The FBI has rejected a news organization's Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request regarding a 2020 voter registration fraud case in Michigan.
The Muskegon Police Department and Michigan State Police reported that a firm called GBI Strategies was under scrutiny in an alleged voter registration fraud operation in the 2020 presidential election. The matter was initially investigated by city and state authorities before the FBI took over.
Last week, the FBI denied a FOIA/Privacy Acts request from Just the News regarding records from the investigation into GBI Strategies.
"Contacts between local law enforcement and the FBI continued into 2022 but there is no evidence of what happened after that in the memos obtained by Just the News through requests made under Michigan's own Freedom of Information Act," Just the News reported on Tuesday.
The FBI cited its "ongoing investigation" in a response to the FOIA request which states: “The material you requested is located in an investigative file which is exempt from disclosure.”
"By 'ongoing investigation' they mean ongoing cover up," Trump spokeswoman Liz Harrington said.
Police from Michigan interviewed GBI Strategies employees in 2020 and cited specific instances of registrations that appeared suspicious or fraudulent, the memos obtained by Just the News show. A Michigan State Police memo described the possible crime being investigated as "Election Fraud by Forgery."
The Muskegon Police Department said the FBI paid a visit in May 2021 to examine the voter registration applications.
In March 2022, Muskegon Police said they received a call from an FBI agent “request[ing] random copies of some of the voter applications.” The agent also spoke with the Muskegon city clerk, who told him “there was another box of applications with thousands of applications that were turned in after the deadline thus never examined. He requested that these be retained by the police department pending further investigation.”
GBI Strategies lists its business address as being in Cordova, Tennessee, but at least during the 2020 election the company had a Philadelphia office, employees from Atlanta working in Michigan, and a supervisor in New York for Michigan workers, according to the memos obtained by Just the News.
Just the News said it is weighing its legal options regarding a challenge to the FBI's denial of the FOIA request.
Meanwhile, Elon Musk said he has cut the Electoral Integrity team at X (formerly Twitter) in half, including the newly brought on board head of the group, Aaron Rodericks.
When the news was reported, Musk replied: "Oh you mean the 'Election Integrity' Team that was undermining election integrity? Yeah, they’re gone."
This comes after Musk had named a new CEO in the spring, Linda Yaccarino, who had been with NBC. She had stated that X would expand trust and safety teams, along with election integrity units.
In a post concerning election integrity, X states: "You may not use X’s services for the purpose of manipulating or interfering in elections or other civic processes, such as posting or sharing content that may suppress participation, mislead people about when, where, or how to participate in a civic process, or lead to offline violence during an election. Any attempt to undermine the integrity of civic participation undermines our core tenets of freedom of expression and as a result, we will apply labels to violative posts informing users that the content is misleading."
The post further noted: "Not all false or untrue information about politics or civic processes constitutes manipulation or interference. In the absence of other policy violations, the following are generally not in violation of this policy: inaccurate statements about an elected or appointed official, candidate, or political party; organic content that is polarizing, biased, hyperpartisan, or contains controversial viewpoints expressed about elections or politics; discussion of public polling information; voting and audience participation for competitions, game shows, or other entertainment purposes; using X pseudonymously or as a parody, commentary, or fan account to discuss elections or politics."
NEWS: 𝕏 has reportedly cut half of of its Electoral integrity team, including the head of the group.
Despite this, X has recently reiterated it plans to hire more staff in this area ahead of major international elections in 2024. pic.twitter.com/kGX92FlYQH — X News Daily (@xDaily) September 27, 2023
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