The passage of the Fifteenth Amendment in 1870 and the Voting Rights Act in 1965 legally guaranteed African Americans the right to vote. However, due to endemic racism, swaths of citizens in 1980s Alabama remained functionally unaware of this right.

Albert Turner was an African American civil rights activist from Alabama. Turner served as an advisor to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and helped coordinate the historic 1965 voting rights march from Selma to Montgomery. By the 1980s, Turner devoted himself to organizing voter drives and voter education campaigns in Perry County, one of Alabama’s poorest counties. Turner’s efforts bore fruit, and African American voting rates rose significantly.

Enter Roy Lockhart Johnson.

Roy Lockhart Johnson was a white District Attorney in Alabama who served during the time Turner was organizing. For several years, Johnson had unsuccessfully tried to crack down on voter registration efforts like Turner’s. In 1984, having become aware of the climbing African American voting rates in Perry County, Johnson viewed this refreshing increase in representational democracy as a crisis that needed to be quashed.

Through a joint Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit with investigative journalist Jason Leopold, Property of the People obtained records from the Department of Justice’s U.S. Attorneys Office on Johnson’s response to this perceived crisis.

The documents showcase Johnson pleading to then-U.S. Attorney Jeff Sessions for help. In his memorandum to Sessions, Johnson decried “irregularities” during the early voting period for the 1984 election. Specifically, Johnson highlighted for Sessions what he viewed as an alarming uptick in absentee voting – a direct result of Albert Turner’s voter registration efforts in which Turner helped elderly black Americans vote for the first time. “Voting fraud,” Johnson declared to Sessions, was most likely to blame for increased African American voting in Perry County.

In his letter, Johnson declared there was a “need for an extensive investigation into the voting process in Perry County.” He urged Sessions to “consider this letter to be an official, urgent request for all possible assistance in conducting this investigation.” Johnson concluded, “I cannot over-emphasize the importance and the urgency of this request.”

Sessions answered the call.

Persuaded that black voting presence in Alabama was so disturbing as to require a federal action, Sessions had the FBI send roughly a dozen Special Agents to investigate.[1]The DOJ convened a grand jury and served dozens of subpoenas. The FBI even obtained the actual ballots cast by the supposedly suspicious voters, thus violating the secrecy of the ballot. The FBI agents then visited and interrogated many of those elderly voters at their homes. They were terrified.[2]

The FBI’s investigation failed to produce actual evidence of voter fraud. Nonetheless, Sessions and the DOJ pushed forward with federal prosecution of Albert Turner, his wife Evelyn, and their colleague Spencer Hogue Jr.[3]They were referred to as the Marion three.

One of the records recently obtained by Property of the People further reveals that Sessions was informed there had been a suspicious fire in the Turners’ garage during the trial. There is a high likelihood the fire was caused by a bomb planted by white supremacists seeking to intimidate the Turners. The record, a memo drafted by Sessions titled “Turner Fire,” stated the Turners’ car was “engulfed in flames.”

Yet, it does not appear Sessions did anything about it. When poor African Americans dared to vote in rural Alabama, Sessions launched a federal investigation, grand jury, and prosecution. When a possible bomb attack targeted civil rights activists, Sessions remained silent.

The car bomb was never reported and Sessions’ memo remained in his Turner File, never to see the light of day –until now.

At his trial, Albert Turner declared, “This whole FBI investigation of absentee voting and the scheduled trials were set up to stop the political progress of black people in the Alabama Black Belt. The power structure wants to turn back the hands of time in Perry County and throughout west Alabama. I would encourage black people not to let my indictment stop them or discourage them. We need to vote in even larger numbers because they are trying to take our right to vote away again.”

Though Sessions’ racist investigations and prosecutions of voting rights activists in the 1980s were enough to sink his nomination for a federal judgeship in 1986, it failed to halt his appointment as Attorney General under President Trump. Now, as Trump, Sessions, and the broader administration employ yet another imaginary voter fraud crisis to disenfranchise people of color, the history of Sessions’ earlier crusades against voting rights becomes ever more critical.

The full story must be told.

[1]See e.g., Nomination of Jefferson B. Sessions III, to be U.S. District Judge for the Southern District of Alabama, Hearings Before the Committee on the Judiciary, 99th Congress, March 13, 19, 20, and May 6, 1986, page 278, wherein Senator Denton recounts Albert Turner’s former testimony, stating that 10-15 FBI agents worked for six months on the investigation.

[2]Id., page 205, wherein James Liebman’s testimony describes FBI agents saying to one voter, inside her own home, “Ms. Green, your ballot has been tampered with,” leading a “scared witness to give cautious statements to the FBI.”

[3]United States v. Turner, Hogue, & Turner, Cr. No. 85-00014 (SD Ala. 4 July 1985).

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Washington, DC — Over the past year, Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests and litigation filed by the transparency organization Property of The People (PoTP) has produced receipts and other documents revealing an excess of $344,008.28 in spending by US government agencies at Trump properties.  Property of the People is publishing these documents in their entirety today in their new searchable archive.  A full list of document urls is attached below in our note to editors.

Via a partnership with our colleagues at ProPublica, these documents, in addition to others, have been integrated into an evergreen interactive news application for journalists, activists, and researchers to track how Donald Trump and his family trust are profiting off the US Presidency.  Titled “Paying the President” this news app highlights $16.1 million in campaign and agency payments made to Trump properties since the 2015 announcement Trump’s campaign, including $386,474.66 of taxpayer money.  Federal taxpayer data will be regularly updated and remains incomplete because agencies are fighting disclosure.

Taxpayers and political campaigns and committees have spent more than $16.1 million at Trump properties since he launched his campaign in 2015.

Follow the money here: https://t.co/CGkqXB47p9 pic.twitter.com/mBne67syRm

— ProPublica (@ProPublica) June 30, 2018

PoTP’s newest documents show expenses of $79,618.25 spent at Trump properties by the State Department, and $3,768.94 spent at Trump properties by the Department of Commerce since President Trump took office.

To date FOIA litigation from PoTP has uncovered the following agency payments at Trump properties:

1. $147, 379.50 in Department of Defense expenditures at Trump Properties from January to June, 2017;

2. $108,876.55 in Department of Homeland Security expenditures at Trump Properties across three events in January 2017, May 2017, and February 2018;
   

3. $79,618.25 in Department of State expenditures at Trump Properties since February 2017;
   

4. $3,768.94 in Department of Commerce expenditures at Trump Properties since January 2017;
   

5. $2,604.57 in Coast Guard expenditures at Trump Properties from February to June 2017;

6. and $1,760.46 in General Services Administration expenditures at Trump Properties from February to June 2017;

The State Department and Department of Commerce documents uncovered build upon earlier discoveries by PoTP, and show that it is both standard practice for Donald Trump to charge government employees the maximum posted rate (also known as the “rack rate”) for stays at Mar-A-Lago. Property of the People co-founder Sarahjane Blum explains, “setting up a situation where the American public is forced to pay the exorbitantly high rack to get the work of governing done is one of the many ways the Trump presidency is setting up and normalizing kleptocracy.”

Sarahjane Blum explains these emoluments on WNYC’s Trump Inc,

“Donald Trump views the American public as a bunch of marks waiting to be fleeced,” said Property of the People co-founder, Ryan Shapiro.“Due to his refusal to divest from his sprawling business empire, Donald Trump has turned the American Presidency into a racket.”

Added Property of the People staff attorney, Gunita Singh, “Repeatedly, our FOIA litigation has revealed blatant financial conflicts of interest resulting in the transfer of taxpayer dollars to Trump properties and likely constitutional violations. We expect this is only the tip of the iceberg, and we fully intend to aggressively continue our FOIA work exposing kleptocracy at the highest reaches of government.”

In September 2017, documents obtained by Property of the People from the Coast Guard and DHS revealed National Security Council and other agency  payments to Mar-A-Lago and Trump Hotels. These documents provided the first strong evidence of Trump’s violation of the Domestic Emoluments Clause.  These revelations also informed Senators Gary Peters, Elizabeth Warren, and Tom Udall’s decision to introduce the HOTEL Act — Heightened Oversight of Travel, Eating and Lodging — banning executive officials from staying at any property owned by the president, vice president, Cabinet secretaries or their families members.  A house version of the bill (H.R. 5304) has also been introduced by congressman Jamie Raskin.

A Note to Editors

Property of the People has organized these government charge card documents and others together as part of their Operation 45 project.  The projects full archive can be browsed online HERE.  For journalists and editors who would like URLs for individual documents we have organized them by agency below.

1. State Department Charge Card Expenses: Production I, Production II

2. Department of Commerce Charge Card Expenses: IOS Release I, IOS Release II, IOS Release III, IOS Release IV, IOS Release V
   

3. Department of Defense Charge Card Expenses: March 2018 receipt Production, Summary Chart
   

4. Department of Homeland Security & Coast Guard Charge Card Expenses: DHS Production I, Coast Guard Billing Statements, Coast Guard, NSC and Embassy Expenditures, FY16 + FY17 bundle

5. General Services Administration Charge Card Expenses: GSA Production

The post Property of the People’s FOIA Litigation Reveals $344,008.28 in US Taxpayer Money Spent at Trump Properties appeared first on Property of the People.

Among the documents released today is an 8-page summary chart provided by the Department of Defense outlining the majority of $138,093.23 in DoD charges at Trump properties beginning on the first day of the administration, January 20, 2017, through June 14, 2017. The release also includes a 369-page document with receipts corresponding to a selection of the charges outlined in the summary chart.  Among the charges were $58,875.69 in charges incurred specifically at Mar-a-Lago; $9,618.78 at Trump’s Bedminster, NJ Golf Club during an extended weekend stay in May, 2017;  $35,652.44 spent at Trump’s Las Vegas Hotel; and $17,102.55 in DoD expenditures at Donald Trump’s beleaguered Trump Ocean Club in Panama.

The FOIA lawsuit that obtained the receipts was brought by Property of the People and the organization’s co-founder, MIT FOIA researcher Ryan Shapiro.  The group and Shapiro have filed similar FOIA requests with The US State Department, Department of Commerce, General Services Administration, US Coast Guard, Department of Homeland Security, Secret Service, and US Customs and Border Protection.

In September 2017, documents obtained by Property of the People from the Coast Guard and DHS revealed National Security Council and other agency  payments to Mar-A-Lago and Trump Hotels. These documents provided the first strong evidence of Trump’s violation of the Domestic Emoluments Clause.  These revelations also informed Senators Gary Peters, Elizabeth Warren, and Tom Udall’s decision to introduce the HOTEL Act — Heightened Oversight of Travel, Eating and Lodging — banning executive officials from staying at any property owned by the president, vice president, Cabinet secretaries or their families members.

And last month, documents released by the General Services Administration (GSA) to Property of the People highlighted $1,760.46 in charges made by the GSA across three days in 2017 at the Trump International Hotel in DC and the BLT Prime Restaurant located within the DC Trump Hotel.

“Donald Trump views the American public as a bunch of marks waiting to be fleeced,” said Property of the People co-founder, Ryan Shapiro. “With the DoD’s spending at Mar-a-Lago and other Trump properties, and Trump’s refusal to divest from his sprawling business empire, once again we find the President’s hand deep in the taxpayer’s pocket.”

Continued Shapiro, “Trump’s venality and his administration’s open contempt for transparency creates a functionally unprecedented potential for conflicts of interest and corruption.”

Added Property of the People staff attorney, Gunita Singh, “Repeatedly, our FOIA litigation has revealed blatant financial conflicts of interest resulting in the transfer of taxpayer dollars to Trump properties and likely constitutional violations. We expect this is only the tip of the iceberg, and we fully intend to aggressively continue our FOIA work exposing kleptocracy at the highest reaches of government.”

As part of the the organization’s efforts to seek transparency and accountability from the Trump administration, Property of the People has thousands of FOIA requests in motion with numerous federal agencies, as well as numerous active federal FOIA lawsuits to compel agency compliance with the organization’s requests.

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