Thread by @JessicaHuseman

1/12 Trump dissolved his voter fraud commission today. In its 6 months of existence, the commission accomplished basically nothing but caused a lot of controversy. I’ve been covering it from the beginning — let’s review it from start to finish.

2/ Trump formed the commission in March, after spending the start of his presidency asserting with no evidence that millions of people voted illegally. propublica.org/article/theres…

3/ The commission’s first action was in June, when it requested substantial amounts of voter information from every state. propublica.org/article/presid…

4/ Immediately, election experts saw red flags: You can’t find voter fraud in publicly available voter files. There is not enough information, and the matches are very messy. propublica.org/article/electi…

5/ States protested and lawsuits followed—some over worries about cyber security. Commission co-chair and KS SoS Kobach pledged to keep the data safe, but evidence from his own #CrossCheck program suggests he doesn’t know what that means.propublica.org/article/crossc…

6/ And that letter asking for the data? It was written by Kobach and two people who weren’t even on the commission yet, sparking internal concerns in the commission about who was really running the show.propublica.org/article/whos-r…

7/ Members of the commissioner were already worried about the letter. Then came the researcher (who commissioners say they didn’t know existed) who was arrested on child pornography charges.propublica.org/article/whos-r…

8/ One of the democratic commissioners — Matt Dunlap, the SoS of Maine — then sued the commission because he was being excluded from deliberations. It was one of several lawsuits the commission faced. propublica.org/article/trump-…

9/ Dunlap largely won his lawsuit — the judge ruled he’d been illegally excluded from meeting planning and from the writing of the letter.

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10/ While similar commissions in the past have all received gov't email addresses, the Trump admin allowed this commission to use personal email—experts doubt the legality of that, and it’s been a headache during the many lawsuits faced by the commission. propublica.org/article/expert…

11/ The commissioners, as far as I can tell, were given no notice of the dissolution of this commission. Even Kobach told reporters only a few days ago that the commission would likely meet this month.

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12/12/ According the statement today, Trump is asking DHS to review the material given to the commission by the states and determine what’s next. I’ll keep covering it.

Here's the correct link about the conflict that arose after a commission researcher was arrested on child pornography charges: propublica.org/article/confli…