American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) CEO Lisa Nelson tells a group at the Council for National Policy that ALEC is working with three GOP attorneys to strategize paths “that legislators can take to question the validity of an election.” The comments come during a session at a CNP conference taking place February 27-29 in Dana Point, California. Members of the Trump administration and at least one member of Congress attend the event.
Nelson, who runs the legally non-partisan charity (ALEC) and is a member of CNP, told the group, “obviously we all want President Trump to win and win the national vote. But it’s very clear from all the comments and all the suggestions up front that really what it comes down to is the states and the state legislators.” She added that they’ve been working with former Federal Election Commission (FEC) Member and Heritage Foundation attorney Hans Von Spakovsky, former FEC member Brad Smith, and GOP attorney Cleta Mitchell “trying to identify what are those action items that legislators can take in their states.”
Documented
Nelson is referring to the work of ALEC’s secret “Political Process Working Group,” which was established in August and last met as recently as December. The group’s primary objective appears to be establishing legal methods for interfering in the 2020 election.
Nelson noted that her group was exploring additional ways to invalidate a potential Trump loss in consultation with three election experts, including CNP board of governors member Cleta Mitchell, “who I know you all know, on trying to identify what are those action items that legislators can take in their states, and I think that they’ve identified a few. They can write a letter to the secretary of state, questioning the validity of an election, and saying, ‘What did happen that night?’ So we are drafting a lot of those things. If you have ideas in that area, let us know, and we’ll get them to the state legislators, and they can start to kind of exercise their political muscle in that area.”
The Washington Spectator
Many of the sessions during the three-day event focus on the 2020 election, with multiple meetings to discuss convincing women to support Donald Trump.
We do not know everyone who attends the event, but there are some familiar names listed on the agenda: Rep. Doug Collins (R-GA), Trump economic adviser Arthur “Art” Laffer, Trump legal assistant Paul Teller, and Trump campaign communications director Marc Lotter.
In one session at the conference, participants discuss the power vote-by-mail could have in hurting Trump’s re-election chances and Republican campaigns for years to come.
Attendees did not identify any specific examples of voter fraud around vote-by-mail — rather, they expressed concern that the measure would benefit Democrats. The meeting, in February, came at least a month before the coronavirus pandemic raised the issue of vote-by-mail as a public health measure nationwide.
The Intercept
During another session, one speaker lays out a plan to get veterans and police to sign up as poll workers in districts with a large minority population.
The idea is a reprise of once-illegal Election Day “ballot security” intimidation tactics, intended to challenge voter registration and remove voters from the rolls. At a strategy session in February attended by conservative donors and activists, several people expressed a specific need for Republican poll watchers in “inner city” and predominantly Native American precincts, according to audio recordings of the event obtained by The Intercept and Documented.
“You get some [Navy] Seals in those polls and they’re going to say, ‘No, no, this is what it says. This is how we’re going to play this show,’” said Catherine Engelbrecht, founder of True the Vote, a group that lobbies for voting restrictions and organizes volunteers to go into precincts and aggressively challenge voters who they believe are improperly registered.
The Intercept
Donald Trump takes that plan a step further when he threatens to send off-duty police to polling stations.
Council for National Policy
The Council for National Policy is a highly secretive right-wing extremist group that works in tandem with public figures and less secretive organizations to donate to and draft policies for Republican politicians. For example, if a Republican candidate does not have a problem with same-sex marriage, the CNP might make sure they change that position.
Trump File first mentioned the CNP when detailing the group’s involvement in anti-lockdown protests and influence on the Trump administration’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Months later, CNP members orchestrated “Stop The Steal” and “March for Trump” events that became a battle cry for far-right fascist groups like the Proud Boys to take to the streets of Washington, DC.
Update: We now have a list of over 1,000 members of the Council for National Policy.
For Reference Purposes
Organizations with speakers on the agenda: PragerU, Media Research Center, Alliance Defending Freedom, Institute for Free Speech, Save Our States, Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs, American Institute for Behavioral Research and Technology (Robert Epstein), ACT for America, True the Vote, Election Law Reform Initiative, Heritage Foundation, Internet Accountability Project, Susan B. Anthony List, First Liberty Institute, Forecasts & Strategies, FreedomFest, Rappahannock Ventures (CNP President William “Bill” Walton), Project for Economic Growth, United In Purpose, Rebecca Hagelin Communications, Eagle Forum, FreedomWorks, Students for Life of America, Independent Women’s Forum, Concerned Women for America, Slavic401k, Center for Religious Schools, Center for Legislative Advocacy, Priests for Life, Lewis Group International, and Calvary Temple of India.
Sponsors of the event: Lindsey Communications, Persecution Project, and Timothy Partners / Timothy Plan.
External Sources
Documented – Questioning the Validity of the Election (Archived)
Document Cloud – February CNP Agenda
The Intercept (Archived)
