This Week: Closing Arguments in January 6th Proud Boys Trial as MAGA Republicans Expand Efforts to Suppress Voting
This week, jurors heard closing arguments in the seditious conspiracy trial of the far-right Proud Boys leaders accused of spearheading the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, with both sides blaming former President Donald Trump for inciting the violence. Federal prosecutors said the MAGA extremists “saw themselves as Donald Trump’s army” and “have repeatedly shown jurors a video clip of Trump telling the Proud Boys to ‘stand back and stand by’ during his first presidential debate with Joe Biden.” The attorney for the “longtime leader” of the Proud Boys also blamed Trump for the attack in closing arguments.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis set a timetable for charging decisions in her high-profile investigation into former President Trump. She will announce this summer whether Trump and his allies will “be charged with crimes related to alleged interference in Georgia’s 2020 election.” Newly reported text messages show that Trump operatives “considered using breached voting data to decertify Georgia’s Senate runoff in 2021,” in addition to trying to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
A lawsuit filed against Wisconsin’s 2020 false Republican electors is moving forward as a judge ruled against a motion to have the prosecuting attorneys removed from the case. The lawsuit is seeking $2.4 million in damages against the “Wisconsin Republicans who posed as electors after the 2020 election” in an attempt to sway the election for Trump.
This past week, a leaked presentation to GOP donors by lawyer Cleta Mitchell, a “central figure in the scheme to reverse the 2020 election,” outlined how MAGA Republicans plan to continue their efforts to suppress voting by limiting “voting on college campuses, same-day voter registration and automatic mailing of ballots to registered voters.”
Such efforts to subvert democracy are already underway in the states:
In Arizona, the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors will consider reinstating election denier Liz Harris to the Arizona Legislature, who was included on a list of possible replacements less than a week after being expelled for “disorderly behavior.” The other two Republicans on the list to replace Harris “both have strong connections to the conspiracy-pushing lawmaker.”
Also in Arizona, the Cochise County Board of Supervisors voted to hire “an elections director who has repeatedly shared false claims about widespread election fraud.”
In Florida, “Republicans want to add to already-restrictive election laws that have been strengthened in recent years.” One bill making its way through the Florida legislature would make it harder for organizations to register voters.
In Georgia, several voting rights groups filed a preliminary injunction to block part of Georgia law “that bars volunteers from handing out food and water to voters waiting in line to cast their ballots.”
And in Texas, the state Senate has continued to approve anti-voting legislation, including a bill to end countywide voting on Election Day, which voting rights advocates say “would make it more difficult for people in sprawling counties to find a place to vote.” Meanwhile, legislators in the state House are debating a bill to withdraw Texas from the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC), a voter data cross-check program that has become the target of right-wing conspiracy theories.
