With one week to go before the national election, a federal judge in Newark, N.J., moved on Monday night to test the Democratic National Committee’s claim that the Republican National Committee is joining with the Donald Trump presidential campaign to intimidate voters by aggressive poll-watching actions.
The legal dispute unfolding in the court of U.S. District Judge John Michael Vazquez has come in response to candidate Trump’s repeated public claims that this year’s election is “rigged” and that it is thus necessary to engage in energetic efforts to monitor polling stations.
In a new order issued after the RNC filed a lengthy document arguing that it has repeatedly acted to keep its employees and agents from doing anything illegal, Judge Vazquez ordered the national GOP organization to answer specific Democratic claims of joint efforts with Trump staff and supporters to engage in “ballot security” or anti-voter fraud efforts.
Specifically, the judge ordered the RNC to provide any information it may have about joining with the Trump organization in such efforts, any information about what Trump’s vice presidential running mate, Indiana Governor Mike Pence, had in mind in August in referring to such efforts, any information about a similar comment recently by Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway, and any data about two RNC members’ comments about plans for poll-watching in Philadelphia and anti- voter fraud in Michigan.
If there is no information to support the Democrats’ protests about those alleged actions, the judge said, a top RNC official must file a sworn affidavit saying that, and pointing out what efforts were made to check the Democratic complaints.
Judge Vazquez turned down, at least for the time being, a lengthy list of demands by the Democratic national organization for inside-GOP communications about possible voter intimidation efforts, saying that was too much of a burden this close to the election when the GOP is busy with campaign activities.
The judge issued his new data-demanding order within hours after the RNC had urged him to take no action against their organization because it and its followers have done nothing to violate a long-standing federal court order against voter intimidation actions. The RNC document contended that the Democrats have been relying only on news stories, and have no solid information to back those up.
The RNC also claimed complete independence from the Trump campaign, and noted that the court order (a consent decree first issued in 1982) does not even apply to the Trump campaign.
Despite the vigor of the RNC’s objections to the Democratic challenge, the judge decided to check out for himself the Democrats’ main claims, to see if there is anything to support them.
Although the judge had been scheduled to hold a hearing on the dispute tomorrow afternoon, he decided on Monday night to put that off until Friday afternoon, because of the new tasks he assigned to the RNC.
The Democrats have asked the judge to hold the RNC in contempt of court, on the premise that it has violated the 1982 consent decree, and to extend the life of that decree for another ten years; it is now due to expire in December of next year.
Meanwhile, on Monday night, the DNC sent the judge a new letter, asserting that it has “uncovered evidence that the RNC…has and continues to engage in one or more ballot security initiatives utilizing poll watchers in Nevada.” The DNC said it would spell out that accusation more fully when it files this afternoon a reply to the RNC’s claim that it has done nothing wrong.
Legendary journalist Lyle Denniston is Constitution Daily’s Supreme Court correspondent. Denniston has written for us as a contributor since June 2011 and he has covered the Supreme Court since 1958. His work also appears on lyldenlawnews.com.
