#Election officials from nearly all 50 states gathered on a call last month with #DHS’s point person on “election integrity,” eager to hear how the woman filling a newly created #Trump admin position might help safeguard the #vote ahead of next year’s #midterms.

But many of them left alarmed.

#law #ElectionLaw #coup #TrumpCoup2 #BigLie #propaganda #authoritarianism #autocracy #dictatorship #fascism #tyranny #UnitedStates

Rather than offering assurances that the federal government’s #election protection programs would continue uninterrupted, the new official, #HeatherHoney, instead used portions of the meeting to echo rhetoric that has infused the #FarRight *election activist* movement that emerged since #Trump falsely claimed that his 2020 defeat was the result of widespread fraud, acc/to 5 people with knowledge of the call.

#law #ElectionLaw #TrumpCoup2 #BigLie #autocracy #dictatorship #fascism #tyranny #US

Heather Honey, a leader in that movement until her appointment in August as deputy assistant secretary for *election integrity*, complained that her department’s #cybersecurity experts tasked with combating #disinformation about #elections had “strayed from their mission.”

#Trump #law #ElectionLaw #coup #TrumpCoup2 #BigLie #propaganda #authoritarianism #autocracy #dictatorship #fascism #tyranny #UnitedStates

The remark parroted a widespread view on the right that #CISA had sought to silence supporters of #Trump’s false fraud claims. Honey also repeatedly mentioned a false report often cited by #election conspiracists to support their claims that voting machines were rigged to favor Democrats, acc/to the people familiar with the call.

#law #ElectionLaw #coup #TrumpCoup2 #BigLie #propaganda #authoritarianism #autocracy #dictatorship #fascism #tyranny #UnitedStates

The ascent of Honey reflects how #Trump & his allies, despite a clear victory last year, remain consumed with the belief that the 2020 election was stolen — & how Trump is [ab]using the powers of the government to upend an electoral system that he falsely insists helped Joseph R. Biden Jr. take the White House.

#law #ElectionLaw #TrumpCoup2

In the past few months, #Trump has elevated multiple proponents of his false fraud claims into high-level admin jobs. Now, as government insiders, these activists could wield their newfound power to discredit future results or rekindle old claims to argue for a federal intrusion into locally administered voting systems.

#law #ElectionLaw #coup #TrumpCoup2 #BigLie #propaganda #authoritarianism #autocracy #dictatorship #fascism #tyranny #UnitedStates

On a call with #FarRight activists in March, before her appointment to #DHS, Honey suggested that the new #Trump admin could declare a “national emergency” & justify dictating new rules to state & local governments. She said this could be based on an “actual investigation” of the 2020 election if it showed there had been a “manipulation” of the vote.

[There have been countless exhaustive investigations]

#law #ElectionLaw #coup #TrumpCoup2 #authoritarianism #autocracy #dictatorship #fascism #US

“And therefore, we [would] have some additional powers that don’t exist right now,” Honey said in March, according to a recording reviewed by The New York Times from someone who joined the call, “and therefore, we can take these other steps without #Congress & we can mandate that states do things & so on.”

#Trump #law #ElectionLaw #coup #TrumpCoup2 #BigLie #propaganda #authoritarianism #autocracy #dictatorship #fascism #tyranny #UnitedStates

…The idea of *reinvestigating* the 2020 election gained steam recently with the White House’s decision to hire #KurtOlsen, a lawyer who has been tasked with *examining* the 2020 vote & other #election matters, acc/to a White House official. The hiring of Olsen, who has worked closely for years with the pillow entrepreneur #MikeLindell to promote false stolen-election #ConspiracyTheories, was first reported by WSJ.

#Trump #law #ElectionLaw #TrumpCoup2 #BigLie #propaganda
https://www.wsj.com/politics/elections/white-house-hires-stop-the-steal-lawyer-to-investigate-2020-election-claims-6395d322