#unindicted felonies

[aunti-christ-ine]

I couldn't find this on YouTube, but omg it's an awesome, awesome video if you can hold your nose and watch it on "x" ... *ahem* TWITTER.

Unless, of course, it's already been (surprise surprise) deleted by Sissy SpaceX. Won't hurt to try. 🤷‍♀️

[tomorrowusa]

Georgia wasn't the only state where Team Trump tried to interfere with the 2020 election.

While Trump himself wasn't indicted in Arizona, a number of his minions were.

A grand jury in Arizona has handed up an indictment against former President Donald Trump’s allies over their efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss, including the fake electors from that state and several individuals connected to his campaign. Boris Epshteyn, a former White House aide who remains one of Trump’s closest advisers; former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows; and Rudy Giuliani are among those who have been indicted, according to a source familiar with the investigation. Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes, a Democrat, announced the indictment Wednesday night, focusing on the 11 individuals who acted as pro-Trump electors in the state. The names of several other indicted defendants remain redacted, Mayes said in a statement Wednesday, until those people have been served. “A state grand jury made up of everyday regular Arizonans, has now handed down felony indictments for all 11 Republican electors as well as several others connected to this scheme,” Mayes said. “These are serious indictments, but this is the first hurdle the state must pass in our constitutional criminal justice system. We intend to prove these crimes were committed beyond a reasonable doubt.” While Trump is not among those charged in Arizona, the details in the indictment suggest he is “Unindicted Coconspirator 1.”

Trump likes nicknames so I hope he enjoys his new one: Unindicted Coconspirator 1.

Speaking of Arizona on Wednesday, the lower chamber of the legislature voted to repeal the state's 1864 extreme abortion ban. A handful of Republicans joined the Democratic minority to move the measure forward.

Tempers, retribution come with vote to repeal abortion ban

These actions, on the same day, act as reminders of the importance of state government. Making sure that your state is not controlled by MAGA extremists is just as vital as keeping Trump and his Capitol Hill sycophants out of power.

Get involved with state politics, especially the legislature. Start by finding out who represents you in the legislature.

Find Your Legislators Look your legislators up by address or use your current location.

[wilwheaton]

An Arizona grand jury on Wednesday indicted seven attorneys and aides affiliated with Donald Trump’s 2020 presidential campaign as well as 11 Arizona Republicans on felony charges related to their alleged efforts to subvert Joe Biden’s 2020 victory in the state, according to an announcement by the state attorney general. Those indicted include former Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, attorneys Rudy Giuliani, Jenna Ellis, John Eastman and Christina Bobb, top campaign adviser Boris Epshteyn and former campaign aide Mike Roman. They are accused of allegedly aiding an unsuccessful strategy to award the state’s electoral votes to Trump instead of Biden after the 2020 election. Also charged are the Republicans who signed paperwork on Dec. 14, 2020, that falsely purported Trump was the rightful winner, including former state party chair Kelli Ward, state Sens. Jake Hoffman and Anthony Kern, and Tyler Bowyer, a GOP national committeeman and chief operating officer of Turning Point Action, the campaign arm of the pro-Trump conservative group Turning Point USA. Trump was not charged, but he is described in the indictment as an unindicted co-conspirator.

Meadows, Giuliani and other Trump allies charged in Arizona 2020 election probe

Put them all in prison for the rest of their lives, please.

[dinodorks]

"Four people allegedly stole and sold $1 million worth of dinosaur bones and other fossilized materials from federal land in southeastern Utah, according to a federal grand jury indictment returned on Thursday. The defendants allegedly purchased, transported and exported 150,000 pounds of paleontological resources between March 2018 and March 2023. There are two Utahns accused of the crime: Vint Wade, 65, and Donna Wade, 67, who own Wade’s Wood & Rocks in Moab. Steven Willing, 67 from Los Angeles, California, and Jordan Willing, 40 from Ashland, Oregon, were also arrested. The defendants have been charged with conspiracy and theft of property against the United States, as well as multiple felony charges for violating the federal Paleontological Resources Preservation Act. The Wades of Moab allegedly bought paleontological resources that were taken from federal land from “known and unknown unindicted individuals,” who allegedly stole the dinosaur bones for the Wades’ own personal use, according to the indictment. The Wades allegedly collected these stolen fossilized materials in order to sell them at “gem and mineral shows.” They are also accused of selling the illegally removed resources to Steven and Jordan Willing. The Willings’ company, JMW Sales, then exported dinosaur bones to China, according to the indictment. They allegedly tried to hide the exports from the federal government by mislabeling the dinosaur bones and deflating their value."

Read more: "Four people accused of stealing and selling $1 million worth of dinosaur bones from southern Utah" by Anastasia Hufham.

[mariacallous]

The tragedy of New York Mayor Eric Adams, who’s facing a dizzying number of investigations targeting him and his inner circle, was foreseeable. Indeed, it was foreseen. 

“We all know you’ve been investigated for corruption everywhere you’ve gone,” a rival candidate said to the then-Brooklyn borough president during a mayoral debate in 2021. “You’ve achieved the rare trifecta of corruption investigations.”

That didn’t deter Democratic voters, and Adams — an ex-cop and native son of the city who ran on his biography and a promise to restore public safety after crime rates and fears shot up during the pandemic — eked out a victory in the party’s closed primary, which made him a sure thing to be the city’s 110th mayor and just its second Black one. 

nce that was official, Adams proclaimed himself the “future” and the “face of the new Democratic Party.” He also started publicly partying all night at clubs, sometimes with felonious friends, when he wasn’t talking about how God had told him 30 years ago he’d be the mayor in 2022 and should share that good news with the world — something he’d never publicly mentioned before winning the election. 

The new mayor immediately brought in a crew of cronies with sullied records, including a deputy mayor for public safety overseeing the NYPD, Phil Banks, who’d abruptly retired as the chief of department in 2014. 

Banks left that post about a year before it came out that he’d been an unindicted co-conspirator in a case involving two guys who went to prison for bribing the previous mayor. One of them testified they’d treated the police chief to plane trips around the world and the services of a prostitute when they weren’t smoking cigars and storing their diamonds in the chief’s office at One Police Plaza. 

Banks, who’s denied any wrongdoing but says he regrets the association, had his home hit and his phones seized in the FBI’s synchronized early-morning raids last week. Again, he said through an attorney he’s done nothing wrong. 

Those raids, though, are a sign that this new probe is far enough along for prosecutors to go public with it — and get a federal judge to sign off on their concerns that the deputy mayor for public safety and the police commissioner might destroy evidence if given the opportunity. 

Last week’s raids were reportedly distinct from earlier raids of top Adams allies in two previously reported probes being conducted by two different federal prosecutors, who both needed sign-off from Justice Department bosses in Washington, D.C., to go after the mayor of America’s biggest city. 

There’s the ongoing investigation into Adams’ travel and ties to Turkey, along with campaign cash that appears tied to the Turkish government. And the ongoing investigation into Adams’ travels and ties to China, along with campaign cash given through secret donors. The mayor had his cellphone seized by FBI agents last year as part of that case. 

And now two new investigations that appear to be about influence schemes involving Adams’ appointees at the highest levels of his police department and administration steering public money to family members.

In just three years, Adams has bested his old corruption probe trifecta: There are now four separate, though possibly overlapping, federal investigations targeting his inner circle and the mayor himself.

No one has been charged with any wrongdoing in those investigations, and Adams says he always follows the law while asking the public to respect the process and withhold judgment. 

New Yorkers might know more soon, as the feds have already impaneled at least one grand jury. With the city’s primary next June, prosecutors are up against long-standing Justice Department guidelines about not having cases interfere with elections.

But New Yorkers are already rendering a verdict in the court of public opinion. Adams at the end of last year hit the lowest approval rating ever recorded for a New York mayor as voters have been choking on all this smoke, also including the corruption trial of his former buildings commissioner, the guilty pleas from members of a crew including another ex-cop and old friend of the mayor’s for their own straw-donor scheme involving his campaign, and the guilty plea of a Chinese billionaire who also sneaked money into his campaign, as well as those of other American politicians. 

Tim Pearson, another ex-cop and old friend of Adams’ who now runs a shadowy new mayoral oversight agency, also had his phones seized by the FBI last week. Pearson has been accused in multiple civil suits of ruining the career of a police officer who wouldn’t sleep with him and the supervisors who tried to protect her while hunting for “crumbs” of his own from city contracts. Taxpayers are covering his legal bills at the mayor’s behest and over the objections of the city’s former top lawyer, who was then pushed out. 

So many of Adams’ problems seem to involve the gap between his mantra of “stay focused and grind” and his need to swagger and test limits. 

Polling shows New Yorkers still like much of his agenda but don’t like him or how he’s executing it. He keeps repeating “crime is down” but not saying down from when or how much, and the data is mixed and most New Yorkers don’t really believe him. 

It hasn’t helped that Adams’ police department is increasingly unhinged in its public communications, with one reporter at the cop-friendly New York Post getting attacked this week as a “f---ing scumbag” and the official NYPD account even giving me the wannabe Trump-y nickname “Harry ‘Deceitful’ Siegel” earlier this year. 

No wonder Democratic challengers are lining up to take on Adams next year, assuming he’s still there, in what would be the first contested primary against a Democratic incumbent since David Dinkins upset Ed Koch in 1989. 

Asked at a news conference Tuesday what he would do if he were indicted, Adams said he intended to remain as mayor and run for re-election before adding that he wouldn’t engage with hypotheticals.

The tragedy of Eric Adams is that he’s done this to himself.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Rachel Leingang at The Guardian:

An Arizona grand jury has charged 18 people involved in the scheme to create a slate of false electors for Donald Trump, including 11 people who served as those fake electors and seven Trump allies who aided the scheme. Kris Mayes, Arizona’s Democratic attorney general, announced the charges on Wednesday, and said the 11 fake electors had been charged with felonies for fraud, forgery and conspiracy. Beyond the fake electors themselves, high-profile Trump affiliates have been charged with aiding in the scheme: Mark Meadows, John Eastman, Boris Epshteyn, Rudy Giuliani, Jenna Ellis, Christina Bobb and Mike Roman.

Those charged over their roles as false electors include two sitting lawmakers, state senators Jake Hoffman and Anthony Kern. The former Arizona Republican party chair Kelli Ward and her husband, Michael Ward, have been charged, as has Tyler Bowyer, a Republican national committeeman and Turning Point USA executive, and Jim Lamon, who ran for US Senate in 2022. The others charged in the fake electors scheme are Nancy Cottle, Robert Montgomery, Samuel Moorhead, Lorraine Pellegrino and Gregory Safsten. The indictment says: “In Arizona, and the United States, the people elected Joseph Biden as president on November 3 2020. Unwilling to accept this fact, defendants and unindicted co-conspirators schemed to prevent the lawful transfer of the presidency to keep unindicted co-conspirator 1 in office against the will of Arizona’s voters. This scheme would have deprived Arizona voters of their right to vote and have their votes counted.”

Biden won Arizona by more than 10,000 votes, a close margin in the typically red state that immediately prompted allegations of voter fraud that persist to this day. The state has remained a hotbed of election denialism, despite losses for Republicans who embraced election-fraud lies at the state level. Trump has not been charged in the Arizona case. The indictment refers to Trump himself as “unindicted co-conspirator 1” throughout, noting how the former president schemed to keep himself in office, and how those around him, even those who believed he lost, aided this effort. Some involved have claimed they signed on as an alternate slate of electors in case court decisions came down in Trump’s favor, so they would have a backup group that could be certified by Congress should Trump prevail.

An Arizona grand jury handed down 18 indictments to those involved in the scheme to award 11 fake electors to give Donald Trump the state of Arizona in 2020, despite the fact that Joe Biden flipped the state in his narrow win. Donald Trump has been named unindicted co-conspirator #1.

The persons indicted for aiding and abetting efforts to help the fake electors: Jenna Ellis, Kenneth Chesebro, Christina Bobb, Rudy Giuliani, John Eastman, and Boris Epshteyn.

Some of the notable fake electors charged include: former AZGOP chair Kelli Ward, TPUSA employee Tyler Bowyer, and 2022 GOP US Senate candidate Jim Lamon.

[shotofchinaco]

Former President Donald Trump has been dubbed a co-conspirator in the scheme to claim an unearned victory in Michigan's 2020 presidential election, according to reports of testimony from an Attorney General's office investigator. Michigan prosecutors consider Trump, former chief of staff Mark Meadows and lawyer Rudy Giuliani unindicted co-conspirators in the state's false elector plot, Howard Shock, a special agent for Attorney General Dana Nessel, said in testimony reported Wednesday by The Detroit News. "That means prosecutors believe they participated, to some extent, in an alleged scheme to commit forgery by creating a false document asserting Trump had won Michigan's 16 electoral votes when Democrat Joe Biden had won them," writes reporter Craig Mauger. Shock delivered this avowal in Ingham County District Court Wednesday as Nessel seeks felony forgery charges against 16 Republican activists who signed a certificate of votes for Trump, according to the report. Duane Silverthorn, the lawyer representing elector Michele Lundgren, reportedly went through a list of people whose status as "unindicted co-conspirator" he asked Shock to confirm. Shock also affirmed Jenna Ellis and Kenneth Chesebro — two lawyers who have accepted plea deals in Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis' election racketeering case — are also considered unindicted co-conspirators, the Detroit News reports.

[bllsbailey]

AZ Judge Recuses Himself From 'Fake Electors' Case After Emails Surface Demanding Judges Defend Kamala

Readers might recall that back in April, a grand jury in Maricopa County, Arizona, indicted nearly 20 Republicans and associates of Donald Trump, after Democrat state Attorney General Kris Mayes brought a case against 2020 "fake electors" on felony charges of fraud, forgery, and conspiracy:

A grand jury in Arizona has handed down indictments against 11 Arizona Republicans at the center of the "fake elector" controversy of 2020 - in which Republicans were attempting to nominate and send "alternate" electors to Washington D.C. - electors who supported the theory that the 2020 election was stolen. ... The 11 Republicans met at the Arizona GOP headquarters a month after the 2020 election and signed a certificate claiming to be the 11 electors from the state. They posted the letter to social media and sent it to Congress.

My colleague Joe Cunningham added that another party mentioned in the indictment is "unindicted co-conspirator 1," who is believed to be former president Donald Trump.

Read more: Arizona Grand Jury Indicts 11 Republicans, Trump Associates in 2020 'Fake Elector' Scheme

The grand total of those indicted ended up as 18, including former Trump administration chief of staff Mark Meadows, attorneys Rudy Giuliani and Jenna Ellis, former Arizona GOP chairwoman Kelli Ward, and others.

On Wednesday, the judge in that case recused himself, after a sheaf of emails surfaced showing bias toward 2024 Democrat presidential nominee, Kamala Harris:

Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Bruce Cohen, the judge presiding over Arizona’s case against pro-Trump fake electors, has removed himself from the job following allegations of bias.

The Arizona Daily Independent reported on the emails, which were obtained by Arizona state Speaker Pro Tempore Rep. Travis Grantham.

In the emails, "Cohen demanded that all judges and all commissioners — especially those who were white and/or male — defend Kamala Harris and other people of color":

Cohen took offense with the rhetoric surrounding the selection of Harris for the Democratic presidential candidate as the “DEI hire” and the questioning of her integrity with claims that she would be promiscuous with generals in the Situation Room.

He wrote:

“It does matter if your chromosomes are made up of ��XY.’ It matters even more if your skin color is characterized as ‘white’ or Caucasian. We must speak out. We must tell those within our circles of influence that this s**t must stop. NOW! We cannot allow our female colleagues to feel as if they stand alone when there are those who may intimate that their ascension was anything other than based upon exceptionalism. We cannot allow our colleagues who identify as being a ‘person of color’ to stand alone when there are those may claim that their ascension was an ‘equity hire’ rather than based solely upon exceptionalism. We no longer can stay silent merely because others are exercising their right to free speech — we, too, have that same right and must exercise it.” 

Also contained in the emails was an exhortation to defend Harris against criticism by "Nazis": 

Cohen equated Harris’ critics to the Nazis, and said that those who refused to stand up for Harris as well as other females and “colleagues who identify as being a ‘person of color’” were as bad as those who allowed the evil of the Holocaust to take place.

The Daily Independent reported that the following day, Judge Cohen transmitted another email to his judicial colleagues--an apology: 

“Earlier this week I allowed my passion to cloud my judgment and sent an email using this as my forum. After reflection, I have come to realize that this was not proper use of this forum. I sincerely apologize to anyone put off or negatively impacted by my lapse of judgment.”

On Wednesday, the judge went a step futher, announcing in a court document his decision to step aside on the 2020 electors case. He wrote:

“This court is also mindful of the appearances the subject email may have created for those who have interpreted the communication differently than intended. Out of a commitment to justice, even the appearance of bias cannot be allowed to undermine the fundamental fairness that is extended by the court to all who come before it.”

Former Democrat Governor Janet Napolitano first appointed Cohen to the Arizona bench in 2005. His term ends in January 2025. 

The recusal springs from a filing with the Arizona Superior Court by David Warrington and Michael Columbo, the lawyers representing Arizona state Senator Jake Hoffman in the suit. They questioned whether Cohen could remain impartial in light of his emails, writing in part:

"While Judge Cohen is entitled to his political opinions and speech, his rhetoric and exhortation precisely mirrors the evidence of hostile partisan political zealotry at the heart of the motions to dismiss [the case] that have been languishing before the Court for months."

You can read the filing here.

The "fake electors" trial is scheduled to begin in January 2026. RedState will keep you posted on developments in this story.

[wushigod]

An Arizona grand jury has charged 18 people involved in the scheme to create a slate of false electors for Donald Trump, including 11 people who served as those fake electors and seven Trump allies who aided the scheme. Kris Mayes, Arizona’s Democratic attorney general, announced the charges on Wednesday, and said the 11 fake electors had been charged with felonies for fraud, forgery and conspiracy. Beyond the fake electors themselves, high-profile Trump affiliates have been charged with aiding in the scheme: Mark Meadows, John Eastman, Boris Epshteyn, Rudy Giuliani, Jenna Ellis, Christina Bobb and Mike Roman. Those charged over their roles as false electors include two sitting lawmakers, state senators Jake Hoffman and Anthony Kern. The former Arizona Republican party chair Kelli Ward and her husband, Michael Ward, have been charged, as has Tyler Bowyer, a Republican national committeeman and Turning Point USA executive, and Jim Lamon, who ran for US Senate in 2022. The others charged in the fake electors scheme are Nancy Cottle, Robert Montgomery, Samuel Moorhead, Lorraine Pellegrino and Gregory Safsten. The indictment says: “In Arizona, and the United States, the people elected Joseph Biden as president on November 3 2020. Unwilling to accept this fact, defendants and unindicted co-conspirators schemed to prevent the lawful transfer of the presidency to keep unindicted co-conspirator 1 in office against the will of Arizona’s voters. This scheme would have deprived Arizona voters of their right to vote and have their votes counted.” Biden won Arizona by more than 10,000 votes, a close margin in the typically red state that immediately prompted allegations of voter fraud that persist to this day. The state has remained a hotbed of election denialism, despite losses for Republicans who embraced election-fraud lies at the state level. Trump has not been charged in the Arizona case. The indictment refers to Trump himself as “unindicted co-conspirator 1” throughout, noting how the former president schemed to keep himself in office, and how those around him, even those who believed he lost, aided this effort. Some involved have claimed they signed on as an alternate slate of electors in case court decisions came down in Trump’s favor, so they would have a backup group that could be certified by Congress should Trump prevail. But, the indictment says, the defendants intended for these false votes to pressure former vice-president Mike Pence into rejecting the slate of accurate electors for Joe Biden during the electoral college vote-counting on 6 January 2021. Pence did not declare Trump the winner, use these fake electoral votes, or otherwise delay the official count. Arizona’s charges are the latest turn in the fake electors saga. Seven states saw similar schemes, but two states – New Mexico and Pennsylvania – hedged their language in their documents enough to prevent prosecution. Democratic attorneys general in Michigan and Nevada have indicted Republican fake electors in their respective states. In Georgia, three of 16 fake electors were indicted as part of a wide-ranging racketeering indictment against Trump and allies. The remaining were given immunity for helping in the district attorney’s investigation. In Wisconsin, the fake electors acknowledged Biden’s win as a way to settle a civil lawsuit over the issue. Mayes’ investigation fell behind other states because she narrowly won office in 2022, and her predecessor, Republican Mark Brnovich, had not pursued the line of inquiry. She had confirmed the investigation in early 2023. The investigation – along with a host of other disagreements – have put Mayes at odds with Arizona’s Republican-led legislature, which started a committee to investigate Mayes and her office over concerns she was working beyond her authority as attorney general. In a video on Wednesday, Mayes said the investigation was “thorough and professional” and would provide justice for the plot to overturn the state’s electoral votes. “I underst...

[truck-fump]

Arizona grand jury indicts Meadows, Giuliani, other <b>Trump</b> allies for 2020 election interference

New Post has been published on https://www.google.com/url?rct=j&sa=t&url=https://www.politico.com/news/2024/04/24/arizona-election-indictments-giuliani-meadows-trump-00154241&ct=ga&cd=CAIyGjUzM2UwMTY5ZmFhZTIwMGQ6Y29tOmVuOlVT&usg=AOvVaw1SJt3Qby2ZlqcAvRMEwmLm

Arizona grand jury indicts Meadows, Giuliani, other Trump allies for 2020 election interference

The indictment, which includes felony counts of conspiracy, fraud and forgery, also describes Trump as an unindicted co-conspirator. “Defendants …

[talkstothemoonandstars]

It's interesting that lyin' donnie chose those two states; he will be in court, facing lots and lots of felony counts for really serious criminal activity. And, just tonight, (4/24/24) he was named as an "unindicted co-conspirator" in both Michigan and Arizona for crimes connected to the attempted illegal overturn of the 2020 election. Poor lyin' donnie, he's gonna be very very busy in so many courts.

[beardedmrbean]

A Georgia-based Black separatist group is being investigated by federal and local authorities for a range of possible criminal offenses including drug and gun offenses, kidnapping and human trafficking, a detective testified Tuesday in a court hearing in suburban Atlanta.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports Fayetteville Police investigator Diana Snider testified in magistrate court that she began investigating the Black Hammer Party after the group moved its headquarters to the town south of Atlanta. She said she was contacted by the FBI, which she said is also investigating.

Two members of the group have been charged with felonies relating to an alleged kidnapping and sexual assault in July at the house the group rents in Fayetteville.

A spokesperson for the FBI’s Atlanta office declined to comment citing the agency’s policy not to comment on ongoing investigations.

A federal indictment unsealed last month in Tampa, Florida, alleges the group is involved in an effort by a Russian citizen with Kremlin connections to sow discord in the United States by paying fringe groups to make political protests. The indictment includes groups in Florida and California, as well as the Black Hammer Party, as unindicted co-conspirators to the plot.

Snider said federal agents have been watching the group’s attempts to recruit and arm homeless men as a security force and to aggressively solicit college students for donations at a downtown Atlanta park.

No criminal charges have been brought regarding those activities, the newspaper reported that Snider testified. Tuesday’s hearing relates to a July 19 call to police from a person who claimed he was kidnapped and held at gunpoint in a locked garage at the Fayetteville house.

Black Hammer leader Augustus Claudius Romain Jr., 36, known as Gazi Kodzo and a top lieutenant, 21-year-old Xavier “Keno” Rushin, were charged with kidnapping, aggravated assault, false imprisonment, conspiracy to commit a felony, and taking part in street gang activity.

Romain was also charged with forcible sodomy. Snider testified that Romain required group members to have sex with him to advance within the Black Hammer Party.

Prosecutors dropped conspiracy charges Tuesday. Magistrate Judge Christy Dunkelberger ruled there was enough evidence to advance the other charges to trial. Romain and Rushin remain jailed without bail.

Defense attorneys for Romain and Rushin on Tuesday questioned the information underlying the arrests and asked how a political party qualifies as a street gang. The group claims it’s being targeted by federal authorities for political activities.

The alleged victim of the sexual assault declined to speak to police at the time of the arrests and the alleged kidnapping victim who called police is homeless.

“This entire case appears to arise on the statement of one person,” said Stacey Flynn, the lawyer for Romain, referring to the man who called police.

Fayetteville detective Justin Taylor said the man told police he and another Black Hammer recruit had been forced into a locked garage and held at gunpoint when the victim refused Romain’s order that everyone go to bed at 8 p.m. because the group had a protest the next morning. Taylor testified Romain and another Black Hammer member, 18-year-old Amonte “AP” Adams, held guns.

Adams was found inside the house when police raided, dead of from what police said appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The Black Hammer Party has, without evidence, accused police of shooting Adams. Taylor said an autopsy of the man has been completed, but a report is not yet available.

Snider said police and the FBI are investigating three other kidnappings that are alleged to have occurred in the house.

[tomorrowusa]

Republicans try to restrict voting with the excuse that they are combating election fraud. Yet most of the recent high profile cases of election tampering feature Republican perpetrators. And they are quite open about it. Trump's phone call to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger is available here.

A GOP woman in Iowa faces up to five years in prison for each of the 52 counts of election fraud she was just convicted of.

The wife of a Republican politician in Iowa has been convicted of dozens of criminal charges related to a 2020 voter fraud scheme aimed at getting her husband into office.

Department of Justice officials announced the verdict against Kim Phuong Taylor in a statement released on Tuesday, explaining that she had submitted absentee ballots on behalf of voters who had not given her permission to do so. She was convicted of 52 counts in total, including 26 counts of providing false information in registering and voting, 23 counts of voter fraud, and three counts of fraudulently registering to vote. She could face up to five years in prison for each charge. According to the DoJ, Ms Taylor “perpetrated a scheme to fraudulently generate votes for her husband in the primary election for Iowa’s 4th US Congressional District in June 2020”. She’s then accused of doing the same thing after his defeat when he would go on to launch a campaign for Woodbury County supervisor. Mr Taylor won that second race. Her husband Jeremy, an unindicted co-conspirator in the case whose campaigns were the intended beneficiary of her fraudulent actions, said in a statement to a local news affiliate, KCAU, that he and his wife had hoped for a verdict of not guilty but added that they respected the verdict.

CNN describes how blatant this scheme was.

Prosecutors say Kim Taylor visited households in the Vietnamese community, encouraging residents to fill out voter registration forms and absentee ballot request forms. Some of the residents couldn’t read or understand English, according to prosecutors, and she offered to help. Kim Taylor “submitted or caused others to submit dozens of voter registrations, absentee ballot request forms, and absentee ballots containing false information,” the Justice Department said in a statement. She also “completed and signed voter forms without voters’ permission and told others that they could sign on behalf of relatives who were not present,” the DOJ said.

We remember another major case of vote fraud a few years ago by a Republican operative in North Carolina.

North Carolina GOP Operative Faces New Felony Charges That Allege Ballot Fraud

Republicans don't care about rules any more. Their goal simply is to seize and hold on to power at all costs.

And this is nothing new. A segment of NPR's "This American Life" examined election-related fraud in the US back in 2004. You can listen to the segment at the link below. The allegations against Democrats in the segment, supplied by Republican Scott Hogenson, were mostly unverified or borderline comical. The allegations against Republicans were substantial and ultimately led to several convictions.

276: Swing Set: Act Two Cold-cock The Vote

From the viewpoint of a Republican candidate nowadays, these are the only possible results of an election:

"I won."

"The election was stolen!"

Never mind that they are the ones out to steal elections.

[creepingsharia]

Hamas-linked, UAE-terror listed CAIR now projects 62 Muslims won seats in November 2020 elections

An update on our previous post wherein the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood groups projected winning 57 seats in the recent elections.

They have now upped that projection to 62. Per a CAIR report:

KEY RESEARCH FINDINGS

170 Muslim Candidates in 28 states and Washington D.C. ran for public office in 2020, the highest number we have recorded.

62 were successfully elected to office. In comparison, 49 Muslim candidates were elected to public office in 2019, and 57 in 2018 (the previous high mark in our record).

33 incumbents were re-elected in 2020 with no one losing their seats.

48 Muslims ran for state legislatures in 22 states with 23 winning. At least six made history as the first ever elected to a state office in their state.

A total of 22 Muslims ran for congress in 14 states. 5 made it to the general election with 3 winning reelection. First-time candidate, Mike Siegel, lost a close race to represent the 10th Congressional District in Texas.

A total of 35 candidates who ran for a seat on a School Committee or Board of Education, 12 successfully winning seats. The number of elected candidates could rise as votes continue to be counted.  

16 ran for county positions in 10 states, with 6 winning their election in 5 states.

13 Muslims won municipal seats.

6 ran for judicial seats with 4 winning.

Although American Muslims are running across the country, some states stood out: 27 ran in Minnesota; 22 in California; 22 in New Jersey; 19 in Michigan; and 9 in Massachusetts

And that number could grow:

108 were either not elected or are in races that are too close to call due to a large number of ballots yet to be counted.  

Of course, that number could  also shrink pending fraud investigations.

Many of the elected are in Muslim immigrant/refugee enclaves where voter fraud is rampant (Minnesota, Ohio, Michigan, New Jersey, etc.).

Whistelblowers in Minnesota already exposed multiple fraud efforts and a New Jersey judge declared an election invalid due to mail-in voter fraud. Yet the brother of one of the perps won an election there.

In Texas, a Muslim mayoral candidate was arrested on 10+ felony voter fraud charges.

Screenshots from CAIR’s preliminary report.

Islamophobia?

33 Muslim incumbents ran for office. Not a single one lost.

More information coming soon and video clips on our Twitter feed.

Read below for more on the terror-linked and terror-listed CAIR:

…the Democratic-CAIR partnership

…CAIR consistently refuses to condemn any terror attacks committed by Hezbollah or Hamas. Making this refusal explicit, in 2004, CAIR Executive Director Nihad Awad said, “If they want us to condemn a liberation movement inside Palestine or inside Lebanon they should condemn Israel dozens of times on all levels at all times, and we will not condemn any organization.”

Seven CAIR leaders have been convicted on terrorism charges. One of the convicted terrorists, Ghassen Elashi, had two jobs. Together with his brother in law, Hamas leader Mussa Abu Marzouk, Elashi founded the Holyland Foundation for Relief and Development, (HLF). HLF was Hamas’s fundraising arm in the US He was also the founding director of CAIR’s Texas branch. Following 9/11, federal authorities began investigating HLF and its ties to Hamas and in 2004, HLF was indicted for transferring millions of dollars to the Palestinian terror group. It was found guilty in 2007, and Elashi was sentenced to 65 years in prison. CAIR was named in the trial as an unindicted co-conspirator.

Senate Democratic Minority Leader Charles Schumer noted in 2003, “CAIR, we know has ties to terrorism…Prominent members of CAIR’s current leadership also have intimate connections with Hamas.”

One of the means CAIR uses to block criticism of jihadist Islam is intimidation. Rejecting criticism of Islam as “Islamophobic” opponents of the group risk being labeled as “hate groups” by CAIR or its allies if they dare to speak out against CAIR’s positions and goals. For instance, in 2014, CAIR waged a very public campaign to cancel showings on college campuses of “Honor Diaries“, a documentary by Muslim women exposing the cruelty suffered by women and girls in Islamic societies. The same year, CAIR compelled Brandeis University to cancel its plan to confer an honorary degree on Muslim feminist and human rights activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali.

Likewise, CAIR disparages and seeks to delegitimize counterterrorism investigations and investigators as “Islamophobic. A civil suit filed by the estate of 9/11 victim and former high-ranking FBI counter-terrorism agent John O’Neill, Sr. asserted that CAIR’s goal “is to create as much self-doubt, hesitation, fear of name-calling, and litigation within police departments and intelligence agencies as possible so as to render such authorities ineffective in pursuing international and domestic terrorist entities.”

[porterdavis]

If not him, who? If not now, when?

If the Democratic party can’t muster the courage shown by Justin Amash, GOP representative, and bring articles of impeachment against this president, it’s time to turn out the lights and go home. Congress won’t be necessary any more, let the imperial presidency take full control. 

Given his cautious nature and the absurd OLC memo that a sitting president can’t be indicted, Mueller today did all he could to tell Congress he had laid out all the evidence they would need to impeach in his report. It doesn’t matter that the Senate will not convict. Make the GOP go on record voting to acquit a man every sentient American knows is a liar, a con, a grifter, and a thief. Make them own him.

Far from solidifying his position going into the 2020 elections it is my belief the stunning hypocrisy and appeasement by the GOP will serve to provoke revulsion amongst the electorate and Trump wouldn’t even hold his 40% base.

Never forget that the information Mueller laid out on Trump is damning. Trump (Individual-1) is also an unindicted co-conspirator in the campaign finance felonies that put his fixer behind bars. He is under investigation for self-dealing with his charity. He is desperately attempting to hide legitimate inquiries into his personal finances, with whiffs of money-laundering, bribes, and kickbacks buried there. He is head of perhaps the most corrupt administrations in history, with more than a few of his Secretaries having to leave office under an ethics cloud.

No, I don’t see much to fear in a Senate acquittal of Trump. The GOP would have to wear him like a rotting fish.

If there has ever been a man and a time appropriate for impeachment it is him and now.

[mariacallous]

Two days before the January 6 insurrection, the Trump campaign’s plan to use fake electors to block President-elect Joe Biden from taking office faced a potentially crippling hiccup: The fake elector certificates from two critical battleground states were stuck in the mail.

So, Trump campaign operatives scrambled to fly copies of the phony certificates from Michigan and Wisconsin to the nation’s capital, relying on a haphazard chain of couriers, as well as help from two Republicans in Congress, to try to get the documents to then-Vice President Mike Pence while he presided over the Electoral College certification.

The operatives even considered chartering a jet to ensure the files reached Washington, DC, in time for the January 6, 2021, proceeding, according to emails and recordings obtained by CNN.

The new details provide a behind-the-scenes glimpse of the chaotic last-minute effort to keep Donald Trump in office. The fake electors scheme features prominently in special counsel Jack Smith’s criminal indictment against the former president, and some of the officials who were involved have spoken to Smith’s investigators.

The emails and recordings also indicate that a top Trump campaign lawyer was part of 11th-hour discussions about delivering the fake elector certificates to Pence, potentially undercutting his testimony to the House select committee that investigated January 6 that he had passed off responsibility and didn’t want to put the former vice president in a difficult spot.

These details largely come from pro-Trump attorney Kenneth Chesebro, who was an architect of the fake electors plot and is now a key cooperator in several state probes into the scheme. Chesebro pleaded guilty in October to a felony conspiracy charge in Georgia in connection with the electors’ plan, and has met with prosecutors in Michigan, Nevada and Wisconsin, who are investigating the sham GOP electors in their own states.

Chesebro is an unindicted co-conspirator in the federal election interference indictment against Trump.

CNN has obtained audio of Chesebro’s recent interview with Michigan investigators, and exclusively reported earlier this month that he also told them about a December 2020 Oval Office meeting where he briefed Trump about the fake electors plan and how it ties into January 6.

An attorney for Chesebro declined to comment. A spokesman for the special counsel’s office did not reply to a request for comment for this story.

‘A high-level decision’

Emails obtained by CNN corroborate what Chesebro told Michigan prosecutors: He communicated with the top Trump campaign lawyer, Matt Morgan, and another campaign official, Mike Roman, to ferry the documents to Washington on January 5.

From there, Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and a Pennsylvania congressman assisted in the effort to get the documents into Pence’s hands.

“This is a high-level decision to get the Michigan and Wisconsin votes there,” Chesebro told Michigan prosecutors. “And they had to enlist, you know, a US senator to try to expedite it, to get it to Pence in time.”

Chesebro also discussed the episode with Wisconsin investigators last week when he sat for an interview with the attorney general’s office as part of a separate state probe into the fake electors plot, a source familiar with the matter told CNN.

Wisconsin prosecutors asked about the episode “extensively,” the source said, noting Chesebro discussed how a Wisconsin GOP staffer flew the certificate from Milwaukee to Washington and then handed it off to Chesebro.

The firsthand account from Chesebro’s perspective helps fill in the narrative behind the effort to hand-deliver elector slates to Pence, which is vaguely referenced in Smith’s federal indictment.

Trump pleaded not guilty to the charges, which include conspiring with Chesebro and others to obstruct the January 6 certification proceeding. Before Chesebro’s guilty plea in Georgia, his attorneys reached out to Smith’s team. As of this week, he has not heard back from federal prosecutors, a source familiar with the matter told CNN.

Federal investigators have spoken with several individuals involved in the scramble with the phony elector certificates, according to a source familiar with the matter. This includes interviews with Trump staffers who were tapped to fly the papers to DC, and some fake electors who knew of the planning.

A spokesperson for the Trump campaign did not reply to a request for comment.

Asked about the episode, a spokesperson for Johnson pointed to his previous comments, where he said, “my involvement in that attempt to deliver spanned the course of a couple seconds,” and that, “in the end, those electors were not delivered.”

‘Day-by-day’ coordination

According to the recordings of Chesebro’s sit-down with Michigan prosecutors, he explained how a legal memo he wrote for Wisconsin transformed into a nationwide operation, where Trump lawyers were “day-by-day coordinating the efforts of more than a dozen people with the GOP and with the Trump campaign.”

On January 4, 2021, Morgan sent an email to Chesebro and Roman asking for confirmation that all of the Trump elector slates had been received by Congress, according to the documents obtained by CNN.

Roman responded that the Michigan certificate had been mailed on December 15 but was still “in transit” at a US Postal Service facility in DC. Wisconsin’s certificate also had apparently not arrived.

Chesebro told prosecutors that Morgan was “freaked out” when the campaign realized the phony certificates from Michiganwere still in the mail.

That same day, Morgan weighed in over email asking Chesebro and Roman to rethink how they would deliver the certificates to Pence.

“As I thought about this more, a courier will not be able to access the Capitol to deliver a sealed package,” Morgan wrote on January 4, according to emails obtained by CNN “You will probably need to enlist the help of a legislator who can deliver to the appropriate place(s). I strongly recommend you guys discuss a revised delivery plan with Rudy (Giuliani) to make sure this gets done the way he wants.”

‘Can we charter a flight?’

Roman was concerned the Wisconsin documents wouldn’t reach Washington in time.

“Can we charter a flight? The only available commercial from MKE (Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport) to DCA (Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport) arrives at 2130 tomorrow night,” Roman wrote to Chesebro on January 4 at 11:24 p.m.

The job of physically flying the elector documents to Washington fell to two people: A Trump campaign staffer and a Wisconsin GOP official, according to the emails and what Chesebro told prosecutors.

The Wisconsin GOP official who had that state’s elector documents landed after 10 a.m. on January 5 at Baltimore-Washington International Airport, according to the emails.

Trump campaign aide Michael Brown flew with the Michigan certificates to Washington National Airport with a scheduled arrival around 1 p.m., according to emails obtained by CNN.  A source familiar with the matter told CNN that Brown flew to DC from Atlanta, because the Trump staffers who had custody of the Michigan ballots were in Georgia for the Senate runoffs.

The campaign booked and paid for Brown’s flight on Southwest Airlines, the source said. Federal campaign finance records indicate that a pro-Trump super PAC paid the airline on the day of Brown’s flight for travel related to election “recount” efforts.

Trump Hotel meetup

The emails show that Brown and the Wisconsin GOP official were instructed to meet Chesebro at the Trump International Hotel in downtown Washington to hand off the fake elector certificates. Chesebro said in an email that he’d keep the ballots in his hotel room safe until it was time to pass them along.

Wisconsin Republican Party officials were annoyed at the request to courier the fake elector certificates to Washington. “Freaking trump idiots want someone to fly original elector papers to the senate President,” a Wisconsin GOP official wrote to then-state party chairman Andrew Hitt on January 4, according to the January 6 committee report.

Hitt – who has provided information to federal investigators about the efforts to get the fake elector certificates to Washington, according to a source familiar with the matter – told the January 6 committee that the couriering ended up being overkill, because the original documents that the state party had mailed to Washington actually made it in time.

Getting the certificates inside the Capitol

The documents still had to be hand-delivered to Pence’s Senate office in the Capitol.

The electors plot – as envisioned by Chesebro and other Trump allies – was that Pence could reject Biden’s legitimate electors and recognize Trump’s “alternate electors” on January 6, while lawmakers tallied the electoral votes from each state. Per federal law, the certificates need to be physically presented on the floor of Congress during the joint session, while lawmakers tally the electoral votes.

Chesebro told investigators that Roman connected him with an aide for a Pennsylvania GOP lawmaker that he believed was Rep. Scott Perry to turn over the documents. Chesebro wasn’t certain which congressman the staffer worked for – and the January 6 report says a staffer for a different Pennsylvania Republican, Rep. Mike Kelly, helped shuttle the documents that day.

“I had the Wisconsin stuff. [Trump campaign aide] Mike Brown had the Michigan stuff. We walked to the Longworth Office Building, and the guy with Perry, or whatever his name is, and some other fellow, that were like staff members of the House, took them and said, ‘We’re going to walk them over to the Senate and give it to a Senate staffer,’” Chesebro told Michigan prosecutors, according to the audio obtained by CNN.

“I don’t know why logistically we didn’t take it directly to Johnson. But that’s how we did it,” he added.

Kelly and Perry’s offices did not respond to CNN’s requests for comment.

Brown did not comment for this story. CNN previously reported that he testified in June to Smith’s grand jury in the Trump election subversion probe.

CNN previously reported that Roman sat for a proffer interview with Smith’s team before Trump was indicted.  He was also indicted in the sweeping Georgia election racketeering case, in connection with the fake electors scheme, and has pleaded not guilty.

Roman’s attorney did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

The details from Chesebro put a finer point on how members of Congress, including a sitting US senator, were involved in making sure the electoral certificates for Trump ended up in Pence’s hands.

The January 6 committee first revealed last year Johnson’s involvement in trying unsuccessfully to deliver the fake elector certificates to Pence, who announced on the morning of the joint session that it would be unconstitutional to do what Trump wanted and unilaterally overturn the election results.

The committee revealed text messages during their hearings last year that Johnson aide Sean Riley sent to Pence aide Chris Hodgson, saying that Johnson “needs to hand something to VPOTUS please advise.”

“What is it?” Hodgson asked.

“Alternate slates of electors for MI and WI because archivist didn’t receive them,” Riley responded.

“Do not give that to him,” Hodgson said.

‘F**k these guys’

In his Michigan interview, Chesebro also dished on some of the internal disagreements among the Trump lawyers, campaign officials and other allies, who clashed over the purpose of the electors’ plan and how far to take things on January 6.

Chesebro has maintained – then, and now – that the plan was a lawful move to preserve Trump’s legal rights.

Even before the Trump electors met in their state capitals on December 14, 2020, to cast their fake ballots and sign the certificates, Chesebro heard about concerns from some of the electors about possible legal jeopardy, according to emails and text messages reported by the Detroit News and obtained by CNN.

Chesebro added hedging language for the faux certificates from Pennsylvania and New Mexico in response to those concerns. He proposed to Roman and Morgan that they add the contingency caveats to the paperwork for all seven states in the plan. But Roman rejected the idea, according to the emails.

“F**k these guys,” Roman texted Chesebro on December 12, 2020.

By this time, the Trump campaign had essentially cleaved in two. Top officials who had managed day-to-day activity for Trump up to the election, including in court, say they ceded responsibility to Rudy Giuliani and others, such as Chesebro, according to congressional testimony transcripts. Roman effectively switched teams to work under Giuliani’s structure, according to the testimony from Morgan and others.

A spokesperson for Giuliani did not reply to a request for comment.

‘It really went south on me’

Chesebro told Michigan investigators that his own emails show that Morgan remained deeply involved, including in the final hours before January 6, to ensure that the certificates reached DC.

“I don’t have a really warm feeling toward, at least, the top Trump lawyers that did this, hid from me what they were doing and then lied to Congress about me. So, it’s been really difficult,” Chesebro said.

In his congressional testimony, Morgan said he knew of the elector plan but wanted to distance himself from the effort, delegating the work to others, including those under Giuliani.

Morgan told the January 6 committee last year that he initially believed the electors were only meant to be used as a contingency. The electors, he believed, should meet in their state capitals and cast their electoral votes but “not necessarily submit” the certificates to Congress unless “we prevailed” in court.

Morgan told the committee that the plan changed in December, saying it morphed from a “cast-and-hold” operation and had “shifted to cast-and-send.” And that’s when Morgan told the committee that he backed out, testifying that he directed an aide to “email Mr. Chesebro politely to say, ‘this is your task. You are responsible for the Electoral College issues moving forward.’”

“This was my way of taking that responsibility to zero,” Morgan told the committee, later adding that he “moved on” after that email was sent.

Morgan explained that he was concerned that the new plan to try to count the fake electors on January 6 “would make the Vice President’s life harder, and I didn’t want to be a part of that.”

“Mr. Morgan stands by his congressional testimony,” his defense attorneys told CNN in response to his emails and Chesebro’s statements to investigators.

Ultimately, on the eve of the joint session of Congress, Morgan helped get the ballots in place, according to the emails and according to Chesebro, who blamed his legal troubles squarely on the Trump campaign’s legal team.

“I could have avoided all this,” Chesebro vented to Michigan prosecutors. “It’s been a real lesson in not working with people that you don’t know and are not sure you can trust, because it really went south on me.”