This Week: While Criminal Cases Against Trump Move Forward, MAGA Supporters Use Debunked Conspiracy Theories in Attempts to Obstruct Free and Fair Elections
This week, criminal cases against former President Donald Trump continued to move forward. In the federal case against him for allegedly leading a coup attempt after losing the 2020 presidential election, Trump asked the judge to recuse herself because she was critical of him in another case.
In the Fulton County, Georgia, case against Trump for allegedly leading a vast multi-state criminal enterprise to overturn the 2020 presidential election in seven states, including Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, Trump filed a motion to have charges against him dismissed. “More than 80 current and former state and federal prosecutors and U.S. Department of Justice officials” filed an amicus brief in support of halting a recently created commission that MAGA supporters have encouraged to investigate Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, which could derail the case.
In the New York criminal case against Trump for allegedly “falsifying business records linked to a hush money payment” to porn star Stormy Daniels, the judge said he will consider moving the date of the trial to accommodate Trump’s “rapidly evolving trial schedule” in other cases.
MAGA supporters in the states continue to use debunked conspiracy theories in their attempts to obstruct free and fair elections. In Michigan, a county sheriff who has been “advancing dubious claims” of voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election filed a lawsuit against the county that employs him, claiming it failed to provide emails and other documents for an election fraud investigation that he’s running.
In Arizona, MAGA supporters filed a new lawsuit seeking to overturn the results of the 2022 governor’s race in Maricopa County, where a majority of the state’s voters live. In Yavapai County, a judge ruled against a commonly used practice in Arizona to verify signatures on early ballots. If the ruling stands, legally cast ballots will be rejected.
MAGA supporters in Nevada “are attacking state election practices and reiterating disproven claims” after the secretary of state’s office updated election regulations in “a routine regulatory process.” In Wisconsin, MAGA supporters in the State Senate “recommended firing Wisconsin’s top elections official” this week after “conspiracy theorists” accused the nonpartisan administrator of “helping to steal” the 2020 presidential election.
A “long-awaited” trial began in Texas over a new law that restricted voting, which passed after “Trump’s false claims of a stolen election.” In Georgia, a federal trial to determine if state legislative and congressional maps violate the Voting Rights Act by discriminating against Black voters is in its second week.
