 12, 2019 9:09 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=108052> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

WaPo:<https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/at-donor-dinner-giuliani-associate-said-he-discussed-ukraine-with-trump-according-to-people-familiar-with-his-account/2019/11/12/2a1f28e0-0558-11ea-b17d-8b867891d39d_story.html>

The April 2018 dinner was designed to be an intimate affair, an opportunity for a handful of big donors to a super PAC allied with President Trump to personally interact with the president and his eldest son.

In an exclusive suite known as the Trump Townhouse at Trump’s Washington hotel, the group — including Jack Nicklaus III, the grandson of the famous golfer, and a New York developer — snapped photos, dined and chatted about their pet issues with the president for about 90 minutes.

Among those in attendance were two Florida business executives who had little history with Republican politics but had snagged a spot at the dinner with the promise of a major contribution to the America First super PAC. They turned the conversation to Ukraine, according to people familiar with the event, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the private dinner.

One of the men, Lev Parnas, has described to associates that he and his business partner, Igor Fruman, told Trump at the dinner that they thought the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine was unfriendly to the president and his interests.

Remember the Court in Citizens United told us that ingratiation and access are not corruption. Even if that’s right, it can facilitate corruption.
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Posted in campaign finance<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>, chicanery<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>

Matt Bevin Still Has Not Conceded. Nor Has He Produced Any Evidence of “Irregularities” or Voter Fraud in Kentucky Election<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=108050>
Posted on November 12, 2019 9:05 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=108050> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Lex18 reports.<https://www.lex18.com/news/irregularities-where-are-the-voter-fraud-claims-coming-from>
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Posted in fraudulent fraud squad<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=8>

Scott Walker Falsely Claims Democrats Won in Virginia Because of a Gerrymander<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=108048>
Posted on November 12, 2019 8:53 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=108048> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Walker<https://twitter.com/ScottWalker/status/1194226996693340160>:
[cid:image002.jpg at 01D5999E.83EE6960]<https://twitter.com/ScottWalker>
<https://twitter.com/ScottWalker>
Scott Walker<https://twitter.com/ScottWalker>
✔@ScottWalker<https://twitter.com/ScottWalker>

<https://twitter.com/ScottWalker/status/1194226996693340160>

Tag team to counter @EricHolder<https://twitter.com/EricHolder> is in the courts/data with @TheNRRT<https://twitter.com/TheNRRT> and in state elections with @RSLC<https://twitter.com/RSLC>

Republicans need to wake up or Democrats will gerrymander themselves into power all across America - like they did in VA.

And that will cost us the US House for next decade.
<https://twitter.com/intent/like?tweet_id=1194226996693340160>
112<https://twitter.com/intent/like?tweet_id=1194226996693340160>
4:14 AM - Nov 12, 2019<https://twitter.com/ScottWalker/status/1194226996693340160> · Lincolnwood, IL<https://twitter.com/search?q=place%3A454e631ab87f60a6>
Twitter Ads info and privacy<https://support.twitter.com/articles/20175256>
<https://twitter.com/ScottWalker/status/1194226996693340160>
186 people are talking about this<https://twitter.com/ScottWalker/status/1194226996693340160>

This is rich. What Democrats did in Virginia was get the conservative Supreme Court to agree that Virginia Republicans engaged in a racial gerrymander. Virginia Democrats won in part because courts removed the gerrymander, not because Democrats engaged in a gerrymander.
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Posted in redistricting<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=6>

Democrats File Another Lawsuit, This One Challenging Michigan Voting Rules<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=108045>
Posted on November 12, 2019 8:12 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=108045> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
[cid:image003.png at 01D5999E.83EE6960]<https://twitter.com/marceelias>
<https://twitter.com/marceelias>
Marc E. Elias<https://twitter.com/marceelias>
✔@marceelias<https://twitter.com/marceelias>

<https://twitter.com/marceelias/status/1194398735868080130>

BREAKING: On behalf of @prioritiesUSA<https://twitter.com/prioritiesUSA> we have sued Michigan over two laws, the Voter Transportation Ban and the Absentee Ballot Organizing Ban, that make it more difficult for voters for whom voting is already difficult—e.g., voters without access to transportation—to vote.
<https://twitter.com/intent/like?tweet_id=1194398735868080130>
469<https://twitter.com/intent/like?tweet_id=1194398735868080130>
3:37 PM - Nov 12, 2019<https://twitter.com/marceelias/status/1194398735868080130>
Twitter Ads info and privacy<https://support.twitter.com/articles/20175256>
<https://twitter.com/marceelias/status/1194398735868080130>
136 people are talking about this<https://twitter.com/marceelias/status/1194398735868080130>

Complaint.<https://electionlawblog.org/wp-content/uploads/Priorities-USA-v.-Nessel.pdf>
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Posted in The Voting Wars<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=60>

“Emails Show Trump Officials Consulted With GOP Strategist On Citizenship Question”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=108043>
Posted on November 12, 2019 12:53 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=108043> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

NPR:<https://www.npr.org/2019/11/12/778496494/emails-connect-trump-officials-and-gop-redistricting-expert-on-citizenship-quest?utm_campaign=storyshare&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social>

A prominent GOP redistricting strategist had direct communication with an adviser to the Trump administration concerning the addition of a citizenship question to the 2020 census, newly released emails show….

The administration’s now-former adviser on census issues, Mark Neuman, however, provided previously undisclosed emails to the House Oversight Committee in July, according to the committee’s acting chair, Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., that show that Neuman and Hofeller were in contact about the following draft language for a citizenship question request:

“We understand that the Bureau personnel may believe that ACS [American Community Survey] data on citizenship was sufficient for redistricting purposes. We wanted the Bureau to be aware that two recent Court cases have underscored that ACS data is not viable and/or sufficient for purposes of redistricting.”

“Please make certain that this language is correct,” Neuman wrote to Hofeller in an email dated Aug. 30, 2017<https://oversight.house.gov/sites/democrats.oversight.house.gov/files/2017.08.30%20Email%20from%20Mark%20Neuman%20to%20Thomas%20Hofeller%20%281%29.pdf>.
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Posted in census litigation<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=125>, redistricting<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=6>

--
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/>

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