Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach has been triple dipping: holding his post at home, heading President Trump’s voter fraud commission, and writing paid columns for Bretibart news.
The controversial public official’s paid side gig was revealed by the Kansas City Star, after Kobach wrote his latest piece, an article bashing President Obama’s policy of deferred action for people who came here illegally as children.
‘DACA is inconsistent with the rule of law, inconsistent with the president’s own promises, and inconsistent with the president’s principled stand against illegal immigration. It must end,’ he wrote.
President-elect Donald Trump greets Kansas Secretary of State, Kris Kobach, at the clubhouse at Trump National Golf Club Bedminster in Bedminster Township, N.J. on Sunday, Nov. 20, 2016. Breitbart said he writes paid columns for the conservative Breitbart news site
Media reports have shown Trump moving in the same direction on the program.
Confronted about the columns, Kobach told the paper: ‘I get paid for my columns … just like you’re paid.’
Kobach’s work for Trump is advisory and unpaid.
The paper reported that Kobach got the gig in June after getting approached by the conservative site. He has written a total of seven articles with more coming.
During his day job, Kobach has clashed repeatedly with the ACLU and voting rights groups for his efforts to target what he believes is voter fraud.
One suit involves his effort to require Kansans to provide proof of citizenship when the register to vote under the federal ‘motor voter’ law.
Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, in a March 2016 file image, joined the transition team for incoming President Donald Trump, saying he planned to help Trump reverse President Obama’s immigration policies
President Donald Trump, accompanied by Vice President Mike Pence, right, and Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, center left, speaks at the first meeting of the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House complex in Washington, DC on Wednesday, July 19, 2017
A federal judge upheld a $1,000 fine against him for ‘misleading the court’ for failing to turn over documents in the case, after he was pictured carrying a binder to a meeting with Trump.
Photos revealed the binder said ‘Draft Amendments to the National Voter,’ which could have been the National Voter Registration Act – or ‘motor voter.’
Kobach is the vice chair of a panel formally headed by Vice President Mike Pence. It is formally called the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity.
Trump called for its creation after repeatedly claiming without evidence that 3 to 5 million people voted illegally.
Kansas Sec. State Kris Kobach chairs President Trump’s voter fraud commission and writes a paid column for Breitbart News
Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, right, shakes hands with Gov. Sam Brownback on Monday, June 8, 2015, at the Kansas Statehouse in Topeka, Kan., after the signing of Senate Bill 34, a bill that grants persecuting power to the Secretary of State for cases of voter fraud
The commission meets in New Hampshire, a place where Trump has also pointed to fraud, this month.
Kobach told the Star he rejected the idea that the site is a gathering place for white nationalists.
‘I find that criticism to be completely baseless and if Breitbart had any connection to white nationalism I would not write for the site,’ he said.
A paragraph at the bottom of his columns states: ‘Kris W. Kobach is the elected secretary of state of Kansas. An expert in immigration law and policy, he coauthored the Arizona SB-1070 immigration law and represented in federal court the 10 ICE agents who sued to stop Obama’s 2012 executive amnesty. In 2017 President Trump named him Vice Chairman of the Presidential Commission on Election Integrity.’
It also notes that he is a candidate for governor and gives out the address of his website.