Judge Orders RNC to Hand Over Marketing Info to Jan. 6 Committee, RNC to Appeal – Opinion

Federal Judge ruled that Sunday’s ruling by a federal judge meant the Republican National Committee must provide to the House January 6 Committee all marketing data related to its fundraising email campaigns from November 2020 through January 6, 2021.

“[T]he Select Committee seeks reasonably relevant information from a narrow window during which the RNC sent emails promoting claims that the presidential election was fraudulent or stolen,” Trump-appointee Judge Timothy Kelly wrote in the 53-page ruling. Julie Kelly, American Greatness’ senior writer was quick in pointing out the consequences.

Judge Kelly explained his decision, citing the “exceedingly rare spectacle of a congressional committee subpoenaing the records of one of our country’s two major political parties.”

You’re the one who said it, judge. It’s quite a show. Politico reports:

Overall, the decision is a significant victory for the select panel and may open the door to vast amounts of RNC internal data owned by Salesforce. Salesforce was a third party vendor used by the RNC to conduct email analysis campaigns and fundraising campaigns. In February, the select committee requested Salesforce records. The RNC followed suit shortly after and sought to stop Salesforce from complying.

What this means is that Republicans Illinois Representative Adam Kinzinger and Wyoming’s Liz Cheney can, along with the rest of the committee, go on a long fishing expedition, gleaning inside information on Republican fundraising efforts and strategies. The committee believes that fundraising emails were a direct factor in fomenting protesters to attack the capitol, in what CNN calls an “insurrection.” Certainly, there were bad actors that day, but if it were an insurrection, it would go down as one of the weakest overthrow attempts in recorded history.

After the RNC had sued the committee for the records request, the court ruled in favor of the RNC. RNC had already declared its intention to appeal. They claimed partial victory due to their efforts to force the committee to reduce the subpoena.

“While the RNC strongly disagrees with this ruling, our lawsuit compelled Nancy Pelosi’s January 6th committee to dramatically narrow the subpoena’s scope,” chief RNC counsel Matt Raymer said.

In his ruling, the judge brushed off claims that the records subpoena basically demanded that the committee’s political opponents hand over their strategies and game plans:

It is not clear that Salesforce has any plans to issue internal RNC memoranda detailing its digital strategy. It is obvious that information about which emails have attracted greater attention than others has strategic merit. But on the record here, whatever competitive harm may come to the RNC from disclosure of the actual material at issue is too ‘logically attenuated’ and ‘speculative’ to defeat the Select Committee’s weighty interest.

He also claimed that donors’ names and other sensitive information would not be released:

House Defendants are not seeking, and Salesforce is not producing, any disaggregated information about any of the RNC’s donors, volunteers, or email recipients, including any person’s personally identifiable information. Moreover, even the RNC’s own confidential information that is undeniably at issue is relatively narrow in scope.

Do we believe that Democrats will be able to obtain all the information they need and use it to their advantage? They will. Remember, the committee was set up by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who famously ripped up former President Donald Trump’s State of the Union speech on the floor of the house in front of a live TV audience. It is unlikely that you would want someone reading through your private information. Another Twitter user points out the hidden information in your emails.

Julie Kelly noted that this ruling could chill donors. They may be scared to give a dime because they fear their names might come out on the House’s floor.

While the Dow falls, Ukraine is in flames, inflation soars and Ukraine’s economy burns, the Committee seeks to examine marketing emails. It would seem that it’s only a matter of time before the Board of Disinformation gets involved.

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