Sekulow

Logan Sekulow: Welcome to Sekulow. We made it to a Friday. Not only is it a Friday, it is the final day of our Liberty Drive. We've been celebrating the entire month of July all of what we love about our country, obviously the 250th of America. If you want to be on the show about that and the work we do here at the ACLJ, protecting your liberties, protecting your freedoms, I want you to call in about that as well. Even if it's just a message of encouragement or thank you because we are going to have a packed show today. We did uncover some real fun stuff out of the state of California. I know you've always loved to hear about that. We're going to get to it in just a second. Phone lines are open for you at 1-800-684-3110. It is the final day as I said of our Liberty Drive, which means if you like this show, if you like the free legal work that we provide, if you like the fact that you can come on here, get informed and engaged as it says in the intro and also be updated with truth. We always tell you the truth, whether you like it or not. We always make sure we tell you what we believe. All that happens because your donations come in, especially during these really special months where other ACLJ members, ACLJ champions, give during these times and the donations are doubled. Essentially they're matched. If you give 20 bucks right now before midnight, it becomes 40. Well, let's take it over to the West Coast. Take it over to California where there's always some kind of fun happening and we did a little ACLJ digging and got some pretty Californian responses. This comes after a records request that we submitted on July 16th. Now, FOIA is the federal nomenclature, Freedom of Information Act. This is actually a California Public Records Act request is what it's called there, but the state equivalent of a FOIA. You can see that on the screen that we sent that in to two entities in California: the Secretary of State's office as well as the Attorney General's office of California. The Attorney General responded and they asked for a little bit of an extension to comply with the request. They asked to go until August 10th and that's fine, that's granted. Sometimes when you're asking for a lot of records like the ACLJ does, they need a little bit of extra time. The Secretary of State's office, though, has replied and this is where it starts to get interesting. Remember in New Jersey we talked just a week ago about how they were like, oops, all these people that were non-citizens through the DMV were added to the voter rolls and some of them actually voted. This entire time the ACLJ has been digging into states that have questionable record keeping when it comes to their voter rolls and sending things like these records requests. They responded and here's what we asked for. We said we want records showing the number of voter registration records canceled because the registrant didn't satisfy the citizenship requirements for voter registration. Pretty straightforward. We also say obviously don't send us personal information. We're just looking for a number. Their response, and this is on graphic number two: the statewide voter registration system does not contain voter status reason for cancellation due to non-citizenship. Therefore, there are no records responsive to this request. There's a lot more and we're going to get to it when we get back, but they're admitting that they don't keep record of if they remove someone from their rolls for being a non-citizen. They do keep record if there is a removal for death, for moving. These records exist for the rationale and it's actually federal law that they keep these records. But they don't keep a record if someone is removed because they're a non-citizen. We have a lot of questions that this brings up and we'll get to them in the next segment of the broadcast. Phone lines are open again if you just want to call as we wrap up the end of our July Liberty Drive. Call in, tell us what you're thankful for in this country. We celebrated a lot at the beginning of the month and it feels like we already forgot. Give me a call at 1-800-684-3110. We're going to continue this conversation as well as updates in Israel with Hamas, also updates with Iran. We're going to get to all of that coming up. Welcome back to Sekulow. Final day of the month, final day of our Liberty Drive. Be a part of it today at aclj.org. Before we got off the last segment, we were discussing something we've uncovered in the state of California, another election issue. We know a lot of you also are curious about what's going on in Israel. Late last night, you saw an announcement from President Trump that was a little hard to understand fully what we're talking about here, including a full disarmament of Hamas. We're all very hopeful and on pins and needles to see what that actually will look like as a deal was allegedly signed. We don't know all the details yet. We just know that it was at least strong enough for the President to make a pretty strong statement about a coming to an end with Hamas and a new Palestinian government. I don't know if that's necessarily what a lot of people were hoping for, but it would be better than what we have right now. Maybe we will be seeing an end to that conflict. We'll talk about that a little bit later. But I know you wanted to reset what's going on in California. As you remember, even when you think about that story last week about New Jersey having a bunch of people on their rolls that accidentally, they blamed it on a software glitch, got onto the voter rolls and many that even voted that were not citizens and therefore should not have been voting. They said this is outrageous, but we're going to fix it. We have been taking action going to states that have questionable practices when it comes to their voter rolls and keeping them clean and sending records requests. This we sent to California to the Secretary of State and the Attorney General on July 16th. We asked for records showing the number of voter registration records canceled because the registrant didn't satisfy the citizenship requirements for voter registration. What's that asking for in plain English? Did you find people that were on your voter rolls that were registered to vote that aren't citizens and therefore you took them off the voter rolls? We got a response from the Secretary of State's office July 30th. What does it say? It says that the thing you're asking for, we don't have it. We have no records. Not because it didn't happen, it's that they don't keep records on that. It says specifically the statewide voter registration system does not contain voter status reason for cancellation due to non-citizenship. Therefore, there are no records responsive to this request. But don't worry, they go on to tell us that this isn't something you should be concerned about because please note that in addition to our federal law obligations, California has robust state law. They go on to say California law unambiguously provides that a person shall not be registered unless they are a United States citizen. Voters register to vote through affidavits of registration when they must attest under penalty of perjury and by signature that they satisfy all eligibility requirements including citizenship. They cite other things like their motor voter program as a safeguard. All of these safeguards, but don't worry it won't happen, but we don't keep records if it does happen so therefore we can't provide you with anything. At best case scenario from the Secretary of State's office, they're saying it's illegal but we don't really pay attention so there's no real problem. At worst case scenario, they're covering up crimes because they're admitting it's under penalty of perjury, but if they find that violation of the law, they aren't keeping a record of it. There are two key things here for the ACLJ. One that we are looking out for will be that response from Attorney General Bonta's office. They've asked for a little bit of extra time until August 10th. If they have some sort of records, that would be one thing because they are the law enforcement arm. But two, we're also, once we find out what their answer is, looking at what our options are going forward because the fact that the Secretary of State isn't keeping this as a record appears to be in conflict with two laws. One, their own California Public Records Act law, because this is something that is happening. They are canceling, they are required to send notice to people and also record if there is a response back. But if they aren't for one specific category, then they are violating even the maintaining of public records. That could be a violation here. Two, the National Voter Registration Act, which requires states to retain for two years and make available for public inspection records concerning the implementation of programs and activities conducted to ensure the accuracy and currency of voter registration rolls. If you are doing something to clean up your rolls, you have to document it and keep those records for public inspection for up to two years. They could be in violation of their own state law as well as federal law by not having these records if they exist. That's the concern here. That's why sometimes getting no response leads to more action than getting a record that shows we had a bunch of people that weren't citizens and then we cleaned them up. This is all happening at the same time that they have this proposition, Proposition 39, that voters will vote on, which would give more security to their elections where we have Attorney General Bonta whose office has a records request from us right now pending that changed the language from establishing additional voter identification and citizenship verification requirements to prohibiting citizens from voting unless they present government issued ID. They are playing with the language. I think this is interesting because in California we know how the elected officials are going to run for the most part. You know it's probably going to be no friend to a lot of conservatives. However, there's still a decent amount of representation when you take things through the legal court. Things actually can happen. We can have some movement, some change, some representation if they are honest and fair judges. And a lot of times they are or they're honest and fair courts that will provide us with what we need here. So don't lose hope that this is coming from California and think nothing can get done. Once again, this is a way that taking a simple records request to a state and saying give us the records as your law requires. When you get a response that says sorry, what you're looking for doesn't exist, they pled the fifth. They vouched it is what they did. They vouched it here and it gives us more opportunities. The entire practice of the ACLJ is robust, but sometimes it can be one of the most painstaking ones because the governments, even the US government, even when it's a friendly administration, doesn't want to give you the records even though they're required to. So you have to first file the first request, then you have to see what you can corroborate between the AG's office and the Secretary of State. Then you know the path forward. We've got kind of a deadline that we're looking forward to, August 10th, where we should get a response from the AG to know what our next steps are. Do we have to sue the state of California over their records request because now we know what else to look for? Or is there another legal action altogether that we can raise or bring forward that they're not following when it comes to the federal law? We'll have an update for you in 10 days. That doesn't happen much here at the ACLJ. Often we're talking about the painstaking process of working through the courts, working through the federal government, working through state government. Usually it takes a long time, but because there are some deadlines here, we'll at least have an update. It may not be what you want, but we'll see and the work of the ACLJ continues. Remember, these ACLJ attorneys, they are paid. We make sure that they get taken care of because we want the best of the best here and none of that happens without your support. I'm going to encourage you as we are wrapping up today our Liberty Drive. First of all, give me a call, love to hear from you. We've been celebrating America for the whole month of July, but really you can lose sight of that pretty quickly after the first week here. Call in, let us know how you celebrated and how you look forward to celebrating with your family this 250th year. I know it sounds crazy, but it's only been three and a half, four weeks since the Fourth of July. Be a part of it today, be a part of the Liberty Drive. A great way to do that to show your support for American values is to make a donation to the ACLJ and have your donation doubled today before our midnight deadline. None of this happens without you and what happens today will set the stage for cases that we are taking and the people that we are helping around the world right now. Help us hit our goal today. We are close, but we're a little bit behind. I need you to support us. Join these fights, have your gift doubled again before our midnight deadline. 1-800-684-3110. I'm going to be taking calls throughout the rest of the show. Let's take some phone calls here. If you're watching you may see Logan, what happened to your jacket? It got hot in here, to be honest. It is the summer and I looked like I was in Friday Night Lights. I picked the wrong jacket for July 31st. Phone lines are open. 1-800-684-3110. We are still talking about election integrity. We are also going to give you an update of what's going on in Israel with that announced deal with Hamas. What does that look like? We're going to get to that a little bit later. But we do want to now take over and continue on with election coverage and Rachel's got a question about the election in New Jersey. We can give you a little update on that as well. Rachel, go ahead, calling from New York.
Rachel: Hello. I'm calling just to find out the obvious question. Shouldn't there be a recall or something along those lines? Because upon their own admission, there was voter fraud.
Logan Sekulow: Let's back it up a little bit, Rachel, for those who don't know this story. This became clear that there was some voter fraud. Now, what we've said before is there's going to probably be, unfortunately, some kind of attempt or fraudulent voting in all elections and at what scale. What they uncovered was enough that it was in the hundreds that was actually formally happening because it was thousands of people who were on accident registered who were not legal United States citizens. They had a driver's license or whatever it may be out of New Jersey, but they were not United States citizens. Out of those thousands, at least 400 had voted. Now, a couple things here, Rachel. They didn't give us the specifics of was it 400 in one election or was it in two different elections or multiple elections because it was over a time period where these people got on the voter rolls. Should there be a redo of an election? Based off those numbers, I don't think so. As you even brought up, the fact that there is most likely people voting in every election that shouldn't be voting, that's what we're trying to fix. We're trying to get to a near-perfect system, which is a difficult thing to do. I think the fact that none of the races, according to them, were within 400, even if it was that outcome determinative amount of fraudulently cast votes, then I don't think that they would have redone the election over that. I hope that answers your question there. We're going to look into all of these things and we're able to uncover it and then we have to make the decision legally of what we need to do to proceed forward and what's the best possible. Sometimes, look, it may not be what you want to hear but we're going to tell you the truth of what the most logical solution is and what's the most logical way that we can actually get involved or you can get involved or people can be held accountable. You have to work within the limits that we have here in the United States government. Let's go to Robert in Maryland. He wants to swerve us a little bit to what's going on in the Middle East, but I think that's worth addressing as we wrap up the first half hour. Robert, go ahead.
Robert: I wanted to ask the both of you: do you believe because of the breakdown of the ceasefire agreement and the memorandum of understanding between the US and Iran because of Iran's ceasefire and memorandum of understanding violations that the United States is going to go back to full combat operations against Iran?
Logan Sekulow: The threat is there, Robert, from the President that that would be what's happening. I think he also is keenly aware that the midterms are coming up and that it has not been the most popular war in the world. Public opinion, whether you agree with it or disagree with it, it has not been incredibly popular. He's talking a big game. Whether he actually lives up to that big game so far, there have obviously been issues that have gone back and forth, but there has been a bit of bloviating in terms of the way they've talked.
Will: I think bloviating in some ways, but also downplaying in other ways. I think that's where it is an unknown, Robert. You look at the fact that he constantly is saying they're lying in private talks. He's at Camp David having a cabinet meeting right now as we're on air saying they lie in the private talks and then they say something different in public. No kidding. They violate it. But then he also says they're completely decimated still and that these attacks they're doing aren't really a big threat. So he downplays the threat of Iran and their capacities but also is saying that we're going to keep hitting them. I tend to think he's looking at a way to almost keep it status quo through the 95 days we have left until the midterms. I don't know. I do know there was the Wall Street Journal report that a general has given a suggestion, a battle plan that would be 10 to 14 days that would be more similar to the intensity of Operation Epic Fury. We will see if they move forward with that. That is something on the table, but I don't know if the President really wants to get to that. I think he likes that they're just striking, they're hitting them whenever they do something out of line like launch a rocket. We are able to intercept them. It's not at the level that is breaking through missile defense systems, so he's kind of fine with the status quo at this point.
Logan Sekulow: Thanks for calling, Robert. We're going to continue taking calls throughout the next half hour. By the way, if you don't get us for the full hour, you should. You should join us online if you don't get us on your local radio station. We do the full hour here each and every day, Monday through Friday, 12:00 to 1:00 PM Eastern Time. We do this without a paywall, we do this without any big advertisers coming in and telling us what we can or can't talk about. We're a completely independent media operation here at the ACLJ. But that is only because people like you support it financially. We don't have to be reliant on sponsors. We don't have to be reliant on paywalls. We only have to be reliant on people like you supporting this show, which also supports our legal side, which goes all over the world. You've heard about our work in Israel, you've heard about our work in Europe, you've heard about our work here in the States that goes from Capitol Hill all the way to a girl that wants to talk about her faith in school and is getting harassed by an administrator. That is the kind of work the ACLJ does. The scope is large and it only exists because people like you support. In these special months where donations are matched, where donations are doubled, are the most important times. I always encourage you to support during these months as much as possible. Today's it. We're going to wrap this thing up at midnight. The Liberty Drive ends, our celebration of America. What a good way to do than send us off with some style. Have your donation doubled, keep us in these fights, be a part of this family. Here at the ACLJ, we are defending not only Christians and Christian values here in this country, we're also in the Middle East, we're in Africa, Pakistan. CeCe was in Morocco last week. We had team members all over the world that are working either consistently traveling or are living and based there. Our European Center for Law and Justice, ECLJ, it's a working office. ACLJ Jerusalem, you've got Jeff Ballabon, you've got teams there that are working constantly on these very important issues. In this next half hour I want to hear from you. Whether you are thankful for the work we do here, whether you love being a part of the team, whether you've got questions in relation to it or in relation to celebrating this country wrapping up this month of July, I want to hear from you at 1-800-684-3110. Second half hour starts in less than a minute. Don't go anywhere.