John Christian Adams (born 1968)[1][2] is an American attorney and conservative activist[3] formerly employed by the United States Department of Justice under the George W. Bush administration. Since leaving the DOJ, Adams has become notable for making alarmist and false claims about the extent of voter fraud in the United States. He has falsely accused a number of legitimate voters of being fraudulent, and has published information about them online, including Social Security numbers.
After leaving his position in 2010, Adams accused the department of racial bias in its handling of a voter intimidation case against members of the New Black Panther Party; an internal review by the DOJ concluded that charges of bias were without foundation.
He was a member of Donald Trump's election integrity commission which was intended to investigate claims of voter fraud. The establishment of the commission followed through on previous discredited claims by Trump that millions of illegal immigrants had voted in the 2016 United States presidential election, costing him the popular vote. The commission was disbanded less than a year after its creation without finding evidence of significant fraud.[4]
In December 2009, Adams's supervisor and Civil Rights Division attorney Christopher Coates stepped down as chief of the voting division in December 2009 amid controversy over his objections to the dropping of the New Black Panther Party voter intimidation case. Coates' testimony before the United States Civil Rights Commission supported Adams' allegations,[15] and the Commission's report that found "a cover-up of a possible racial double standard in law enforcement in the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice," and, detailing "a year of DOJ’s intransigence and baseless refusals to comply with our subpoenas," that "the Department of Justice is unquestionably hostile to any serious investigation of these allegations."[16] In May 2010, Adams resigned from the Justice Department.[17]
A later internal review by the Department of justice concluded that the dismissal of some charges in the Black Panthers intimidation case was "based on a good-faith assessment of the law and facts of the case" and found "no evidence that partisan politics was a motivating factor in reaching the decision."[18]
Post-Justice Department career
After leaving the Justice Department, Adams became a contributor to Pajamas Media.[5] He has been a guest commentator for Fox News, Rush Limbaugh's DailyRushbo.com, the Heritage Foundation, Newsmax TV and other conservative media. On June 28, 2010, The Washington Times published a guest commentary by Adams in which Adams accused the Justice Department of racial bias by dropping the New Black Panthers case.[19] Subsequently, Adams accused Assistant Attorney General Thomas Perez of lying under oath in investigative hearings before the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.[5] On July 6, 2010, Adams testified before the Commission on Civil Rights that the Justice Department's decision was driven by racial bias against white Americans.[20]
Adams serves as president of the non-profit Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF), a group that advocates for stricter voter ID laws, and has without evidence asserted that there is an "alien invasion" at the voting booth.[18] According to NBC News, the foundation has "spent years suing counties to force them to purge their rolls and he's published personal information online about thousands of registered voters he believes could have committed fraud."[18] Adams has described those who say there is no comprehensive proof of systemic voter fraud as "flat-earthers".[18] In 2017, Adams was chosen by President Donald Trump to be a member of Trump's Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity.[18] Adams opposes automatic voter registration, saying that voter registration should require "forethought and initiative, something lacking in large segments of the Democrat base."[3]
PILF has published the information of eligible voters online, including Social Security numbers, falsely accusing them of being fraudulent voters.[18] One such voter was a U.S. missionary in Guatemala who was highlighted as a fraudulent voter in a Washington Times article based on the PILF report.[18]
In 2021 Adams criticized the Electronic Registration Information Center on the radio and other outlets which had repercussions that led public opinion to shift with several state election officials later pulling out of the cooperative data sharing network and potentially diminishing voter roll accuracy.[23] Adams is a critic of the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 due to citizenship self-reporting.[24]
^Miles Parks. (6 June 2023). "How the far right tore apart one of the best tools to fight voter fraud". National Public Radio website Retrieved 6 January 2024.
^J. Christian Adams. (2 October 2023). "J. Christian Adams: Automatic voter registration will lead to foreign nationals getting on voter rolls". Triblive website Retrieved 6 January 2024.