MeidasTouch: EXCLUSIVE: Sen. Padilla, Colleagues Warn Trump Not to Use ‘Emergency’ To Take Over Elections
By Troy Matthews
California Democratic Senator Alex Padilla has sent a letter to White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles warning the Trump administration not to use a national emergency declaration to attempt a federal takeover of state and local elections. The letter was also signed by Sens. Bernie Sanders, Jon Ossoff, Adam Schiff, and others.
The letter comes in response to the hiring of “Stop the Steal” and Trump campaign lawyer Kurt Olsen as a “special government employee” by the Trump administration to investigate the 2020 election, as Donald Trump, despite winning in 2024 continues to maintain that the 2020 election was stolen from him.
Olsen’s appointment comes after Deputy Assistant Secretary for Election Integrity at the Department of Homeland Security Heather Honey advocated for the Trump Administration to declare a “national emergency” to seize control over state local elections, advocating for “additional powers that don’t exist right now” in order to take “these other steps without Congress” and “mandate that states do things and so on.”
“Mr. Olsen’s appointment appears to be part of a scheme to convince the President to attempt a national emergency declaration to illegally claim unconstitutional federal powers over state and local election administration,” Padilla’s letter reads. “Mr. Olsen is particularly ill-suited to lead such a probe, given that he advanced such conspiracy theories as he worked to prevent four battleground states from certifying the 2020 election.”
Olsen has repeatedly claimed unsecured voting machines were utilized to falsify election results in key battleground states, a key factor in the multi-billion dollar lawsuit against Fox News from Dominion Systems and Smartmatic that cost right-wing pundit Tucker Carlson his job.
Olsen has also been sanctioned by the Arizona Supreme Court for “unequivocally false” claims he made to attempt to overturn the 2022 Governor’s race in Arizona on behalf of failed MAGA candidate Kari Lake.
Now, Olsen will be the man the White House taps to lead an investigation into whether the 2020 election was stolen, despite the results of that race being the most scrutinized of any election in history.
The potential repercussions of this cannot be overstated. Olsen may recommend that secretaries of state of battlegrounds like Arizona and Georgia which certified for Biden be named as part of conspiracy and charge them with federal crimes. He may further advise that systems in these states are no longer secure for further elections and recommend that the federal government take direct control over future elections, including the mid-term elections for congress next year.
“Let us be clear: any attempt to declare a national emergency to interfere in state and local election administration would be illegal and unconstitutional,” Padilla continues. “While we are confident any such scheme would fail quickly in the face of judicial scrutiny, it still poses unacceptable risks of undermining future elections in this country. Therefore, we demand you closely oversee Mr. Olsen and other appointees to ensure they do not engage in illegal or unethical conduct in pursuit of an unconstitutional national emergency regarding elections.”
In addition to Senator Padilla, the letter was signed by Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.).
The Senators also condemned Trump’s anti-voter executive order illegally directing the Election Assistance Commission (EAC) to revise voting system standards and rescind voting machine certifications, and they slammed the President’s threat to issue another illegal and unconstitutional executive order to ban mail-in ballots.
Padilla also led 11 Senators in introducing the Defending America’s Future Elections Act to repeal the order and prevent the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) from accessing sensitive voter registration data and state records.
Read the full article here.