Conservative attorney Cleta Mitchell has shaped virtually every aspect of the Trump administration’s norm-busting agenda on American elections.
asserted
Mitchell → shape → elections
After working to overturn Trump’s 2020 defeat, Mitchell forged a national grassroots movement to overhaul voting.
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Mitchell → work → voting
Some of her allies now hold top administration jobs.
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Some → hold → jobs
With the midterms approaching, Mitchell has pressed the Trump administration to take actions that even some who’ve worked with her say go too far.
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who → approach → her
These highlights were written by the reporters and editors who worked on this story.
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who → write → story
In July, not long before President Donald Trump delivered a primetime address questioning the legitimacy of American elections, the pioneering conservative election lawyer Cleta Mitchell and about two dozen of her associates logged onto a private video briefing with the White House.
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lawyer → deliver → House
Mitchell, who holds no formal position in the Trump administration, had been pivotal to Trump’s bid to challenge his loss in 2020, spearheading efforts to prove his claims of fraud and reverse his defeat in court.
uncertain
who → hold → court
After Joe Biden took office, when others abandoned the fight or scoffed as Trump clung to conspiracy theories, Mitchell doubled down, founding a grassroots organization devoted to rewriting election laws and rules to be more restrictive.
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Mitchell → take → laws
Members of her group, the Election Integrity Network, were named to vital election-related positions in swing states and, later, in the second Trump administration.
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Members → name → administration
The pre-speech briefing was an acknowledgment of just how consequential Mitchell and her organization had become.
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Mitchell → become → ?
The White House had held similar sessions for key political players, such as governors, members of Congress and major press outlets.
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House → hold → Congress
At the appointed time, the screen filled with the faces of EIN leaders and supporters, some sitting in front of digital backgrounds with the group’s logo on them.
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some → appoint → them
Mitchell shushed those who’d forgotten to mute and introduced John Solomon, an ally of hers who was helping prepare the speech.
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who → shush → speech
Mitchell and her network hardly needed the run-through, though: Much of the speech was a compendium of allegations and conspiracy theories they had originated or spread.
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they → need → allegations
Her lieutenants were thrilled to hear that the president would assert there were more than 275,000 noncitizens on state voter rolls — a since-debunked claim based on work led by one of her proteges, who occupied a top post at the Department of Homeland Security.
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who → thrill → Security
The speech would end with an exhortation for Congress to pass the SAVE America Act, a bill requiring voters to provide documentary proof of citizenship to register, which Mitchell had helped draft.
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Mitchell → end → which
He’d joined her for one such meeting.
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He → join → meeting
“She’s got an open door with the president,” he said.
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he → get → president
No one besides Trump himself has done more than Mitchell, 76, to turn the mundane processes of how ballots are cast and counted in American elections into mortal combat.
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ballots → do → combat
Since Trump returned to the White House, Mitchell and her acolytes have been deeply entwined in his unprecedented bid to assert federal control over voting, an effort that has increasingly defined his second term.
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that → return → term
Friends and enemies alike credit her with providing much of the administration’s election road map.
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Friends → credit → map
The White House has turned to those close to her to enact the plan, appointing her associates to help lead the hunt for noncitizens on voter rolls and to reinvestigate 2020 voting irregularities.
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House → turn → irregularities
“She has the president’s ear,” Steve Bannon, Trump’s former chief strategist and a close ally of Mitchell’s, said in a July interview.
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Bannon → have → interview
“A lot of the momentum things we’ve seen over the last six months or so come directly from Cleta’s involvement.
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we → see → involvement
To understand how Mitchell became the hand behind this transformational push, ProPublica traced her obsession with politics and elections back to its roots.
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ProPublica → understand → roots
From the start, those who knew her told us, she stood out for her willingness to embrace options others wouldn’t and to do whatever it took to win.
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it → know → whatever
Her relentlessness and long-term strategic vision have enabled her to outflank or outlast not only her liberal opponents, but her conservative rivals.
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relentlessness → enable → opponents
Much of Mitchell’s influence derives from years of groundwork she’s done to put a foundation under the so-called election-integrity movement, once dismissed as a collection of oddballs and fringe actors.
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she → derive → oddballs
Beyond building the EIN and raising millions of dollars to fund its activities, she’s helped direct tens of millions more to like-minded policy shops, researchers, law firms and advocacy groups.
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she → build → shops
The net effect has been to make an agreed-upon set of beliefs about elections — that the 2020 presidential vote was stolen, that U.S. voting systems are rigged, that there’s rampant voting by noncitizens — a core part of conservatism.
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systems → make → conservatism
Rick Wilson, a former Republican strategist who collaborated with Mitchell before Trump’s election and now heads the anti-Trump Lincoln Project, said she had been crucial in building the institutional infrastructure that has sustained Trump’s “big lie.”
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that → collaborate → lie
“What she found in Trump was less of a client and more of a movement,” he said.
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he → find → movement
Mitchell declined multiple requests to speak with ProPublica for this article but occasionally answered emails.
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Mitchell → decline → emails
“Hahahaha!!!” she wrote in response to one email asking for an interview.
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she → write → interview
To another, she replied: “You’re my opponent. …
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You → reply → another
You’re never going to write in any objective, non-judgmental way about the election integrity movement.”
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You → go → movement
She responded in writing to about a quarter of our detailed questions, disputing that her efforts were designed to undermine elections or upend their results.
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efforts → respond → results
“Nothing that we do is designed or intended to ‘sway’ any election outcomes,” she wrote.
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she → do → outcomes
“What we focus on is making sure the election process is accurate, transparent, and honest.
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process → focus → What
The ONLY steps I’ve urged the Administration to take are those that will give the voters — ALL voters — confidence that the outcomes are correct.”
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outcomes → urge → confidence
…and 298 more, not listed.
The Aporia
