Meet "Eagle AI," the Cleta Mitchell-Backed MAGA Mass Voter Challenge Program
The former Trump attorney and her network of election conspiracy theorists are backing a dark money effort to generate thinly-sourced voter challenges with a few clicks.
Former Trump attorney Cleta Mitchell and her network of election conspiracy theorists are secretly backing a new project to help MAGA activists generate mass voter challenges, a new investigation by Documented reveals.
This endeavor hints at how right-wing vigilantes—supported by powerful institutions and millions in dark money—could pose a threat to free and fair elections in 2024.
“Eagle AI” looks to fill the void left by Mitchell and her network’s successful campaign to pressure state officials to cut ties with the bipartisan Electronic Registration Information Center, better known as ERIC.
As NBC News first reported, based on material provided by Documented, Eagle AI draws from public data sources like voter files and newspaper obituaries to build a dashboard for activists to conduct their own “list maintenance” and generate potentially thousands of challenges to voter eligibility with a few clicks.
“While a handful of individuals in Georgia and Texas have taken in recent years to filing mass voter challenges,” NBC reported, “EagleAI could turn that steady stream into a nationwide flood.”
The resulting flood of conspiracy-driven voter challenges, drawn from questionable data, could inundate overworked and under-resourced election offices and lead to eligible voters being purged from the rolls. In many states, challenged voters will have to jump through additional hoops to have their vote counted.
Eagle AI is being deployed through Mitchell’s “Election Integrity Network” (EIN), which was launched by the $45 million Conservative Partnership Institute (CPI). Activists affiliated with EIN in states like Georgia, North Carolina, and Florida are already testing the Eagle AI system, and setting up meetings with election officials to normalize the program and encourage them to accept voter challenges generated by the platform. Platforms will also be rolled out soon in Arizona, Nevada and Texas.
Eagle AI’s funding sources are murky, but a planning document co-authored by Mitchell reveals plans to receive private donations from sources including Donors Trust, known as the “dark money ATM of the right.” A legal firm associated with Mitchell—and housed within CPI—also set up Eagle AI's tax-exempt arm, "Valid Vote," which told the IRS that it plans to raise $2.1 million in advance of the 2024 election.
Mitchell’s participation in the Georgia-based project comes as Fulton County prosecutors bring criminal charges against Trump and 18 co-conspirators for their efforts to block Biden’s win in that state. Mitchell was not indicted, but she did support Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election, including joining the infamous call when the president urged Georgia’s top election official to “find” 11,780 votes.
Dive deeper into Eagle AI—and view videos, documents, and other material—at Documented’s website.