No Labels Urges DOJ to Investigate Alleged Conspiracy to Subvert Voting Rights

WASHINGTON — No Labels, the nonpartisan group currently trying to build support for a third-party ticket in the 2024 presidential election, urged the Justice Department on Thursday to investigate an alleged conspiracy to subvert Americans’ voting rights.

According to the group, a number of individuals, ranging from members of The Lincoln Project to Republican and Democratic strategists, have engaged in an “unlawful conspiracy” to stymie its ballot access efforts.

The organization, which was founded in 2010, is now on the ballot in 14 states. It hopes to get on the ballot in at least 13 more this election cycle.

In its letter to the Justice Department, No Labels said its effort to secure a ballot line was relatively uncontroversial when its effort started two years ago, and the group contends its right to secure that line is “just as protected by the U.S. Constitution as the right to register to vote.”

“But powerful forces in Washington clearly don’t respect this right, and have made it their mission to prevent No Labels access to the ballot, by any means necessary,” the organization says.

The group claims that attacks on its effort began ratcheting up about a year ago, “but at a certain point, they crossed the line from hardball politics to something more serious.”

“We have requested a formal investigation into the matter by the Department of Justice to get to the bottom of this once and for all and to determine if laws have been violated,” said Dan Webb, a No Labels volunteer and lawyer.

Webb, who is also co-executive chairman for the international law firm of Winston and Strawn, continued: “What we have alleged, based on evidence, is that there is a group of activists and operatives and party officials who are participating in alleged illegal conspiracy to use intimidation, harassment and fear against representatives of No Labels, its donors, and its potential candidates.”

He then went on to cite what he called “two of the most egregious examples” of this activity.

In December, he said, Semafor obtained an audio recording of a meeting of alleged co-conspirators in which one participant described efforts to dissuade potential candidates from joining a No Labels presidential ticket.

“If you have one fingernail clipping of a skeleton in your closet, we will find it. If you think you were vetted when you ran for governor, you’re insane. That was nothing. We are going to come at you with every gun we can possibly find,” Webb said, quoting an individual from the tape.

“Elsewhere in the letter we describe an event that occurred when No Labels co-founder Holly Page was approached by a representative of The Lincoln Project and told she had to walk away from the organization,” he said. 

“They told Holly, ‘You have no idea of the forces that are aligned against you. You will never be able to work in Democratic politics again. You are going to get it with both barrels,’” Webb said.

Of course, members of both parties have expressed concern that No Labels’ effort will undermine those who are seeking to do everything possible to prevent former President Donald Trump from winning a second term.

And the friction is only going to get worse now that Trump has won a double-digit victory in Iowa and appears poised to do so in New Hampshire next week.

“The American people want another choice for president this year and No Labels is working to provide that choice,” said former Sen. Joe Leiberman, I-Conn., a leader of the group.

“No one in our country has a right to prevent that choice from being offered to the voters,” he said. “What we have experienced is no less than an attempt to knock the legs out from under American democracy.”

In a statement, The Lincoln Project responded by calling No Labels “a dark money group that is so consumed with its own quest for power and relevancy that it is willing to risk electing Trump, despite their own acknowledgment that he is a dangerous ideologue.

“Like Trump, they want to weaponize the DOJ to attack their opponents for protected political speech,” it said.

Dan can be reached at [email protected] and @DanMcCue