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The memo originated with the 2016 Trump campaign and focuses on an undisclosed state, but appears to have been intended as a template for other states. | Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP Photo RNC asks court to keep recount plan for 2020 secret

The Republican National Committee is pressing to keep secret a memo detailing how the Trump campaign could respond if President Donald Trump's reelection bid in 2020 turns out to be a squeaker.

Last week, RNC lawyers asked a federal judge in New Jersey to order that the so-called recount memo, drafted in 2016, be kept under wraps until after the 2020 election because of the role it could play in that contest.

"The RNC requests protection of the document under seal only until after the conclusion of the next presidential election on November 3, 2020," RNC attorneys Bobby Burchfield and Matt Leland wrote. "The memorandum was circulated during the 2016 election, but contains several plans that are likely to be used in or may bear upon future elections. This includes the election for President of the United States in 2020."

The document was turned over to the Democratic National Committee as part of long-running litigation over the GOP's alleged use of so-called "ballot security" measures to discourage minority voting.

A transcript of a phone conference held in the case last year indicates the memo involves designation of particular counties as "high risk" or "medium risk" during a potential recount. Democratic Party lawyers said the selection of those counties raised the specter of the race-focused efforts the RNC agreed to abandon more than three decades ago.

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"We don't know really what 'risk' means," DNC attorney Angelo Genova said during the discussion last year, adding that the Democrats wanted to know whether there was some link between those designations and concentrations of minority voters.

However, GOP lawyers argued that the memo focuses primarily on absentee ballots and is far removed from the type of personal intimidation that was the focus of a court consent decree in effect from 1982 through last year. The RNC also said that making the document public would expose "competitively sensitive information" to Democrats.

"The RNC will suffer a competitive disadvantage by the disclosure of Republican campaign strategic priorities, election activities, and allocation of resources. DNC operatives (and others) will be able to reallocate resources to address Republican strategic decisions, which is a key reason the RNC guards them closely," Burchfield and Leland wrote.

The memo originated with the 2016 Trump campaign and focuses on an undisclosed state, but appears to have been intended as a template for other states. It was turned over to the DNC under a protective order leading to it being labeled "attorneys' eyes only." (Top Democratic lawyer Marc Elias was denied access to those records because of his role on Hillary Clinton's 2016 campaign and other Democratic bids.)

Last September, U.S. District Court Judge John Vazquez granted the DNC permission to force the RNC to answer five written questions — interrogatories — about the memo. It's unclear what questions were asked and how the RNC responded.

The DNC is not opposing the RNC's effort to keep the memo from going public until after the 2020 election.

An RNC spokesman had no comment on the effort to keep the memo secret.

Vazquez, an Obama appointee, ruled in January that the consent decree expired in December 2017 after about 36 years. He said there was no evidence of recent violations by the RNC that merited keeping the order in place. The expiration of the decree frees the national GOP to engage in more activity targeting alleged election fraud, something Trump has contended was widespread in 2016. The RNC has been vague about how or whether it intends to take advantage of the greater latitude it has after emerging from under the long-running court order.

The DNC has appealed Vazquez's order refusing to extend the decree or allow further discovery into potential violations by the RNC. A panel of the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals is set to hear the case next month.