This week saw the fight over Arizona's Trump-inspirated audit of the 2020 presidential elections in Maricopa County escalate. The Republican-led County Board of Supervisors called it an adventure in never land and rejected the Arizona Senates demand that more material be given to Cyber Ninjas. They are the conspiracy-theory-promoting audit firm behind the effort.The internal state fight over whether the audit will continue indefinitely will be ongoing despite ongoing legal challenges. The first sign of danger was that auditors who have already spread easily disproven lies about the existence of tens or thousands of fraudulent votes will be subject to serious public scrutiny.AdvertisementFirst, a judge in Arizona ruled Tuesday that Cyber Ninjas must turn over audit-related material to a watchdog organization that had submitted a public records request. Although the audit firm promised to appeal the ruling, I discovered that Cyber Ninjas now face greater scrutiny from the House Oversight Committee, which has the ability to move much faster than the courts.AdvertisementAdvertisementAccording to me, Cyber Ninjas missed the deadline last week to produce all documents related the audit as requested by the committee last month in a letter. According to an Oversight Committee staff member, the Cyber Ninjas requested more time from counsel to comply with the letter demands. The Oversight Committee has already begun to plan for what will happen if the company doesn't cooperate. According to a staff member, we expect that the company will respond quickly to our requests. If they don't, the Chairwoman will take the necessary steps to get us the answers we require.AdvertisementCarolyn Maloney, Oversight Committee chairwoman, confirmed that Cyber Ninjas would not comply with the records request. This would likely lead to Congressional subpoenas for every aspect of the Arizona audit.In a statement Maloney sent me Wednesday, Maloney stated that partisan audits funded from dark money groups undermine Americans trust in elections. He was referring to the few Trump-linked 501 (c)(3) entities which have contributed more than $5.7million to the audit effort. Cyber Ninjas must be transparent about its questionable activities, sources of funding, as well as answer Congress' questions immediately. We will use every tool available to get the answers we require to preserve the integrity of federal elections if it doesn't.AdvertisementAdvertisementThe Oversight Committee requested all documentation regarding every detail of the Maricopa County Audit, including details about its strange vote-counting procedures and training materials. Also, information about its funders and other data. Details about the audits hunted for bamboo-laced papers.Tuesday was a productive day for Rep. Jamie Raskin. He is the chairman of Subcommittee on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties and is also a member the House Select Committee, which is investigating Jan. 6's insurrection. Raskin described why Congress is investigating this audit and how he sees the attempts to doubt the election in Arizona both as a natural progression of the Jan. 6 mob attack on the Capitol and as an attempt set the stage for Trump's return to politics. This conversation has been condensed to make it more concise and clear.AdvertisementYour sub-committee and your committee sent Cyber Ninjas a letter. It was the first time I had seen anything that could help to bring transparency to this extremely secretive process.AdvertisementThis seems to be a fraudulent outsourcing of a public function. Election audits should only be performed by public actors. However, there is no reason to believe that further election auditing is necessary, as these results have been confirmed in Arizona.We, the Committee on Oversight and Reform have the power to investigate any matter that could compromise the integrity of government and violate the rights of the people. Donald Trump is trying to destroy us with this dangerous trend of corporate outsourced corporate ambush in a public election. Everyone can see that this is an logical consequence of the big lie. This is the big lie that filters down to the county and state levels, corrupting and undermining legitimate public processes.AdvertisementThis attitude has been prevalent, especially on the Republican side, regarding these challenges to democracy. It seems that if you let these kinds of efforts go it will just burn itself out, without having to face anything. Do you find that to be true?Trump's insatiable appetite to lie, corrupt, and commit violence is being appeased by the Republican establishment. They hope that someone will end it. It doesn't work that way. They have contributed to the creation of a monster. That is why we owe Liz Cheney, The Lincoln Project, and all the Republicans who stand up and say that the destruction and reorganization of the law in this manner is the way to fascism.AdvertisementAdvertisementWhat brought this audit and its issues to the attention of the oversight committees?The oversight subcommittee of civil rights and civil liberties I am the chair. I am passionate about the rights of people to vote. Maricopa County is something that has been on my mind since Donald Trump keeps talking and seems to believe that there is a fix. He will be able stage his political comeback on the basis of whatever conclusions are drawn in this private corporate investigation. Maricopa County has been a constant in my thoughts because Donald Trump keeps talking about it and seems to believe that somehow the fix is in such he will be able to stage his political comeback based on whatever conclusions they concoct in this private corporate investigation.He repeatedly refers to Arizona and Maricopa County in his campaign as the starting point of his political revival. Whatever they plan in Maricopa County will be an integral part of Trump's argument to his supporters about why he should be restored to power. This is extremely dangerous rhetoric. Donald Trump's extremist rhetoric is something I have experienced personally. If he creates a violent mass movement, more people could be murdered. If he decides to create his violent mass movement, more people could be killed.AdvertisementWhat information can a Congressional inquiry reasonably expect to find about the funders of this audit? Many of these are 501(c),(3) organizations whose donors remain secret.AdvertisementAdvertisementThey owe answers to all our questions. Congress owes everyone honest and truthful answers.According to the letter, the committee expressed concern that your company's actions could compromise the integrity of federal elections as well as interfere with Americans constitutional rights to vote freely without interference from partisan parties.It is difficult to imagine a more fundamental public function than the counting and reporting of results. But what we have seen from Donald Trump has been an attempt to undermine and second-guess the election authorities. He called Brad Raffensperger (the secretary of state) and demanded that he locate him 11,779 votes [Biden's margin of victory]. This audio recording was of an attempt at election fraud. This was an audio recording of an attempt to commit election fraud.AdvertisementHe also tried to convince state legislatures that they could overthrow the popular election results for the presidential contest, and replace them with Trump electors. More than 60 federal and state courts have established that there was no fraud or corruption. He then turned to violence after failing at every step, even in Congress, to overthrow an election through public process. He is now turning to private corporate outsourcing for the public function of conducting an audit of elections. The point is clearly to get the result he wants by shielding the private corporate election Ninja process and real public scrutiny. That's the job of my sub-committee and the oversight committee. At least, we have the chance to try to bring some light back to a corrupt process that Donald Trump wants.AdvertisementAdvertisementThe audit covers half the country, starting in D.C. and ending in your Maryland district. How concentrated can you be on all the details and intricacies?We are determined to follow it wherever we can. It's been fascinating to see the coverage. It is already unsettling to discover how much right-wing political money has gone into this outfit. I don't understand why anyone should have any faith in these people. They are asking Arizonans to trust and abandon their public election officials, whether they be Democrats, Republicans, or Independents, but professionals who are committed to electoral integrity, and to place their faith in a pro-Trump ideology outfit that was created for this purpose.AdvertisementEven Ken Bennett, the Arizona Senates liaison, who was nominally responsible for the audit, raised serious questions about it. He claimed that he was deliberately denied access to the vote tabulation procedures and was worried that auditors might force him to balance the results after the fact to make it appear that they had a more accurate count. Are there any other options to force witnesses or documents like Ken Bennett to reveal the truth?AdvertisementIt is alarming, but not surprising that Ken Bennett raises so many questions about the events. It is clear that Trump's outrageous claims were vindicated by the deployment of Cyber Ninjas. We take what is happening in Arizona very seriously and will investigate it. After the fact, we won't allow the federal election process to be corrupted or drained from all its integrity by these indefensible hucksters.AdvertisementIn some ways, it is similar to the Jan. 6 attempt. It was obvious that Joe Biden had defeated Donald Trump by seven million votes. He had clearly beaten Trump in the Electoral College, 306 to 232. The Trump forces combined violent and nonviolent means attempted to force Vice President Pence to reject the Electoral College votes from Arizona, Georgia and Pennsylvania to deny Biden a majority. It was clear that he had defeated him in the Electoral College by 306 to 232. The Trump forces, which combined both violent and non-violent means, attempted to coerce Vice President Pence and Congress to reject the Electoral College votes of Arizona, Georgia, and Pennsylvania in order for Biden not a majority in the electoral college.They tried to make a ministerial and pro forma function of the vice president a moment for political decision making. This is exactly what they are doing in Arizona. It's over, it's settled, the results have been certified and verified, and Trumps forces are trying, with this rearguard attack, to stop a legitimate and certified public election. They are using their control of one legislative body to overthrow and manipulate the electoral process.I was surprised when I met people who knew a bit about the ways activists and the Department of Justice might counter this with legal action. They explained that there were very few or no legal tools available to combat this. This is again why I was so impressed by your efforts.The Republican guarantee clause, and the 14th Amendment, equal protection give us a constitutional obligation to ensure that the citizens of the United States have the right to vote and a representative form of government. We cannot allow state legislatures, in an attempt to gerrymander certain election results, to act quickly against legitimate political electoral processes. The Congress plays a crucial role in ensuring that public elections are fair and transparent, and that integrity and security are maintained for public election results.
