Latino advocacy group wants federal investigation of Texas AG over home searches tied to voter fraud probe

By CNN

Published August 27, 2024 7:17 am

CNN

By Ashley Killough and Ed Lavandera, CNN

(CNN) — A prominent Latino advocacy group asked the US Justice Department on Monday to investigate Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton after his office launched a series of raids the group says was at the homes of Democratic activists and leaders on allegations tied to voter fraud.

In a letter to the Justice Department’s civil rights division, the president and the CEO of the League of United Latin American Citizens requested “immediate action” by the federal agency.

“We believe that his conduct constitutes a direct attempt to suppress the Latino vote through intimidation and harassment, in violation of the Voting Rights Act and other federal civil rights law,” LULAC President Roman Palomares and CEO Juan Proaño wrote in the letter.

The Justice Department confirmed to CNN it received the letter, but a spokesperson declined to comment further.

So far no charges have been filed as a result of last week’s raids. Paxton’s office said search warrants were executed in Frio, Atascosa, and Bexar counties as part of what his office described as an election integrity probe dating back to 2022.

In a release last week, the attorney general’s office said its election integrity unit was investigating a referral from Audrey Louis, the district attorney in the state’s 81st judicial district, involving allegations of election fraud and vote harvesting.

“Secure elections are the cornerstone of our republic,” Paxton said in the release. “We were glad to assist when the district attorney referred this case to my office for investigation. We are completely committed to protecting the security of the ballot box and the integrity of every legal vote. This means ensuring accountability for anyone committing election crimes.”

Paxton’s office did not respond to a request from CNN on Monday about the investigation and its details.

In a statement to CNN on Tuesday, the district attorney said, “Prosecutors are very limited in discussing pending criminal cases.”

“This rule of professional responsibility ensures due process,” Louis said. “I cannot discuss the pending criminal investigation. I can confirm sending the request for an investigation and that our office takes the allegations of voter fraud seriously and will prosecute those responsible for undermining integrity in the election process regardless of who the person is or their party affiliation.”

Paxton has been accused of using intimidation tactics before.

He took up the voter fraud cause after President Joe Biden won the 2020 election, filing a federal lawsuit to overturn the results in four key swing states. The US Supreme Court threw that suit out and the State Bar of Texas sued Paxton in 2022 for misrepresenting claims of substantial voter fraud.

Earlier this year, Paxton took aim at an El Paso nonprofit that helps migrants, accusing it of facilitating illegal entry to the United States, alien harboring and human smuggling, before a judge halted his efforts to “run roughshod” over the group “without regard to due process or fair play,” the judge’s decision said.

He’s pursued the medical records of transgender youth – including those that some say are protected by patient privacy laws – seeking gender affirming care at out of state clinics.

And under the state’s strict abortion ban, he publicly named both a patient seeking an abortion and her doctor in an open letter threatening potential first degree felony prosecutions and civil penalties of $100,000.

At a news conference Monday outside the attorney general’s office in San Antonio, members of LULAC and Democratic activists condemned the raids and criticized Paxton for launching what they called a campaign of intimidation against Latino voters.

“Attorney General Paxton is using his position of authority to harass and intimidate Latino nonprofit organizations, Latino leaders, and LULAC members,” Palomares said. “This is point-blank voter intimidation, and LULAC will fight for the right of very Latino to exercise their right to vote.”

Those whose homes were raided included Cecilia Castellano, a Democrat running for a state House seat, as well as a 73-year-old woman and an 80-year-old woman, LULAC said. Castellano is one of 12 Latinos in three south Texas counties targeted by Paxton, according to LULAC.

“You don’t go after our grandmothers. You don’t go after our great-grandmothers,” said Domingo Garcia, another leader at LULAC. “And you don’t go after them because they are just trying to vote.”

Castellano told CNN’s Laura Coates on Monday night that her phone was taken during the search of her home.

“I was shocked. I’m still shocked. … I’m more mad because my son was a few feet away,” Castellano said.

An investigator found evidence that the target of another warrant was hired to collect mail ballots for several candidates, an affidavit for a search warrant states.

CNN is not naming the person whose cell phone was seized under the search warrant – a longtime political operative in Frio County – because they have not been charged with a crime.

Under Texas law, it is illegal for a person who is not a relative or roommate of a voter to deliver that voter’s mail ballot unless the assistance is disclosed on the ballot. Being paid for “vote harvesting” is also illegal in Texas.

The sealed affidavit obtained by CNN says that, in addition to helping voters fill out mail ballot applications, some voters said in interviews with an investigator that they had received a ballot despite never filling out an application for one.

“Several interviews were conducted and witnesses who had voted by mail had confirmed that (the operative named in the affidavit) either influenced their vote, prepared their ballot, and/or took possession of their carrier envelope to mail their ballot,” the affidavit states.

CNN reached out to the individuals named in the affidavit, and messages were not immediately returned.

The affidavit also says Frio County election administrator Sylvia Santos was among those under “spot surveillance” by the attorney general’s office. It says the subject of the search warrant was seen receiving “what appeared to be sample ballots from Santos behind the election office on February 15, 2024,” suggesting those could have been used to indicate the subject’s preferred candidate to voters.

However, Santos told CNN on Tuesday that providing sample ballots is simply part of her job. “The only thing I can say is that anybody and everybody that calls or walks into this building and requests a sample ballot, I don’t question them,” Santos said.

Lidia Martinez, an 87-year-old activist and LULAC member who has long helped to register voters, told reporters at Monday’s news conference that armed officers with Paxton’s office showed up to her home at the break of dawn August 20 with a search warrant. She said they told her the search was related to fraud and questioned her for three hours. She said they also made her stand outside in her front yard, still in her nightgown.

“It was just embarrassing, intimidating, (and) harassment,” she said, growing emotional. “They searched everything in my house.”

She said she was questioned about other LULAC members, and she blasted the search as a “Gestapo-style” raid. Her devices, personal calendar, and voter registration materials were confiscated, according to LULAC.

“I don’t do anything illegal. I follow the rules of the elections office, and I have never done anything illegal as, as far as voter registration or mail by ballot or any of the things that they’re looking for,” she said. “I don’t know who’s doing it. And, and I don’t care to know; I’m not associated with them. I’m not guilty of it, but I’m being harassed. I’m sick.”

In the letter to the federal government, LULAC argued the recent raids reflected a broader pattern of voter intimidation in Latino and Black communities.

“Attorney General Paxton’s actions are not isolated incidents but are part of a concerted effort to suppress the growing political power of minority communities in Texas,” the letter stated. “These actions are reminiscent of past attempts to intimidate and disenfranchise voters through fear and coercion.”

CNN’s Andy Rose, Hannah Rabinowitz and Lauren Mascarenhas contributed to this report.

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