Troops at the polls: Judge orders Trump admin to hand over any planning docs

Troops at the polls: Judge orders Trump admin to hand over any planning docs

https://www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/judge-trump-troops-voting-democrats-information-request/

A federal judge ordered the Trump administration to move faster to fulfill an information request from Democrats seeking documents detailing possible plans to deploy immigration agents or military personnel to the polls this fall.

Writing in a docket entry Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Beryl Alaine Howell said several federal agencies have yet to provide substantive responses to the Democratic National Committee’s (DNC) Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests for documents on the “potential employment of federal agents and troops to polling places, drop boxes, and election offices.”

After filing almost a dozen requests since last October, the DNC sued the Department of Justice (DOJ), Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Department of Defense (DOD) in March to force the agencies to comply.

In granting the DNC’s request to expedite, Howell, who was appointed by former President Barack Obama, wrote that with the midterms only months away, the time-sensitive documents — should any exist — are needed to “inform an imminent public debate.”