The Cleta Mitchell Nexus

 

Last Friday, WRAL's investigative reporter Will Doran broke the story that election-denying Trump lawyer Cleta Mitchell, who was heavily involved with Trump in trying to overturn the 2020 election result and who is on record saying that Republicans have to do something to make it harder for college students to vote ("Top GOP lawyer decries ease of campus voting in private pitch to RNC") -- that Cleta Mitchell met privately with GOP lawmakers in Raleigh before they released the text of their new voter suppression law. Doran made the case effectively that Mitchell got pretty much what she wanted in the new law for making absentee voting harder, while GOP leaders hotly denied that Mitchell had any hand in writing the new law. In fact, Senate boss Phil Berger admitted that the mere association of Mitchell could hurt the public perception of the new law -- if it were true, which it is not, proclaimed Berger, and why wouldn't we believe him?

We assume the Republican lawmakers didn't have Mitchell in for tea and grooming tips. We also know, from Berger's reaction to the leaked documents that revealed the Mitchell meeting, that the Republicans are nervous about a further riled-up electorate which is already riled up about women's rights.

When reporter Doran asked Berger if he was concerned about public perception that a trumpist as notorious as Cleta Mitchell had a hand in drafting new voter legislation, Berger answered, “If it were true, yeah. I understand that she and other people have said some things that folks are concerned about. I can assure that she has not had any role in the drafting of the legislation.”

Why Is Cleta Mitchell Notorious?

Take a gander at her Wikipedia listing. She trails a long history of hyper-conservative activism, but the following is probably the source of Berger's angst in seeing her name associated with his new voting law:

On January 2, 2021, she participated in the hour-long telephone conversation between Trump and Georgia's Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, during which Trump pressured Raffensperger to investigate unsupported claims disputing the results of the 2020 presidential election based on doctored videos and unsubstantiated rumors from right-wing media. Following that telephone call, Mitchell accused Raffensperger of saying things "that are simply not correct" about the presidential results in Georgia. Two days later, after Mitchell's participation in the call was reported, the law firm of Foley & Lardner (where Mitchell was a partner) released a statement saying that the law firm's policy was not to represent parties seeking to contest the results of the 2020 election; that the firm was "aware of, and concerned by" Mitchell's participation in the telephone call; and that the firm was "working to understand her involvement more thoroughly." Mitchell resigned from Foley & Lardner the next day. The firm said that Mitchell "concluded that her departure was in the firm's best interests, as well as in her own personal best interests." Mitchell blamed her resignation on a purported "massive pressure campaign" allegedly launched by leftist groups on social media.

 

New Voter Suppression Laws Coming for North Carolina

 

Will Doran, for WRAL:

Student voters will be
a major target for suppression

The 2024 elections in North Carolina could be conducted under far stricter rules under a proposal being crafted behind closed doors by Republican lawmakers — with input from a lawyer best known for assisting in efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.

Republican operatives and state lawmakers expect a massive package of laws — affecting everything from voter ID to early voting, mail-in ballots, voter registration rules and more — to be filed in the coming days.

“From talking to leaders in the House and Senate, it appears they’re going to bundle all these meritorious changes … and put them in an omnibus bill,” Jim Womack, a longtime GOP politician and party insider familiar with Republican leaders’ thinking on the issue, said in an interview Wednesday afternoon. “This is something my group has been pushing for.”

Womack’s group is the Election Integrity Network, whose state chapter he runs with Cleta Mitchell, a former lawyer for then-President Donald Trump. She and Womack have met with high-ranking Republican lawmakers in recent weeks, pushing their goals for changes to election laws ahead of the 2024 elections. They say their changes will add security to elections and give people more faith that future results aren’t rigged.

“The biggest issue across the nation is distrust in elections,” Womack said. “And it’s not just conservatives. It is more with conservatives, but it’s both sides.”

Mitchell was one of several lawyers heavily involved in Trump’s failed efforts to overturn the 2020 election results — including the famous call she, Trump and others made to Georgia election officials when Trump pressured the officials to “find” enough votes to let him win the state instead of his Democratic opponent Joe Biden, who actually won. A Georgia grand jury has been investigating the incident and whether to charge Trump criminally.

In recent months, she has made national news for her efforts in conservative circles to make it harder for younger people to vote in 2024, including by shortening the time available for voting and by restricting polling places on college campuses.

Get Ready, Young People, for Discouraging Words and Deeds

 

There's already a bill introduced in Raleigh (H123) to shorter Early Voting to seven days. Can other limits to democracy be far behind? Like discouraging the voting of college students, as Trump lawyer Cleta Mitchell recently lectured a private meeting of Republican donors in Nashville was essential if Republicans are going to win elections going forward. 

Mitchell is the North Carolina-based founder of the Election Integrity Network, mainly aimed at decreasing voter turnout, especially among non-Republican cohorts, and she's a well known Stop the Steal personality. Mitchell was on the call between Trump and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in January 2021 when Trump asked Raffensperger to “find” enough votes to overturn the result. She resigned from her law firm when that call became public.

Of course the authoritarians in Raleigh will figure out more ways to suppress the vote in North Carolina, especially the vote of young people. They have to. The vote of the young is an existential threat to their continued power.

At least in Watauga County there's still a Wake County Superior Court order mandating an Early Voting site on the AppState campus.