GAO To Investigate Trump Voter Fraud Commission, After Senate Dem Request

Vice President Mike Pence, left, accompanied by Vice-Char Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, right, speaks during the first meeting of the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House complex in Washington, Wednesday, July 19, 2017. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
Vice President Mike Pence, left, accompanied by Vice-Char Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, right, speaks during the first meeting of the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity at the Eisenhower ... Vice President Mike Pence, left, accompanied by Vice-Char Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, right, speaks during the first meeting of the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House complex in Washington, Wednesday, July 19, 2017. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik) MORE LESS
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President Trump’s voter fraud commission will be facing another layer of scrutiny, on top of the numerous lawsuits that have been mounted against it.

After receiving a request last week from three Democratic senators, the Government Accountability Office said Wednesday that it would be launching an investigation into the commission — albeit not for another five months, when the relevant staff will be available.

The Democrats — Sens. Michael Bennet (D-CO), Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Amy Klobucher (D-MN) — asked the the GAO to look at the commission’s funding, its methodologies, what information it is using to base its conclusions, its compliance with relevant regulations, how it is protecting the voter information it has collected and what it is doing to address voter participation.

The commission has been under fire — including from some of its own members — for its lack of transparency. A Republican member of the commission, Indiana Secretary of State Connie Lawson, told reporters Wednesday that the commission’s work was on pause while it navigated some of the lawsuits against it. That has not been confirmed by its executive director Andrew Kossack nor by Vice President Mike Pence’s office (Pence is the commission’s chair), which both did not respond to TPM’s inquiries about Lawson’s comments Wednesday.

Read the GAO’s letter to the Democratic senators confirming the launch of the probe below:

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