President Trump's Election Panel Slammed By Federal Judge For Lack Of Transparency

WASHINGTON, DC — A federal judge on Wednesday ripped into President Trump's election fraud committee for its failure to, as it had promised, disclose public documents before a meeting in July. When Justice Department attorney Elizabeth Shapiro, who represents the panel, apologized for the omissions, U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly called the response "incredible."

“You didn’t completely live up to the government’s representations,” Kollar-Kotelly said at a hearing Wednesday, according to the Washington Post. “I want to know what things are not going to be covered” by the government’s promises.

Trump created the panel after his repeated (and unsubstantiated) claims that 3 million people might have voted illegally in the 2016 presidential election. The panel — the Presidential Advisory Commission On Election Integrity — is led by Vice President Mike Pence and Kris Kobach, Kansas' secretary of State. (For more national political news, sign up for the free White House Patch email newsletter.)

"It was a chaotic start to the commission," said Shapiro, who told the judge the panel acted "entirely in good faith," according to Politico. "There was a little bit of unknown and a little bit of disorganization in terms of how the meeting would happen."

The controversial panel has drawn criticism from members of both parties, with some states refusing to participate, objecting "to what they regard as the potential to reveal personal information, suppress voter participation and encroach on states’ oversight of voting laws," The Post reports.

The panel's next hearing is on Sept. in New Hampshire.

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Photo credit: Drew Angerer/ Staff/ Getty Images News/ Getty Images