Election “Emergency” Order Again Yields No Culprits

A “national emergency” declared by President Trump last year to deal with the threat of foreign interference in U.S. elections has still not resulted in the identification or punishment of any perpetrators of such interference, according to the second periodic report to Congress on the emergency.

“No entities or individuals have been designated pursuant to E.O. 13848,” the executive order which declared the election interference emergency. “As a result, OFAC [Office of Foreign Assets Control] took no licensing actions involving E.O. 13848,” the Secretary of the Treasury told Congress in a report last month, echoing the identical outcome reported in March 2019.

This week the President renewed the underlying declaration of emergency for another year.

“The ability of persons located, in whole or in substantial part, outside the United States to interfere in or undermine public confidence in United States elections, including through the unauthorized accessing of election and campaign infrastructure or the covert distribution of propaganda and disinformation, continues to pose an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States,” according to a September 10 notice to Congress.

“For this reason, the national emergency declared on September 12, 2018, must continue in effect beyond September 12, 2019.”

Separately, the President issued an executive order that terminated a 1995 national emergency concerning Middle East terrorism and directed additional steps to respond to another terrorism-related national emergency.

Meanwhile, the President also renewed the national emergency that was declared after 9/11. “Because the terrorist threat continues, the national emergency declared on September 14, 2001, and the powers and authorities adopted to deal with that emergency must continue in effect beyond September 14, 2019.”