Anti-Trump Political Group Files Court Brief In Maricopa County Voter Lawsuit

Notorious Nevertrumper Rick Wilson of the Lincoln Project

One might not expect a political action committee created by several longtime Republicans to side with the Arizona Democratic Party in defeating a lawsuit filed by President Donald Trump’s re-election committee, but as the saying goes – politics makes strange bedfellows.

On Tuesday, attorneys for the Lincoln Project filed an amicus curiae brief opposing an election challenge initiated by Trump’s campaign, the Republican National Committee, and the Arizona Republican Party which seeks to postpone certification of voting results in Maricopa County until a determination is made about whether some votes cast in the presidential race were mishandled.

According to the Lincoln Project’s legal briefing, the organization is composed of Republicans, former Republicans, and conservatives dedicated to defeating candidates who “have abandoned their constitutional oath, regardless of party.” The group’s current singular mission is “to defeat Donald Trump and Trumpism,” its website states.

The brief also notes the Lincoln Project intentionally worked to mobilize voters in Arizona. To that end, the group invested more than $1.7 million in election-related advertising in Arizona markets. One such advertising message proclaimed that if only one in 25 Republicans chose to not vote for Trump then “we’re done with this nonsense.”

The Trump-Republican plaintiffs contend that vote counting in Maricopa County was impacted by tabulation machines which frequently rejected ballots. Although the Lincoln Project brief doesn’t address that issue, it does argue that the remedy being demanded subjects more than 2 million other Maricopa County voters “to disenfranchisement” in the meantime.

“Such an outcome is gross violation of the rights to vote and self-govern afforded the people of Arizona,” the brief states.

The involvement of the Lincoln Project in the current Maricopa County case isn’t the first time the group weighed in on the 2020 election in Arizona. On Election Day, it released a video which claimed the state was a “hotspot for threats of voter intimidation.” The video also alleged Gov. Doug Ducey and Senator Martha McSally were involved in efforts to suppress the vote.

The Lincoln Project is being represented by the Phoenix-based law firm of Lewis Roca Rothgerber Christie.