Peach Tree Times

Georgia has filed a legal action asking a federal judge to enforce a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with the U.S. Department of Justice to see if DOJ officials conspired with what a press release calls "prominent liberal groups" before suing the state over its recently enacted election law.

Election analyst Ken Cuccinelli calls the lawsuit the “right and logical move.”

“The department has a long track record of colluding with left-wing groups,” Cuccinelli, national chairman of the Election Transparency Initiative and former attorney general of Virginia, told Peach Tree Times. “Georgia is wearing all the white hats in this case.”

Cuccinelli describes himself as fighting "on the front lines of the conservative movement to defend our Constitution" for more than 20 years.

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger announced the lawsuit earlier this week after receiving only a perfunctory response to a FOIA request he sent to the Justice Department in late August. Under law, a federal agency has 20 days to respond to a FOIA request.

“Considering how blatantly political the Biden administration lawsuit against Georgia’s common-sense election law was from the beginning, it’s no surprise they would stonewall our request for basic transparency,” Raffensperger said in a statement. “I will always fight for truth and integrity in Georgia’s elections.”

Georgia is looking for any evidence of discussions that DOJ officials may have had with groups and activists (62 are named in the lawsuit), or with members of Congress and their staffs before filing a lawsuit against its election reform law. The FOIA is also looking for any documents the department may have relied on to determine when state election law violates federal law.

Preparing the list was Stacey Abrams and her organization Fair Fight. Abrams, a Democrat, lost the governor’s race in 2018 to Republican Brian Kemp. She recently announced that she is again running for governor in 2022.

The DOJ sued Georgia in late June over a sweeping election law signed by Kemp in March. The department alleges that multiple provisions in the law, including a photo ID requirement, violate the Voting Rights Act of 1965, enacted to prevent states from adopting discriminatory voting practices.

Georgia maintains that the motivation for the lawsuit is political. Raffensperger notes that other states including Delaware, Rhode Island, Wisconsin, Maryland, New York and New Jersey have election rules similar to those under Georgia’s new law, and yet the department has taken no action against them.

“DOJ stonewalling is depriving plaintiffs and the public of vital information needed to determine the extent to which and by what methods the government is colluding or conspiring with outside entities to carry out a political agenda,” Raffensperger said.