Mike Pence declared confidently over the summer that the Trump campaign would be working hand-in-glove with the Republican National Committee to prevent voter fraud. Now, in a court filing, the GOP’s vice presidential nominee says he misspoke.

After facing a legal threat from Democrats, Pence and the RNC are disavowing his comments, with both insisting that the RNC has no role whatsoever in the Trump camp’s ballot security operation.


In response to a court order, RNC lawyer John Phillippe interviewed Pence this week about his August comment and revealed in a Wednesday filing that Pence admitted “he made the statement based on his incorrect assumptions and that he has had no contact with the RNC about any ballot integrity program and has no basis to believe that the RNC is working with the Trump campaign on such efforts.”

The unusual walk-back comes amid a backdrop of rising tensions surrounding the Trump campaign’s efforts to organize an army of partisan poll-watchers on Election Day, which Democrats view as thinly-disguised efforts at voter intimidation.

At an Aug. 3 campaign event in Denver, Pence seemed to assert the Trump campaign and the RNC were collaborating in an attempt to monitor polling sites.

“The Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee are working very, very closely with state governments and secretaries of states all over the country to ensure ballot integrity,” Pence said.

As a result of Pence’s assertion — and a similar one by Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway — the Democratic National Committee filed suit alleging that the RNC was violating a consent decree from the 1980s settling a case alleging that GOP poll-watchers sought to intimidate minority voters in a practice then known as "caging."

The agreement allows the RNC to organize poll-watchers, but prohibits any ballot security efforts that intimidate voters as they enter a polling place or that challenge individual voters, except as part of a program approved in advance by the court.

Earlier this week, a judge demanded that the RNC produce evidence and testimony about its relationship to the Trump campaign’s poll-watching efforts.

In addition to interviewing Pence, Phillippe also interviewed Conway, who told a Washington Post reporter over the summer that the RNC was involved in ballot integrity efforts. Like Pence, Conway also changed her tune.

According to Phillippe’s brief, “Ms. Conway informed me that she had retracted her statement to the reporter because she had been mistaken. She further expressly stated that she has no knowledge of, and knows of no facts indicating, that the RNC is involved in any poll monitoring activities in any state.”

Contacted by POLITICO, Conway and Pence aides directed questions about the matter to Trump campaign lawyer Don McGahn. McGahn did not respond to repeated requests for comment. But in his brief, Phillippe indicated he spoke to McGahn, who confirmed that he, too, had no knowledge of any agreements between the RNC and the Trump campaign to police voter fraud.

Any connection to the Trump camp’s poll-watching efforts would be legally perilous for the RNC. Violating the terms of the decades-old consent decree, which was amended in 2009 and is set to expire next year, could lead a judge to extend it or impose new restrictions.

The Pence and Conway claims of error dovetail with an assertion one day earlier by the RNC that the Trump campaign has little influence over its operations.

“The RNC has no right to control the Trump campaign. Conversely, Mr. Trump has no official voice in the RNC,” the committee wrote in a brief Tuesday. Pence “either misspoke or was mistaken,” added RNC outside counsel Mark Sheridan, who signed that brief.

It’s an awkward situation for the RNC. At the same time it is putting distance between itself and the Trump campaign on the ballot security issue, officials are trying to prove that the national committee is working hard to elect the polarizing nominee. They've boasted of how interconnected the campaign and the RNC have become — the RNC is essentially running Trump’s ground game and supplying him with most of his voter data — and they operate a joint fundraising committee that enables them to apportion resources. (Clinton and the Democratic National Committee run a similar one.)

Last week, when the RNC convened a members-only conference call that included Chairman Reince Priebus and Conway, Priebus said the RNC was working as “one team” with the Trump campaign, according to multiple participants in the call. And Conway described the relationship as “airtight.”

Democrats scoffed at the defense offered by the RNC. Democratic lawyer Marc Elias, general counsel for the Clinton campaign, tweeted shortly after the new filing that it was “odd” that Pence and Conway “both ‘misspoke’ on the same topic and said the same thing.” The DNC also filed new documents with testimony from Democratic observers in Nevada suggesting they had witnessed observers providing misinformation to voters in Clark County, a Democratic stronghold that includes Las Vegas. One Democratic volunteer said a poll worker named Brenda described being part of an RNC program.

For his part, Trump has spent months energizing supporters with an unfounded assertion that large-scale voter fraud could taint the election next week. He’s encouraged them to closely monitor polling places — especially in big-city Democratic strongholds like Philadelphia — for fraud.

In an attempt to highlight the boundaries of the relationship, RNC officials have presented evidence that they’ve explicitly told the Trump campaign that no RNC personnel or resources can be used to support poll-watching efforts. Statements to the court from Phillippe and political director Chris Carr note that they’ve issued memos and conducted conferences to ensure compliance with the consent decree. They’ve also admonished members that “they may not use RNC resources or their RNC titles in connection with” ballot integrity activities. And they’ve similarly informed the Trump campaign of those restrictions.

An RNC spokeswoman said the suit, filed last month by the DNC, is “completely meritless.”

“Just as in all prior elections in which the consent decree was in effect, the RNC strictly abides by the consent decree and does not take part directly or indirectly in any efforts to prevent or remedy vote fraud,” said the spokeswoman, Lindsay Walters. “Nor do we coordinate with the Trump campaign or any other campaign or party organization in any efforts they may make in this area. The RNC remains focused on getting out the vote.”

One of the murkier issues surrounding the suit is the role of Republican state party chairs who, by virtue of their positions, are among the 168 members of the RNC. The DNC, in its complaint, singled out Michigan GOP Chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel and Pennsylvania GOP Chairman Rob Gleason for leading ballot integrity efforts in their states.

But the state leaders insist that the restrictions don’t apply to them so long as they are acting outside their capacity as RNC members.

“Ronna wears more than one hat,” said spokeswoman Sarah Anderson. “With respect to the [Michigan Republican Party]’s Election Day operations, any participation by Ronna was not done in her capacity as a member of the RNC. Again, the RNC plays no role whatsoever in the MRP’s Election Day Operations.”

A spokeswoman for Gleason lashed out at Democrats for suggesting the GOP was trying to suppress voters.

“The Republican Party of Pennsylvania is seeking to ensure a fair, secure, and smooth election to protect the integrity of the process so that everyone would have confidence in the outcome,” said the spokeswoman Megan Sweeney. “We find it regrettable that the Democrats … have vigorously acted to impede a transparent and fair election by demonizing poll watchers of all political parties.”

