President Donald Trump abruptly shut down his signature voter fraud commission on Wednesday and instead kicked the issue to the Department of Homeland Security.
The announcement comes just a week after Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, who has been running the commission's day-to-day operations in place of Vice President Mike Pence, its official chairman, said the panel would meet later this month.
Trump formed the commission last May to examine the U.S. electoral system for evidence of large-scale voter fraud. He has claimed, without evidence, that millions of people voted illegally in the 2016 presidential election.
Image: President Donald Trump
President Donald Trump speaks to reporters at the White House on Dec. 22. Michael Reynolds / EPA file
The commission, formally called the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity, has been bedeviled by internal dissension, threats of litigation and the refusal of some states to provide information. Its last known meeting was Sept. 12.
"Despite substantial evidence of voter fraud, many states have refused to provide the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity with basic information relevant to its inquiry," Trump said in a brief statement early Wednesday evening.
"Rather than engage in endless legal battles at taxpayer expense, today I signed an executive order to dissolve the Commission, and have asked the Department of Homeland Security to review these issues and determine next courses of action."
Related: Trump's voter fraud panel has gone dark. Members don't know why.
Homeland Security has already been investigating allegations of Russian tampering with voter registration systems in at least 20 states.
From the beginning, the commission has been heavily criticized for seeking massive amounts of voter data from every state. Many states have refused to cooperate.