Former President Donald Trump was indicted on Thursday by the grand jury in Manhattan investigating hush money payments made during the 2016 campaign. Trump reportedly plans to turn himself in for arraignment on Tuesday.

• Trump and his allies are attempting to portray that investigation and other criminal probes he’s facing as an example of the “weaponization of our system of justice” — something that he, of course, routinely sought to do as president through the politicization of the Justice Department, including by trying to use it to overturn his 2020 election loss.
• A federal judge has ordered former Vice President Pence to testify in the federal investigation of that corrupt effort to cling to power. Trump’s legal team has appealed a separate court decision ordering former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and other Trump White House officials to testify.

Update from Wisconsin
On Thursday, American Oversight filed a brief urging the Wisconsin Court of Appeals to uphold circuit court decisions ordering the Assembly’s Office of Special Counsel — the office created to undertake the Assembly’s baseless and partisan investigation of the 2020 election — to produce related public records.

• OSC has asserted — and continues to assert on appeal, even after the records have been released pursuant to court order — that it can withhold all its records from the public.
• The rule the office urges the Court of Appeals to adopt would harm the Wisconsin public’s ability to understand OSC’s investigation and future special counsel investigations.
• American Oversight is represented by Democracy Forward and Pines Bach LLP; read our and Democracy Forward’s statements here.

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos has repeatedly disparaged the judges who ruled against him and OSC in our lawsuits, and has pursued multiple appeals to avoid accountability. 

• A new bill in the Wisconsin Assembly would require that any lawsuits involving the Legislature be randomly assigned to one of the state’s 69 circuit courts. The bill is being pushed by Republican lawmakers who have claimed they have been treated unfairly by judges in Dane County, home of the state capital.
• The bill is being advanced for what amounts to perceived political gain, as judges in Dane County are, like other judges, obligated to make decisions free from personal or political biases — despite Vos’ and others’ efforts to delegitimize rulings that didn’t go in their favor.
• Read the Wisconsin State Journal’s report on the bill here, which references our public records lawsuits.

On the Records

Cleta Mitchell’s Emails
In late 2021, Cleta Mitchell — a lawyer who less than a year before had played a role in the effort to overturn the 2020 election — was given a seat on the advisory board of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission.

• We sued the EAC last August for communications between select commissioners and election conspiracy theorists and voting-restriction activists, including Mitchell.
• The lawsuit and other requests led to the release of correspondence between Mitchell and right-wing groups in which she used unfounded claims of voter fraud to oppose expanded access to absentee voting during the pandemic. 
• “[E]very crazy thing the left wants to do they will try to get done at this time, using the virus as the reason,” she wrote in March 2020. She also criticized a group dedicated to expanding voting rights as “a left-of-center organization that has diametrically opposite views about election law.” Read more here.

Florida Surgeon General’s 2021 Meetings with Covid Conspiracy Theorists
Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo’s harmful and inaccurate claims about the safety of Covid-19 vaccines have drawn significant scrutiny, with the CDC and the FDA recently debunking those claims in a formal letter. 

We obtained communications from the fall of 2021 that show Ladapo setting up meetings with local Covid-19 conspiracy theorists, a month after he was appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis.

• The editor of a conservative local news outlet, the Alachua Chronicle, complained to Ladapo about a possible local mask mandate in Gainesville, suggesting that Ladapo present to University of Florida doctors because “the mask cult is strong” in the UF system. Ladapo copied his staff and responded, “let’s pls discuss how I can be helpful.”
• A writer and Covid conspiracy theorist asked to set up an “informal public interview” with Ladapo to “address early treatments for C19, generics in particular.” She shared an article she wrote about ivermectin that she claimed caused Twitter to temporarily lock her out of her account. Ladapo directed his staff to “help us find a time for all of us to talk soon.”

Other Stories We’re Following

Election Denial and Threats to Democracy

• N.C. board removes election officials who refused to certify (Associated Press)
• State election officials at U.S. Senate hearing discuss threats to workers, call for funding (Arizona Mirror) 
• Texas may be about to scrap a voting security system it can’t replace (Votebeat Texas)
• Florida left voter roll accuracy program, ERIC. Emails reveal value, spur questions (Palm Beach Post)
• Here’s what Fox News was trying to hide in its Dominion lawsuit redactions (NBC News)
• Election conspiracy movement grinds on as 2024 approaches (Associated Press)
• 1,000 people have been charged for the Capitol riot. Here’s where their cases stand. (NPR)

Voting Rights

• Florida left voter roll accuracy program, ERIC. Emails reveal value, spur questions. (Palm Beach Post)
• Two DeSantis election fraud cases end with guilty pleas in Hillsborough (Tampa Bay Times) 
• ‘Back to 1902’: Virginia governor revives lifetime ban on voting (Bolts)
• Republicans face setbacks in push to tighten voting laws on college campuses (New York Times)
• East Lansing to end rule on landlord giving tenants voting information (Detroit News)

In the States

• Money managers raise alarms over anti-ESG crusade in GOP states (Bloomberg)
• Kentucky legislature overrides veto of anti-trans bill despite LGBTQ+ youths’ pleas (Louisville Courier Journal)
• Indiana bill banning gender-affirming care for minors sent to governor (Associated Press) 
• Diversity initiatives within Missouri agencies run into GOP attack on ‘woke’ government (Missouri Independent)
• North Carolina legislature makes it legal to buy a pistol without a permit (CNN)
• Judge stepping down from Florida Supreme Court becoming Citizens general counsel (Tampa Bay Times)
• DeSantis’ State Guard vision: planes, boats, police powers (Tampa Bay Times)

Abortion Rights

• Florida legislators want to vastly expand state funds for anti-abortion pregnancy centers (Reveal News)
• Six-week abortion ban in Florida headed for full Senate vote. Law would be one of strictest in the nation (South Florida Sun Sentinel)
• Abortion laws prevent pregnant Texans from getting healthcare (Texas Observer)
• N.C. House Republican files bill to ban abortions after conception with one exception (CBS 17 Raleigh)
• Planned Parenthood vows legal action against Idaho’s abortion trafficking bill if passed (News From The States)
• How abortion bans are impacting pregnant patients across the country (ProPublica)

Attacks on Education

• Missouri House gives initial approval to $45.6 billion state budget that defunds libraries (KCUR Kansas City)
• Schools forced to divert staff amid historic flood of records requests (Washington Post)
• Removal of ‘Ruby Bridges’ film from Pinellas school sparks outrage (Tampa Bay Times)
• Ohio higher-ed bill would require instructors to teach ‘both sides’ on climate change (Ohio Capital Journal)
• Betsy DeVos put millions behind candidates with a goal: Public money for private schools (NBC News)

National News

• Activist group led by Ginni Thomas received nearly $600,000 in anonymous donations (Washington Post)
• Democrats reintroduce federal Trans Bill of Rights as GOP tries to advance restrictions (19th News)
• Biden won’t veto Republican-led bill ending Covid emergency (Associated Press)
• Court blocks Covid-19 vaccine mandate for U.S. government workers (Associated Press)
• Plan to ‘cripple’ environmental- and social-related investing could cost taxpayers (Miami Herald)
• Biden immigration plan could force asylum officers to break law, union warns (Los Angeles Times)
• Texas GOP wants citizens to stop migrants. Critics say it’s a ‘vigilante death squads policy’ (Intercept)