Latest / DEEP INSIGHT / Not normal_ Trump directs DHS to investigate new citizens for voter fraud

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Not normal_ Trump directs DHS to investigate new citizens for voter fraud · DEEP INSIGHT

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  Speaker 1: According to documents reviewed by ms now, the Department of
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  Speaker 1: Homeland Security's Chief Investigation's arm this week launched a broader
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  Speaker 1: nationwide campaign to investigate and prosecute naturalized citizens who may
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  Speaker 1: have improperly voted in passed elections before they became citizens.
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  Speaker 1: This is a plan ordered by the White House. As
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  Speaker 1: part of this investigation, ms now has also learned that
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  Speaker 1: senior DHS and Justice Department appointees have held a series
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  Speaker 1: of meetings to discuss sending law enforcement to polling places
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  Speaker 1: to quote secure elections. Law enforcement ations tell ms now
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  Speaker 1: they worry the administration's true goal is to intimidate voters
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  Speaker 1: from showing up in future elections. Two current and former
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  Speaker 1: DHS officials told ms now they have never heard of
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  Speaker 1: an initiative like this being run by the department ever,
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  Speaker 1: before calling it not normal. Caro Lenig is a senior
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  Speaker 1: investigative reporter for ms now. She is the author of Injustice,
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  Speaker 1: How politics and fear vanquished America's Justice the Department. She
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  Speaker 1: was the lead reporter on that story about DHS hunting
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  Speaker 1: for voters, and she joins me, Now, Carol, it's good
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  Speaker 1: to see you. We have heard so much. I think
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  Speaker 1: Walls told me, Newsom told me, Pritzker told me they
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  Speaker 1: were worried about federal agents showing up at polls on
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  Speaker 1: election day. Sounds like now there may actually be a
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  Speaker 1: plan in place to have some version of.
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  Speaker 2: That, Well, said Jacob, I feel like I've been hearing
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  Speaker 2: from sources just like you have for a long time
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  Speaker 2: that they're really worried and have been worried about an
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  Speaker 2: effort to kind of chill and frighten people away from
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  Speaker 2: the polls. And here we have two ways in which
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  Speaker 2: that looks like it's coming true. First, the issue of
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  Speaker 2: investing abroad national investigation of open and closed investigations into
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  Speaker 2: possible fraudulent voting by naturalized citizens. Let's break that down.
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  Speaker 2: When the HSI, which is the investigative arm of DHS,
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  Speaker 2: goes about these investigations, what do they do. They send
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  Speaker 2: letters and they conduct interviews with naturalized citizens asking them
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  Speaker 2: when did you vote, When did you register to vote?
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  Speaker 2: Let me see your paperwork to determine that you're a
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  Speaker 2: naturalized citizen. Doesn't take very long for you to frighten
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  Speaker 2: somebody who's basically gotten through a legal asylum process, an
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  Speaker 2: immigration process about themselves, their family, their status, and all
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  Speaker 2: of their friends, and all of their family members, and
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  Speaker 2: all of their community. This is viewed as a way
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  Speaker 2: to ask a lot of questions, stir up a lot
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  Speaker 2: of dust in fifty states, all led by the Department
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  Speaker 2: of Homeland Security, and then we'll see if maybe that
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  Speaker 2: fewer people show up to the polls. The second part,
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  Speaker 2: which I'm so glad you focus on, is about armed
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  Speaker 2: law enforcement. We are hearing about a series of meetings
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  Speaker 2: and we reported it first today for ms NOW that
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  Speaker 2: and DOJ officials have been conducting over the last several
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  Speaker 2: weeks to basically plot and plan how to send armed
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  Speaker 2: law enforcement to the polls. As you know very well, Jacob,
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  Speaker 2: you know this material, it is against federal law to
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  Speaker 2: send the military or armed law enforcement within a thousand
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  Speaker 2: feet of the polls in any way that would intimidate voters.
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  Speaker 2: This has been one of the biggest fears of democratic
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  Speaker 2: activists and Free and Fair Election Act advocates, and here
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  Speaker 2: we now know it's essentially in the works.
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  Speaker 1: You cite, Carol in this report, multiple sources who tell
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  Speaker 1: you that the driving force behind the sweeping HSI investigations, which,
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  Speaker 1: by the way, HSI is normally investigating human trafficking, sex trafficking,
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  Speaker 1: other forms of illicit activity that basically in which people
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  Speaker 1: are the victims. You say, is white House Deputy Chief
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  Speaker 1: of Staff Stephen Miller? Talk about what Steven miller role
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  Speaker 1: is here? Why does it concern insiders so much?
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  Speaker 2: So? What's so interesting about this is it's not typical
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  Speaker 2: for the White House Deputy Chief of Staff to be
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  Speaker 2: telling the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of
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  Speaker 2: Justice what to do about potential violations of law. But
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  Speaker 2: Miller is viewed by both the DHS sources I spoke
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  Speaker 2: to and DOJ sources as the architect and the driving
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  Speaker 2: force between this effort to investigate naturalized citizens to figure
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  Speaker 2: out did they vote before they were naturalized, did they
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  Speaker 2: register to vote before they were naturalized, did they make
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  Speaker 2: any mistakes that could be claimed to be fraud in
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  Speaker 2: their paperwork? And that they at DHS at least have
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  Speaker 2: been having weekly conference calls with Miller and his staff
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  Speaker 2: about doing this as well. We learned today in our
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  Speaker 2: reporting that the DHS has been asked to essentially report
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  Speaker 2: back to the White House direct when they decide not
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  Speaker 2: to charge some of these individuals who are viewed as
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  Speaker 2: suspected fraud voters, any open or close cases that they're
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  Speaker 2: asked to review. Now, if they choose not to charge someone,
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  Speaker 2: they've got to tell the White House, which is again
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  Speaker 2: unprecedented for any law enforcement activity.
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  Speaker 1: Carol, What are the number of people potentially that we're
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  Speaker 1: talking about? Am I right? That I read in your
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  Speaker 1: reporting is around a thousand for starters? And what does
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  Speaker 1: that mean in the larger scheme of things. We have
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  Speaker 1: tens of millions, hundreds of millions of people in this country,
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  Speaker 1: tens of millions who are voting, maybe more. You know,
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  Speaker 1: this is about ultimately, it seems the impact that we'll
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  Speaker 1: have on people that are beyond this one thousand people,
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  Speaker 1: I guess is what I'm trying to say.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, really smart question. So, in the
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  Speaker 2: timeline of our reporting, and my colleague Laura Lopez and
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  Speaker 2: Von Hilliard were critical to this, let me just give
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  Speaker 2: them a shout out out. In this reporting, what we
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  Speaker 2: learned was that in the summer of twenty twenty five,
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  Speaker 2: HSI was given a list of seventeen hundred potentially or
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  Speaker 2: suspected fraudulent voters who were either foreign born citizens immigrants.
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  Speaker 2: In the process of becoming naturalized citizens seventeen hundred cases,
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  Speaker 2: but that rapidly expanded as of this memo that we
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  Speaker 2: reviewed that came out on Friday, in which there are
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  Speaker 2: potentially hundreds of thousands of naturalized citizens that will be
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  Speaker 2: reviewed the White House. By the way, I want to
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  Speaker 2: emphasize something. When we spoke to White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson,
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  Speaker 2: she said, Look, it's fair for the administration to be
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  Speaker 2: looking for criminals, people who are engaged in fraudulent voting.
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  Speaker 2: The problem with that is that all of the research done,
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  Speaker 2: including by the Pro Trump Heritage Foundation, have concluded that
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  Speaker 2: over the course of a decade, there were only twenty
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  Speaker 2: four identifiable cases of non citizen voter fraud. So, you know,
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  Speaker 2: expanding to look at further and further and further concentric
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  Speaker 2: circles to try to find fraudsters when so far there
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  Speaker 2: are so few is raising a lot of hackles with
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  Speaker 2: people who want to protect the election and protect voters
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  Speaker 2: from being intimidated.
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  Speaker 1: Caroline, incredible reporting as always, Thank you so much for
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  Speaker 1: joining me tonight.
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  Speaker 2: Thank you, Jacob