Gregg Phillips

Gregg Phillips is the former head of the Mississippi Department of Human Services. He is the author of a tweet, cited by president Donald Trump and retweeted by the conspiracy website InfoWars, purporting that between three and five million non-citizens voted in the U.S. 2016 elections.[1][2][3][4] He has offered no evidence for his claims.[5]

Career

In the mid-1990s, Phillips campaigned for Republican Governor of Mississippi Kirk Fordice.[2] Fordice nominated Phillips to head the Mississippi Department of Human Services in 1993. The Mississippi State Senate approved his nomination despite a discrepancy in his resume uncovered by the Mississippi Joint Committee on Performance Evaluation and Expenditure Review. In 1994, he privatized the collection of child support in two Mississippi counties, signing a contract with a private company based in Virginia.[6] Phillips left the Department of Human Services in 1995, "under fire from the Legislature for his management of the state welfare programs."[7] A week after leaving Department of Human Services, Phillips was hired by Synesis Corporation, a division of Centec Learning, which had an $878,000 contract to lease mobile learning labs to the University of Mississippi as part of LEAP, a literacy program Phillips backed as head of the Department of Human Services.[6]

Phillips served as Deputy Commissioner for the Texas Health and Human Services Commission from March 2003 to August 2004.[8] With private consultant Chris Britton, Phillips drafted a 2003 bill privatizing the $1 billion human services system in Texas. The Houston Chronicle found that a company started by Phillips and a company of Britton's received a $670,000 state contract from the Texas Workforce Commission in January 2004.[6] Phillips then ran the health care analytics firm AutoGov.[8] Phillips is described as a "vocal conservative who founded a health-care-data company."[9]

Phillips has faced allegations of ethical misconduct and cronyism, including abusing his previous positions in government, in Texas and Mississippi, for personal financial gain. According to The Guardian, Phillips owes the US government over $100,000 in unpaid taxes.[4][7] An investigation by the Associated Press revealed that Philipps was registered to vote in three states. Philipps responded to this investigation by saying, "Doesn't that just demonstrate how broken the system is? That is not fraud — that is a broken system. We need a national ID that travels with people."[10]

Unsubstantiated voter fraud claims

In 2013, Phillips' firm partnered with the organization True the Vote to, according to Phillips, update and analyze voter registration data in the U.S. to supposedly identify indicators of each person voting such as: citizenship or non-citizenship, identity, and felony status.[11][9] He has asserted that his organization has evidence that between three and five million votes were illegal in the 2016 presidential election. He has, however, not provided the purported evidence for this claim.[12][13][14] Phillips made his voter fraud claims before voter history data was available in most jurisdictions.[13]

References

  1. ↑ CNN anchor confronts man behind voter fraud claim on YouTube
  2. 1 2 Lussenhop, Jessica (January 28, 2017). "Gregg Phillips: The man claiming 3m illegal votes". BBC News.
  3. ↑ Ryan, Josiah. "Trump-cited study author (still) refuses to show proof of voter fraud". CNN. Retrieved January 28, 2017.
  4. 1 2 Swaine, Jon (January 27, 2017). "Trump's voter fraud expert owes US more than $100,000 in unpaid taxes". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved January 28, 2017.
  5. ↑ Smith, David; Belam, Martin (December 1, 2016). "How a dubious tweet about illegal votes found its way to Trump's megaphone". The Guardian.
  6. 1 2 3 Mitchell, Jerry (January 26, 2017). "Voter fraud probe traced back to ex-MS welfare head". The Clarion-Ledger.
  7. 1 2 Ratcliffe, R.G. (January 2, 2005). "Privatization role reveals ethics gap in state law". Houston Chronicle.
  8. 1 2 Svitek, Patrick (November 28, 2016). "Trump's unsupported claim of voter fraud appears to have Texas roots". The Texas Tribune.
  9. 1 2 Murray, Mark. "Who is Gregg Phillips, the Man Trump Name-Checked to Prove Voter Fraud?". NBC News. Retrieved January 28, 2017.
  10. ↑ Burke, Garance (January 30, 2017). "AP: Trump's voter fraud expert registered in 3 states". AP News. Retrieved January 31, 2017.
  11. ↑ Phillips, Gregg. "The Cause". VotersTrust. Retrieved January 28, 2017.
  12. ↑ "AP FACT CHECK: Trump cites man's dubious voter fraud claims". The Big Story. Retrieved January 31, 2017.
  13. 1 2 "Donald Trump’s bogus claim that millions of people voted illegally for Hillary Clinton". Washington Post. Retrieved January 31, 2017.
  14. ↑ "Did 3 million undocumented immigrants vote in 2016?". @politifact. Retrieved January 31, 2017.
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