President Trump abruptly shut down his Advisory Commission on Election Integrity on Wednesday, after it failed to provide any evidence of voter fraud. Civil rights groups say the commission’s true aim was laying the groundwork for a nationwide voter suppression effort. The commission’s chair, Kris Kobach, blamed a “barrage of meritless lawsuits” for the investigation’s closure, after most U.S. states and the District of Columbia refused to share data with the commission. Kobach has a long record of employing voter suppression tactics as secretary of state of Kansas and as a Republican consultant. President Trump has repeatedly falsely asserted that he lost the popular vote to Hillary Clinton in 2016 because 3 to 5 million unauthorized votes were cast in the election.