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Defend Our Country Digest

Defend Our Country Digest — January 24, 2023

By January 24, 2023No Comments

Driving the Day: 

Must Read Stories

Atlanta Judge To Hold Hearing Today On The Release Of The 2020 Election Probe Report As Charging Decision Nears 

  • Axios: Atlanta Judge To Decide Whether To Release 2020 Election Probe Report: An Atlanta judge will hear arguments Tuesday about whether an investigative report into efforts by former President Trump and his allies to overturn the 2020 election should be made public. Why it matters: It’s one step closer to Fulton County district attorney Fani Willis’ decision about indicting Trump or his allies after she opened an investigation two years ago. The report’s findings are expected to influence Willis’ decision whether — and whom — to indict of criminal conduct.
  • New York Times: Central Question As Georgia Inquiry Wraps: Will Trump Face Criminal Charges? For the last two years, prosecutors in Atlanta have been conducting a criminal investigation into whether the Trump team interfered in the presidential election in Georgia, which Mr. Trump narrowly lost to President Biden. With the wide-ranging inquiry now entering the indictment phase, the central question is whether Mr. Trump himself will face criminal charges. Legal analysts who have followed the case say there are two areas of considerable risk for Mr. Trump. The first are the calls that he made to state officials, including one to Brad Raffensperger, the Georgia secretary of state, in which Mr. Trump said he needed to “find” 11,780 votes. But the recently released Jan. 6 committee transcripts shed new light on the other area of potential legal jeopardy for the former president: his direct involvement in recruiting a slate of bogus presidential electors in the weeks after the 2020 election.

Four More Oath Keepers Convicted Of Seditious Conspiracy

  • Politico: 4 More Oath Keepers Found Guilty Of Seditious Conspiracy Tied To Jan. 6 Attack: Four members of the far-right Oath Keepers were found guilty on Monday of attempting to derail the transfer of power from President Donald Trump to Joe Biden on Jan. 6, 2021. A jury found that the four men — Roberto Minuta, David Moerschel, Joseph Hackett and Ed Vallejo — joined a conspiracy with other Oath Keepers to forcibly prevent Biden from taking office. It’s the second trial of Oath Keepers leaders to result in seditious conspiracy convictions stemming from the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. The group’s founder, Stewart Rhodes, and ally Kelly Meggs were convicted of the rare charge in November, while three others were acquitted of seditious conspiracy but convicted of other felony offenses.

Election Deniers Set Their Sights On New Targets 

  • Politico: Election Deniers Set Sights On Next Target:  Swing state voters broadly rejected candidates in last year’s midterms who questioned the results of the 2020 elections. But unfounded accusations of fraud and other malfeasance continue to tear at the machinery of U.S. elections. The latest example comes from Alabama and its newly elected secretary of state, Wes Allen. His first official act upon taking office earlier this month was unusual: The Republican fulfilled a campaign promise by withdrawing Alabama from an obscure interstate compact that helps states maintain voter rolls, citing data security concerns. That consortium — known as Electronic Registration Information Center, or ERIC — has been a genuine bipartisan success story, finding buy-in from red states like Florida and Texas and blue states like Colorado and Connecticut to help them remove duplicate voter registrations and catch potential instances of double voting. But conservative conspiracy sites like The Gateway Pundit and the Thomas More Society, a nonprofit that filed lawsuits that unsuccessfully sought to overturn the 2020 election, have attacked ERIC as part of a liberal plot to control the underpinnings of American elections. Allen’s abandonment of ERIC illustrates how ideas stemming from the falsehood of a stolen presidential election remain in the bloodstream of the American democratic system, even after its most well-known proponents were shut out from winning key positions in major swing states in the midterms.
  • New York Times: States Push For New Voting Laws With An Eye Toward 2024: The tug of war over voting rights and rules is playing out with fresh urgency at the state level, as Republicans and Democrats fight to get new laws on the books before the 2024 presidential election. Republicans have pushed to tighten voting laws with renewed vigor since former President Donald J. Trump made baseless claims of fraud after losing the 2020 election, while Democrats coming off midterm successes are trying to channel their momentum to expand voting access and thwart efforts to undermine elections. States like Florida, Texas and Georgia, where Republicans control the levers of state government, have already passed sweeping voting restrictions that include criminal oversight initiatives, limits on drop boxes, new identification requirements and more.

Little GOP Reckoning Over The Consequences Of Election Denialism After Shootings In New Mexico

  • Washington Post: Even After New Mexico Shootings, Little GOP Reckoning Over Election Denialism: Republican officials in New Mexico knew that Solomon Peña, the man police accused last week of orchestrating shootings into the homes of four Albuquerque Democrats, had served nearly seven years in prison for his role in smash-and-grab thefts before he lost his bid as the GOP nominee for a state House seat. They also knew that Peña was a fervent proponent of the view that the 2020 presidential election was rigged. Authorities said Peña was persuaded that his own election in November had been stolen — despite being defeated by nearly 50 points — and targeted the homes of officials who refused to entertain demands that his loss be reversed. After Peña’s arrest, Republican leaders condemned the attacks, which included a spray of bullets into a 10-year-old’s bedroom, and acknowledged that the former candidate’s criminal history should have been a red flag. There was far less apparent interest in a reckoning over Peña’s beliefs in widespread voter fraud, a false theory pushed relentlessly by former president Donald Trump and his supporters. The attacks may have been heinous, top Republicans insisted, but the party’s embrace of election denialism was not the core problem.
  • New York Times: Despite Red Flags, G.O.P. Backed Candidate Now Charged In Shootings: The former Republican candidate accused of targeting the homes of Democrats in drive-by shootings had routinely called for locking up 2020 election officials in Guantánamo Bay. He promoted conspiracy theories about solar power, feminism and “the demonic theories of the Globalist Elites.” He had been demoted twice by the U.S. Navy and served nearly seven years in prison for burglary. Yet powerful party leaders in New Mexico not only gave the first-time candidate, Solomon Peña, 39, full-throated endorsements, they also opened their checkbooks to fund his race for a state legislative seat in central Albuquerque long held by Democrats. Some knew about his prison record but said they felt that he had turned his life around. Local and state authorities now say they are investigating whether drug money helped fund his campaign.

In The States 

ARIZONA:  Attorney General Kris Mayes Turns Former “Election Integrity Unit” Into Voting Rights Task Force  While The Former EIU Head Joins Yet Another Challenge To Mayes’ Election 

  • Talking Points Memo: New Arizona AG To Flip Predecessor’s Sham Election Fraud Unit Into Voting Rights Task Force: Arizona attorney general Kris Mayes plans to overhaul a unit created by her predecessor to investigate unsubstantiated claims of election fraud into a task force focused on reinforcing voting rights instead. The newly elected Democrat hopes the unit will “reprioritize the mission and resources” it has into “protecting voting access and combating voter suppression,” she told the Guardian on Saturday. The unit was launched in 2019 by the state’s former attorney general Mark Brnovich, a Republican, after the Arizona GOP suffered midterm losses to Democrats in 2018 and complained to his office about supposed voter fraud.
  • Arizona Republic: Former Head Of AG’s Election Integrity Unit Joins Challenge Of Kris Mayes’ Election: The former head of the Arizona Attorney General’s Election Integrity Unit has joined a legal fight to overturn the results of the closest election in the state’s history. About three weeks after leaving office, Jennifer Wright announced she wants to force out newly elected Democratic Attorney General Kris Mayes and install Republican candidate Abe Hamadeh. Wright, who said she held off resigning in the event Hamadeh beat Mayes in a recount, says human and machine errors disenfranchised hundreds of voters in Arizona counties and a new trial would prove he is the rightful winner of the 2022 race.

What Experts Are Saying

Harry Litman, former US attorney: “Hearing in Fulton County [today] to decide if special grand jury report should be published. If it is, almost certain it will be chock-a-block with detailed evidence of crimes by Trump AND others, eg Giuliani.  State law dictates publication unless judge finds the report is a “presentment” under Georgia law, essentially that is it tantamount to a proposed indictment, not just a report for DA Fani Willis’s consumption. If it is published, expect things to move very fast b/c DA won’t want moss to grow under doc outlining whole case.” Tweet | Tweet 

Heather Cox Richardson, historian at Boston College: “[Yesterday] a jury found three members of the Oath Keepers gang, along with a fourth defendant associated with them, guilty of seditious conspiracy for their actions surrounding the January 6th insurrection in 2021…Such indictments are rare and indicate a careful plot against our democracy. They are hard to prove. These six convictions—so far—are a big win for Attorney General Merrick Garland’s Justice Department.” Letters from an American 

Ruth Ben-Ghiat, historian at New York University: “The institutionalization of election denial as GOP dogma and practice is another sign it is now an autocratic party. Election denial is not just propaganda but a form of corruption. Its ultimate purpose is to discredit the idea of choosing leaders through elections.” Tweet

Marc Elias, founder of Democracy Docket: “The story of a Wisconsin Republican bragging about suppressing minority voters is a familiar one…Yet, even by Republican standards, [WI election official Robert (R)] Spindell stands out for his brazen celebration of minority voter suppression, not just because of his overt discrimination, but because of his government position administering elections. Spindell isn’t just a Republican Wisconsonite who wants to suppress votes. He isn’t even just an election official. No, Spindell serves as the vice chair of the powerful Wisconsin Elections Commission, the very agency that oversees and sets rules for elections in the Badger State. According to the commission’s website, among its responsibilities is to ‘ensure compliance with federal and state election laws.’” Democracy Docket: Meet Wisconsin’s Proudest Vote Suppressor

Rachel Kleinfeld, senior fellow of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace: “Well, extremists are still willing. Peña was one of more than 30 candidates (as well as at least 21 state legislators) who took part in the Jan. 6 riots in Washington D.C.  They keep getting reelected: At least seven candidates gained state and local seats in 2021, and another nine took office in 2022. Multiple state politicians are purported members of the Oath Keepers militia, whose leader has been convicted of sedition — from David Eastman of Alaska’s state House to Wyoming’s GOP state chairman. The Institute for Research and Education on Human Rights found that 10 percent of all state lawmakers and 21 percent of Republicans were part of extremist groups on social media.” The Hill Op-Ed: American democracy is dodging bullets 

Headlines

The MAGA Movement And The Ongoing Threat To Elections

CBS: Trump resort in Miami set to host conference bolstering conspiracy theories

New York Times: How Kevin McCarthy Forged an Ironclad Bond With Marjorie Taylor Greene

The New Republic: The Rise of Spirit Warriors on the Christian Right

ProPublica: Promoters of Election Lies Also Hyped a Hospital for Ukraine. That Never Happened Either.

January 6 And The 2020 Election

CNN: Three active-duty Marines arrested for participating in Jan. 6 US Capitol riot

CNN: Former Trump aide John McEntee appears before grand jury on Trump-related investigations

New York Times: John Eastman Is Unbowed as Investigations Proliferate

NPR: Fox News’ defense in defamation suit invokes debunked election-fraud claims

Politico: Jan. 6 intruder who sat at Pelosi’s desk convicted on all charges

Other Trump Investigations

Politico: Judge sanctions Trump, Habba nearly $1 million for ‘completely frivolous’ Clinton suit

Political Violence

Oregon Public Radio: FBI warns of neo-Nazi plots as attacks on Northwest power grid spike

In The States

Detroit News: Donald Trump endorses Matt DePerno in crowded race to lead Michigan GOP