[EL] ELB News and Commentary 11/25/19

Sun Nov 24 20:20:55 PST 2019

“Do not stifle shareholder voices”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=108182>
Posted on November 24, 2019 8:15 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=108182> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Bruce Freed FT oped.<https://www.ft.com/content/246f9ef8-0d4a-11ea-8fb7-8fcec0c3b0f9>
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Posted in campaign finance<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>

DOJ Officials in Census Citizenship Case Claim Faulty Memories<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=108180>
Posted on November 22, 2019 5:21 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=108180> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Hansi Lo Wang<https://twitter.com/hansilowang/status/1198046939390066688>:
https://twitter.com/hansilowang/status/1198046939390066688
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Posted in census litigation<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=125>, chicanery<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>, Department of Justice<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=26>

“Charges of Ukrainian Meddling? A Russian Operation, U.S. Intelligence Says”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=108178>
Posted on November 22, 2019 12:53 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=108178> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

NYT:<https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/22/us/politics/ukraine-russia-interference.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage>

Republicans have sought for weeks amid the impeachment inquiry to shift attention to President Trump’s demands that Ukraine investigate any 2016 election meddling, defending it as a legitimate concern while Democrats accuse Mr. Trump of pursuing fringe theories for his benefit.

The Republican defense of Mr. Trump became central to the impeachment proceedings when Fiona Hill, a respected Russia scholar and former senior White House official, added a harsh critique during testimony<https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/21/us/politics/fiona-hill-impeachment-ukraine.html?module=inline> on Thursday. She told some of Mr. Trump’s fiercest defenders in Congress that they were repeating “a fictional narrative.”<https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/21/us/politics/impeachment-hearing.html?module=inline> She said that it likely came from a disinformation campaign by Russian security services, which also propagated it.

In a briefing that closely aligned with Dr. Hill’s testimony, American intelligence officials informed senators and their aides in recent weeks that Russia had engaged in a yearslong campaign to essentially frame Ukraine as responsible for Moscow’s own hacking of the 2016 election, according to three American officials. The briefing came as Republicans stepped up their defenses of Mr. Trump in the Ukraine affair.

The revelations demonstrate Russia’s persistence in trying to sow discord among its adversaries — and show that the Kremlin apparently succeeded, as unfounded claims about Ukrainian interference seeped into Republican talking points. American intelligence agencies believe Moscow is likely to redouble its efforts as the 2020 presidential campaign intensifies<https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/26/us/politics/fbi-russian-election-interference.html?module=inline>. The classified briefing for senators also focused on Russia’s evolving influence tactics, including its growing ability to better disguise operations.
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Posted in campaigns<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>, chicanery<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>

“Trump’s Senate Impeachment Defense Will Be to Put Joe Biden on Trial”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=108176>
Posted on November 22, 2019 10:10 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=108176> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

I have written this piece <https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/11/trump-senate-impeachment-trial-joe-biden-defense.html> for Slate, which concludes:

A trial of Biden or CrowdStrike in the Senate could be a Trump victory, or it could be a morass for Senate Republicans. Remember that the whole point of pressuring Ukraine was not to get the government there to actually do an investigation but only to announce an investigation. The goal was not to get at the truth but to open up a line of attack on the man Trump saw as his most dangerous rival. Trump was banking on the premise that it could be enough to sully someone’s reputation repeatedly through public attacks rather than to have to produce actual evidence to harden public opinion. Days of Senate hearings in which Trump lawyers lay out a case against Joe Biden or CrowdStrike will presumably get wall-to-wall coverage from major news outlets, further amplifying Trump’s lies against Biden and efforts to blame Ukraine and rehabilitate Russia for the 2016 election interference campaign.

Now some moderate senators like Maine’s Susan Collins may balk at such a defense, but they really have very little control here. Just like a criminal defendant, Trump gets wide latitude to launch his defense. It seems unlikely that the chief justice would shut down an attempt by Trump to present evidence supposedly going to his state of mind in pressuring Ukraine. Trump’s state of mind is crucial in determining whether he abused his power and acted corruptly.

It’s already clear that Trump will try to use the Senate trial to his political advantage. The strategy is a gamble, but it could pay off. Conviction takes a two-thirds vote, which would mean near three dozen Republican senators joining the Democrats to convict, an outcome that would not be possible if the vote were held today. In the likely event that Trump is acquitted after sullying Biden, the president will take a victory lap and perhaps turn to new ways to curry foreign interference in the upcoming 2020 elections. It will still ultimately be up to American voters to determine if they will side with those presenting evidence of the president’s abuse or with those peddling Trump’s false conspiracy theories.
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Posted in chicanery<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>

“When People in Prison Can Vote, Officials ‘Treat Them with Some Respect'”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=108174>
Posted on November 22, 2019 9:28 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=108174> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Daniel Nichanian <https://theappeal.org/politicalreport/bill-voting-rights-in-prison-new-york-vermont-maine/> for the Appeal:

Hawley’s reaction reflects a system that has set them up as gatekeepers of voting rights, with the punitive expectation that effective law enforcement means cutting people off from the world.
But in Maine and Vermont, law enforcement’s decisions do not affect people’s voting rights, and that promotes a different dynamic. When I talked to<https://theappeal.org/politicalreport/vermont-prosecutor-sends-staff-to-prison-in-a-bid-to-counter-their-reflex-to-incarcerate/> the prosecutor of Vermont’s largest county in August about the fact that the state enables people to vote from prison, she expressed a very different sentiment than Hawley.
“I am very proud of Vermont for doing that, and I think every state should allow [incarcerated people] to vote,” Sarah Fair George, the state’s attorney of Chittenden County (Burlington), told me<https://theappeal.org/politicalreport/vermont-prosecutor-sends-staff-to-prison-in-a-bid-to-counter-their-reflex-to-incarcerate/>. She added that she wanted it to be easier still for incarcerated people to obtain ballots. “They are still a community member, and they should still have a say in the way their community is run, whether they’re in jail or not,” she said.
—
This week, after reading Hawley’s statement, I reached out to all the prosecutors in Maine and Vermont this week to ask for their reaction. I also contacted officials in each state’s Department of Corrections (DOC), the agencies that run state prisons.
Those who answered either defended prison voting as a boon to the criminal legal system, or shrugged it off as a non-issue. None expressed a sense of being disrespected.
“[F]elon voting in Vermont has been a rat
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Posted in felon voting<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=66>

--
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
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rhasen at law.uci.edu<mailto:rhasen at law.uci.edu>
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http://electionlawblog.org<http://electionlawblog.org/>

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