This Week: As Prosecutors Close In On Trump, Supporters In the States Still Do His Bidding
This week, prosecutors continued to close in on former President Trump, and Trump, in a pattern that predates his presidency, fought back on social media and used the courts to delay being held accountable.
Federal prosecutors in New York interviewed Hope Hicks, “a trusted aide” to Trump during his 2016 presidential campaign, about illegal campaign activity. In addition, the Justice Department said that Trump “can be sued by injured Capitol Police officers over the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection.”
Trump filed a motion in federal court asking a judge to block former vice president Mike Pence from testifying to a grand jury. This filing could delay Trump’s case for months.
In Georgia, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis was the target of attacks by Trump on social media and in his speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) as the DA weighs “‘imminent’” decisions on bringing charges against him. Meanwhile, Republican legislation that “would make it easier to remove local prosecutors” is moving through the Georgia legislature in apparent retaliation. The proposal is supported by Lieutenant Governor Burt Jones, one of Trump’s fake electors in Georgia who attempted to overturn the 2020 election.
Also moving through the Georgia legislature is a bill to ban absentee drop boxes and make it easier to kick voters off the rolls through mass challenges, which would let conspiracy theorists disenfranchise voters “simply based on allegations.” Meanwhile, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene continued to spread conspiracy theories about the 2020 election, including claims that conservatives were not allowed to vote, dead people voted, and “Trump won Georgia.”
In Arizona, a judge ordered sanctions against Mark Finchem, the Republican candidate for Arizona secretary of state, over false claims of election fraud after he “lost his race in November and refused to accept the results.”
Defeated MAGA candidate Kari Lake asked the Arizona Supreme Court to take up her effort to overturn her 2022 gubernatorial election defeat, which was “shot down by both the Maricopa County Superior Court and Arizona Court of Appeals.”
Republican election deniers in the Arizona legislature held a hearing in which they gave conspiracy theorist Jacqueline Breger, “an insurance agent with no apparent expertise in elections or voting,” 45 minutes to smear publicly politicians, including Governor Katie Hobbs, for “taking bribes from a Mexican drug cartel without evidence.”
In an “indication of how conspiracy theories related to the 2020 presidential outcome continue to ripple throughout the Republican Party and upend long-established traditions in how the country administers elections,” Florida and two other Republican-led states “pulled out of a bipartisan effort among states to ensure accurate voter lists, undermining a system with a demonstrated record of combating voter fraud.”
In Michigan, Republicans appointed State Rep. Angela Rigas, “who attended the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection and pushes the lie that the 2020 election was stolen,” to help lead the Michigan House Republicans’ campaign committee as an executive member.
In Wisconsin, Trump attorney Jim Troupis, who “advised Republicans on their plan to have fake electors cast their ballots for Trump,” was reappointed by the state Supreme Court’s four conservative justices to a second term on a committee that advises judges on judicial conduct.
In North Carolina, a legal dispute between Republican legislative leaders, voting rights groups, voters and state election officials continues as the U.S. Supreme Court ordered the parties to submit additional briefs in the case over the independent state legislature theory, which “would grant state legislatures near-exclusive power to set rules for federal elections.”
Court documents released days ago show some details about how Pennsylvania Rep. Scott Perry “tried to prevent the Department of Justice from reviewing his communications as part of the investigation into attempts to overturn the 2020 election. Perry’s phone, seized by the FBI last summer, contained 2,219 emails, text messages, and media attachments, including 37 emails between Perry and Trump-affiliated lawyers.”
