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DOJ Keeps Plan Secret for Biden’s Election Executive Order

Posted on Tuesday, March 12, 2024
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merrick garland of the DOJ with biden

The Biden Justice Department continues to claim presidential privilege to block release of its strategic plan to turn out the vote, although at least two other federal agencies have made their plans public. 

In defending a lawsuit under the Freedom of Information Act, the Justice Department is keeping under wraps its plans to implement President Joe Biden’s 2021 executive order, under which most federal agencies are required to develop a strategic plan for increasing voter participation in elections. 

The plaintiff in that case, the Foundation for Government Accountability, contends that privilege claim is undermined by two federal agencies releasing their plans to implement Biden’s Executive Order 14019, which he signed in March 2021. 

Notably, the U.S. Trade Representative, an agency that is part of the Executive Office of the President, made its plan public through a public records request, as The Daily Signal reported last week. 

The Railroad Retirement Board also released its strategic plan for boosting voting, The Daily Signal reported. 

“Now that at least two agencies have handed out their strategic plans, the Justice Department’s claim [that the plan] is protected by presidential privilege in our case is questionable,” Stewart Whitson, legal director for the Foundation for Government Accountability, told The Daily Signal in a phone interview.

The Foundation for Government Accountability first sued the Justice Department under the Freedom of Information Act in April 2022 in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida. 

“The DOJ is supposed to be the arbiter of following the law, and they are doing the opposite,” Whitson said in the interview. 

My book “The Myth of Voter Suppression” details how executives at the liberal think tank Demos—one of the private groups working with federal agencies on voter turnout—drafted an executive order in December 2020, the month before Biden took office, suggesting how he should turn government bureaucracies into voter registration agencies. 

Possibly more ambiguous is the Defense Department, which said it updated an existing strategic plan to fit Biden’s executive order on voting. 

The Pentagon’s strategic plan isn’t dated, but appears to have been drafted in 2021 after Biden signed the order that March. The Defense Department, unlike most other federal agencies, consistently has dealt with voting issues for military personnel. 

The Justice Department didn’t respond to The Daily Signal’s inquiries for this report. Federal agencies frequently decline to comment on ongoing litigation. 

Publicly, however, the Justice Department said in an October 2022 court filing that releasing documents about its strategic plan to implement Biden’s order could cause “public confusion.” 

“To qualify for protection under this privilege, material must be inter- or intra-agency, and both pre-decisional and deliberative,” the Justice Department’s motion in the lawsuit says.

In a March 3 speech, Attorney General Merrick Garland said voter ID and other election reforms were “discriminatory, burdensome and unnecessary,” and that the Justice Department would “fight back” against such measures. 

Numerous House and Senate Republicans have sought information about the documents related to Biden’s order telling government agencies to register voters. 

Critics have said the order could cause federal employees to engage in illegal activity by participating in elective politics. They point to potential violation of the Hatch Act, a law prohibiting partisan political activity using government time or resources, and the Antideficiency Act, which prohibits executive branch agencies from spending money for purposes not designated by Congress.

The Department of Education released a “toolkit” to expand voting among college students and to provide information about voting for students in grades K-12.

Also under Biden’s initiative, the Department of Homeland Security registers new voters during naturalization ceremonies. It’s not clear what else the DHS—which also is charged with stopping illegal immigration—has done to implement Biden’s executive order. 

As The Daily Signal previously reported, the Biden administration carved out paid administrative leave to encourage federal bureaucrats—seen as a loyal Democrat constituency—to volunteer as poll workers during elections. 

The Daily Signal also reported that federal agencies are working to carry out Biden’s order on voting with Demos and other liberal advocacy groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union

In 2021, the White House announced that the Justice Department would focus on the Bureau of Prisons to “provide information about voting to individuals in federal custody, facilitate voting by those who remain eligible to do so while in federal custody, and educate individuals before reentry about voting rules and voting rights in their states.” 

The Biden administration has made little other information available, however. 

Reprinted with permission from The Daily Signal by Fred Lucas.

The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of AMAC or AMAC Action.

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Marilyn
Marilyn
6 months ago

So what are our republican representatives going to do about it??? I am tired of hearing what is wrong, nobody is doing anything about it!!!

Rhoda
Rhoda
6 months ago

Anyone still think we’ll have “free and fair” elections in November???

Melinda
Melinda
6 months ago

The Biden administration has not hesitated to break laws, including the constitution. Why would they stop now? The oligarchy has unlimited power. If this can’t be reversed we may never have an honest election.

Ralph
Ralph
6 months ago

We used to be known as a nation of LAWS. LAWS governing EVERYONE. Now, thanks to the Elites and DemocRATS we have become a nation of RULES. Rules for thee, but NOT for me! Damn the Constitution and a democratic Republic and Full Speed Ahead in favor of a Marxist Socialistic Dictatorship.

Lloyd Grisham
Lloyd Grisham
6 months ago

This is criminal. Biden and a long list of others should be arrested for treason. It won’t happen of course because the deep state is in charge. This does not end well.

Scott Peloquin
Scott Peloquin
6 months ago

Doesn’t the Hatch Act prevent this…

Alan Daniel
Alan Daniel
6 months ago

The Democrats increase voter participation by stuffing the ballot boxes with fake ballots. More than once, the number of votes cast exceeded the number of registered voters by a lot. Still, the votes were counted. At least in the Democrat districts.

Robert Zuccaro
Robert Zuccaro
6 months ago

If I were Trump I’d worry about Joe realizing he’s “too cutely old and senile” to stand trial for his crimes and go all Michael Corleone on him. If Joe asks you, don’t go fishing on the lake, Don, and check for canolis before getting in the limo…

John Riley
John Riley
6 months ago

WTF “secret” executive orders? Have the people lost control of their government? This alone wants me to vote this administration out.

Howard
Howard
6 months ago

The federal government should not even be involved in the voting process, other than enforcing the Voting Rights Act of 1964. Where in the world are the Republicans? They need to stop their intra-party scrabbling and get united on the major issues facing the nation, the majority of which are caused by, led by, and underwritten by the Democrats and their crooked cronies, and not the least of which are their attempts to circumvent voting laws to favor them. Different Republicans running for various offices across the country are begging me for money, saying they are barely getting by and will lose the election if they don’t get more donations. Well, thanks to Bidenomics, I have precious little to even meet my obligations. Where are the wealthy Republicans?

Don
Don
6 months ago

Hey there all you REPUBLICANS (not you rinos) make darn sure you get yourself to the polls. If you don’t……well, ….. God help us.

sdg
sdg
6 months ago

What a good picture of these two tyrants, you just need Obama between them and you would the the new Axis of Evil and corruption that is tearing down our country. These 3 are the evil plague of lying cheating, filth that is running the US illegally.
Any chance of regaining our country back is only by eliminating these 3 and the deep state and take out the Soros traitorous machine.
Wake up people we MUST FIGHT BACK BY ANY AND ALL MEANS POSSIBLE!!!!

Susan
Susan
5 months ago

As a former teacher we were told emphatically we could not use any federal funding to promote any candidate, any election, any millage.
Biden’s ILLEGAL EXECUTIVE ORDER 14019 is using EVERY FEDERAL AGENCY TO PROMOTE Democrats, taking advantage of the poor and uneducated
. . . (these agencies include Homeland Security to sign up illegals. . . Biden is illegally using The Department of Justice and its Federal buildings to sign up, talk how to be Democrats. Biden is illegally using the Federal Department of Agriculture to sign up and register Democrat Voters. Biden is using the Federal Department of Housing and Urban Development to recruit and sign up Democrat registered voters.
Where does it say in the Federal Government that the Federal Government can use taxpayer hard-earned money to use appropriated funds for the purpose that CONGRESS DID NOT AUTHORIZE?
Who is fighting this criminal, sneaky act by the Democrats. I heard this is a violation of the Antideficiency Act, (31 U.S.C. & 1341(A)(1)(A) which prohibits agencies from expending and obligating funds in a manner not authorized by law.
I read violating this statue carries administrative and potential criminal penalties. NEEDED IS TRANSPARENCY THAT THE WHITE HOUSE AND THE FEDERAL AGENCIES HAVE REFUSED TO GIVE. Where are the courts to protect our citizen money being used illegally?

Brenda G
Brenda G
6 months ago

More criminal, disqusting, and complete manipulation of our rights, of election interference. Why did these federal agencies, Biden Justice (which is the regimes personal legal department- paid for by us all) wait until now to pull out this latest trick? Because it is just that by the criminals.

jimm
jimm
6 months ago

Breaking: Biden’s DOJ participates in the big election cheat.

Clyde
Clyde
6 months ago

Lol. They don’t know our plan either!! Maybe after its implemented, but probably not

Jkurow
Jkurow
6 months ago

Biden & Garland are Crooked Morons and should be IMPEACHED !

hrh
hrh
6 months ago

Nope, just the opposite.
Getting rid of all the Bushes and other “republicans” that betrayed Reagan while he was in office and immediately and forever after.
Pick up a history book. Start with any book by Craig Shirley.

Rick
Rick
6 months ago

It’s the evil party versus the stupid party, once again. As a nation, we still have not accepted that fact. The Democrats stick together and work together, while the Republicans are in a constant state of dysfunction.
Senators like Mitt Romney, Utah, Susan Collins, Maine, and Todd Young, Indiana, will do absolutely nothing to address this. All because they refuse to rally around Donald Trump. If they had their Chris Christie or Nikki Haley as their nominee, they would be all over this issue. It’s just that simple and sinister.
It sickens me to think of four more years of Biden economics, energy dependence, and paying for illegal alien housing, transportation, and healthcare.
Right now, we can write our senators and our representative, and pray.

Howard
Howard
6 months ago

I would abstain from voting rather than vote for Biden. You must be able to see how he has backstabbed Americans (Many of whom supported and voted for Reagan) and has done everything he can to destroy the America as envisioned by our founders. So, if you claim that Trump is evil, then certainly he would be the much better of two evils.

Robert Zuccaro
Robert Zuccaro
6 months ago

I’m surprised Biden hasn’t invited “Lincoln” Riley’s killer and his family to the SOTU.

Stephen Russell
Stephen Russell
6 months ago

Goes both ways to Trump too??

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