'Disrupt the process': Trump's Jan. 6-inspired plan to undermine election revealed

Donald Trump reportedly has a plan to undermine and challenge the 2024 presidential election, and it involves many of the same people who participated in the Jan. 6 insurrection attempt.

The New York Times reported on the plans on Saturday, even noting that the group spearheading Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation, is providing support for the GOP's efforts.

"The Republican Party and its conservative allies are engaged in an unprecedented legal campaign targeting the American voting system. Their wide-ranging and methodical effort is laying the groundwork to contest an election that they argue, falsely, is already being rigged against former President Donald J. Trump," the Times reported over the weekend. "The campaign involves a powerful network of Republican lawyers and activist groups, working loosely in concert with the Republican National Committee. Many of the key players were active in Mr. Trump’s attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 election."

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The report suggests that, "unlike the chaotic and improvised challenge four years ago, the new drive includes a systematic search for any vulnerability in the nation’s patchwork election system."

"Mr. Trump’s allies have followed a two-pronged approach: restricting voting for partisan advantage ahead of Election Day and short-circuiting the process of ratifying the winner afterward, if Mr. Trump loses," it states. " The latter strategy involves an ambitious — and legally dubious — attempt to reimagine decades of settled law dictating how results are officially certified in the weeks before the transfer of power."

The report goes on to state that "Democrats, civil rights lawyers and even some Republicans say that the threat is clear: Even if the cases fail, Mr. Trump’s allies are building excuses to dispute the results, while trying to empower thousands of local election officials to disrupt the process."

"Already, election board members in several states have moved to block certification of primary election tallies, including in a major swing county in Nevada last week," according to the report. "Cleta Mitchell, a Republican lawyer who was part of Mr. Trump’s push to overturn his loss in Georgia now runs the Election Integrity Network, a group that is advising activists on how to challenge voters’ eligibility. The Heritage Foundation has provided institutional support and planning. Last month, the group war-gamed exercises exploring scenarios in a disputed election."

Read the full report here (New York Times subscription required).