President Donald Trump (center) speaks on July 19 at the first meeting of his Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity, headed by Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach (left) and Vice President Mike Pence (right). Kobach, the commission's executive director, had promised before its first meeting that the group would make records public. | Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP Photo. Trump election fraud panel apologizes in document disclosure flap Justice Department lawyer says panel members were unclear on disclosure obligations before July meeting.

A lawyer representing President Donald Trump's election fraud commission apologized to a federal judge Wednesday over the panel's failure to abide by a promise to disclose all relevant records ahead of the group's first meeting last month.

Justice Department attorney Elizabeth Shapiro said the highly scrutinized panel and its staff did not realize that the pledge to make materials public could be interpreted to include the presentations and reports that individual panel members brought to the inaugural July 19 session.


"I want to apologize first and foremost for the misunderstanding," Shapiro told U.S. District Court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly during a 45-minute hearing on Wednesday morning. "It was truly an honest misunderstanding on the part of the commission ... I wanted to convey our apologies and our sincere regret for that."

The panel has been under fire since Trump began publicly mulling forming it, after he claimed without evidence that 3 million people may have illegally cast ballots in the 2016 presidential race. Despite urging from lawmakers in both parties to drop the issue, Trump announced in May the creation of his Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity, headed by Vice President Mike Pence and Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach.

The panel's executive director, Andrew Kossack, had promised before its first meeting on July 19 that the group would make records public. But in an order issued earlier this month, Kollar-Kotelly noted that documents discussed by individual members at that July meeting weren't released in advance. The Justice Department initially argued it did not have to release those documents before they were shared with the full panel, but Kollar-Kotelly appeared to reject that interpretation.

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On Wednesday, the DOJ's Shapiro said the panel acted "entirely in good faith" and had no intent to hide materials, but she said commission members were not fully aware of their obligations. However, she acknowledged that the commission's staff was aware in advance of one member's plan to share a PowerPoint presentation at the session. It was not released before the meeting.

"It was a chaotic start to the commission," Shapiro said. "There was a little bit of unknown and a little bit of disorganization in terms of how the meeting would happen."

Kollar-Kotelly said she appreciated the government's apology, but "you didn't live up to the representations" made before the meeting.

The judge, a Clinton nominee, listed about half a dozen statements or studies presented at the July 19 meeting that weren't released in advance. She also said some of the legal positions the government has taken appear to be contrary to court precedents that the public has the right to know in advance what will be discussed at each commission meeting.

Shapiro said a letter was sent to panel members Wednesday advising them that they need to submit materials and presentations in advance of future commission meetings so they can be shared with the public. In an emergency, she said, extra copies could be brought to a meeting to hand out to the public.

It's unclear that the emergency option would always work in practice, however. The July meeting was held in the White House complex and was open to the public only via a video webcast. The public is invited to attend a second meeting of the commission set for Sept. 12 in New Hampshire.

The judge welcomed the new guidance sent to members of the commission.

"It looks like it's a good first step," she said. However, Kollar-Kotelly also said she would order the panel to produce a log of all its records and to indicate whether they are or are not being made public and why. The judge issued that order Wednesday evening.

The hearing Wednesday took place on a lawsuit filed by the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. The case is one of what Shapiro said are seven different suits pending against the commission. Those cases challenge the panel's compliance with its obligations under the Federal Advisory Committee Act or with data privacy laws. In some instances, the suits argue that Trump exceeded his authority or attempted to discriminate against minority voters by setting up the commission.

Kobach issued a statement Wednesday evening suggesting that the most significant development was that Kollar-Kotelly declined to grant the Lawyers' Committee's request for depositions of Kobach and Kossack and also denied — for now —

several demands for information on various commission policies.

"Contrary to media reports, in today's hearing, the plaintiffs requested an unreasonable amount of discovery from the commission. The court denied most of their demands, including their most burdensome ones," Kobach said. "The bipartisan commission remains committed to doing the important work of helping to ensure the integrity of our elections, and looks forward to having our next Commission meeting in Manchester, New Hampshire, hosted by Secretary Bill Gardner, a Democratic Member of the Commission and our nation's longest serving Secretary of State."