Election denier involved in fake electors plot wrote much of SAVE America Act, Trump-aligned think tank claims
An election-denying former Donald Trump campaign staffer who was subpoenaed by the FBI over his role in the attempt to steal the 2020 election is now taking credit for writing much of the sweeping voter suppression bill passed by the House Wednesday that could disenfranchise millions.
“I’m here to do everything I can to make this work,” Thomas Lane wrote in a December 2020 email to other organizers of the Trump campaign’s fake electors plot in Arizona.
Lane, now election integrity director at the America First Policy Institute (AFPI), a Trump-aligned Washington, D.C. think tank, took the documentary proof of citizenship requirement in the original Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act (SAVE) America Act, and added the new bill’s voter ID provision and registration roll maintenance sections, according to a Thursday email to reporters sent by AFPI’s communications director, offering an interview with Lane.
“Thomas has unique firsthand insight into this legislation — Speaker [Mike] Johnson’s team originally approached him with Sections 1–2, and Thomas personally drafted and added Sections 3–8, including the bill’s voter roll maintenance provisions,” Melanie Wilcox wrote. “He can also explain why this version is effectively a “new” product: the original SAVE Act plus photo voter ID requirements.”
Democracy Docket quickly replied to accept the interview offer, but Wilcox did not respond.
It’s somewhat unclear which provisions of the bill AFPI claims Lane wrote, as the SAVE America Act has only three sections, according to the latest version of the legislation available online.
The SAVE America Act is a beefed up version of the SAVE Act, a bill to require documentary proof of citizenship at registration that was first introduced in 2024 before passing the House in April, 2025.
Democracy Docket separately asked Wilcox to clarify which provisions of the proposal Lane wrote, but she again did not respond.
While working for the Republican National Committee (RNC) in 2020, Lane assisted the Trump campaign’s attempts to undermine results in Arizona and New Mexico.
“I’m here to do everything I can to make this work,” Lane wrote in an email to Trump lawyer Kenneth Chesebro and Kelli Ward, the Arizona GOP chair, discussing the logistics of the campaign’s fake elector scheme, CNN reported in 2024.
Chesebro was a key architect of the scheme, in which the Trump campaign organized key supporters in several states to serve as alternate slates of electors who could replace the legitimate electors and vote for Trump when the electoral college met
Lane even was in place to be a backup fake elector in Arizona, should there be absences on the day the fake electors were scheduled to meet, according to CNN.
Lane also appeared to be present at a meeting where 11 Arizona Republicans fraudulently declared themselves presidential electors. In a video posted by the Arizona Republican Party, a man with a Trump campaign jacket labeled “Lane” passes out statements for the attendees to sign certifying themselves as duly qualified electors.
And Lane texted with one of New Mexico’s fake electors, suggesting that the fake electors meet to “complete an alternate certification of votes,” a state investigation of the scheme found.
The FBI subpoenaed Lane for records related to the president’s fake electors plot.
Politico later reported that Lane spread conspiracy theories as an RNC election integrity official in Virginia.
“I don’t think there’s any doubt that last year was stolen. ‘Stolen’ means different things to different people. On one end, it can mean the Chinese, the Russians, uh, hacked machines, or there was an influx of ballots, or fake ballots, whatever,” Lane reportedly told conservative grassroot organizers in 2021.
Recently, more prominent Republicans have repeated similar baseless claims in the push to enact the SAVE America Act.
“[Democrats] feel they’ve got to allow illegals to participate in elections so they can continue to win,” Johnson said on Fox Wednesday. “We’ve got to stop that.”
Noncitizen voting is already illegal and extremely rare, as few immigrants would risk prison time and deportation to cast a single vote out of thousands in an election. Election audits have repeatedly shown no evidence of noncitizens intentionally voting in significant numbers.
The SAVE America Act’s proof-of-citizenship requirements could potentially disenfranchise 21 million voters who lack ready access to a U.S. passport or a birth certificate to prove citizenship, according to a Brennan Center for Justice report.
In 2023, Lane was hired as elections counsel for the Republican majority on the House Administration Committee, which has jurisdiction over federal elections. According to his LinkedIn profile, he left the committee in February, 2025, a few months before the first SAVE Act passed the House.
Democracy Docket sought to confirm AFPI’s involvement in the SAVE America Act’s drafting, sending inquiries to Johnson’s office, as well as House Administration Chairman Bryan Steil (R-Wisc.), Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), who introduced the House version of the bill, and Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), the Senate version’s sponsor. None immediately responded.
Ahead of Wednesday’s floor vote, a handful of election denying activists gathered at the House with Speaker Johnson, including Cleta Mitchell, Scott Presler, and Jenny Bath Martin.
Yunior Rivas contributed to this report.
