Democrats demand GAO probe of voter data collected at Trump-run 250th-anniversary events
House Democrats have asked the GAO to investigate whether voter data gathered from taxpayer-funded semiquincentennial events run by Freedom 250 was shared with Trump-aligned political groups.
This summer the Trump administration organized a series of high-profile semiquincentennial events that required attendees to submit personal contact information through online forms. Those forms were supplied by Campaign Nucleus, a company linked to former Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale, and were used by Freedom 250, a nonprofit created under the National Park Foundation to oversee the celebrations. House Democrats, led by Jared Huffman and Joseph Morelle, wrote to the Government Accountability Office asking it to examine whether the voter data collected—emails, phone numbers and ZIP codes—was later used to promote the pro-Trump PAC Never Surrender or otherwise benefit Republican campaigns ahead of the midterm elections.
Freedom 250 has been funded with at least $86 million of taxpayer money, and the lawmakers contend that the mingling of campaign and government resources raises serious privacy and election-integrity concerns. The group has not responded to inquiries, and a Freedom 250 spokesperson has not commented.
Why it matters
It raises concerns that taxpayer-funded event data could be weaponized for partisan election advantage.
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