This Week: MAGA Republicans Continue to Run and Win on Lies and Conspiracies, Break The Law, And Ignore Court-Ordered Subpoenas
Faced with a plethora of court challenges over 2020 election interference, MAGA Republicans attempted to avoid accountability throughout the past week amid an ongoing effort to overturn the will of the people. During last night’s primary in Wyoming, January 6th committee vice chair Liz Cheney was defeated by her Trump-endorsed MAGA challenger, Harriet Hageman, emphasizing the unprecedented scope of Trump’s influence over the GOP. Trump-backed election conspiracy theorist State Rep. Chuck Gray won the GOP nomination for Wyoming Secretary of State. Cheney becomes the first incumbent from Wyoming to lose re-nomination to Congress in more than 50 years leaving just two House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump on the ballot in November.
In Michigan, the pro-Trump CEO of right-wing cybersecurity firm Cyber Ninjas is facing a criminal investigation for illegally dismantling voting machines. The investigation is just the latest in a string of cases scrutinizing MAGA attempts to inappropriately access voting machines in at least five states across the country. Working alongside Attorney General candidate Matthew DePerno, CEO Doug Logan made copies of sensitive election data in four Michigan counties after the 2020 election. DePerno recently joined Secretary of State candidate Kristina Karamo in calling for Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel’s impeachment over her request for a special prosecutor to run a criminal probe over DePerno’s involvement in the illegal effort to infiltrate Michigan’s voting systems.
Notably, in Arizona, the state Senate contracted Cyber Ninjas to run a sham ‘audit’ of Maricopa County’s 2020 vote count. This week, the criminal probe revealed that Logan moved copies of Maricopa’s election data and its server to a remote cabin in Montana during the ‘audit’. Logan has been accruing a daily $50,000 penalty after failing to hand over public records, and the Arizona Attorney General recently concluded that Cyber Ninjas’ false claims about the 2020 election were unfounded.
In Pennsylvania, federal agents delivered subpoenas to several Republican lawmakers at the state Capitol in Harrisburg last week after House incumbent Scott Perry’s phone was seized by the FBI. Rep. Perry, who frequently communicated with the Trump White House about overturning the 2020 election, is a witness in the ongoing DOJ investigation into Trump’s 2020 false elector scheme. Meanwhile, Governor candidate Doug Mastriano briefly met with the Jan. 6 committee last week to dispute the subpoena and push back his deposition date. Florida Governor and MAGA extremist Ron DeSantis will be joining Mastriano in Pittsburgh on Friday to stump for his embroiled campaign.
Rounding-out the week in Georgia, a federal judge has ordered Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) to testify in the Fulton county grand jury investigation about his phone calls to state election officials about the 2020 election. The ruling follows a similar order last week compelling testimony from Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani, who is scheduled to testify today and was recently informed he is a target of the investigation.
Elsewhere, in ongoing Republican efforts to subvert the will of voters:
Nevada elections officials are offering new regulations aiming to prevent MAGA tampering as some county-level officials are opting to hand-count all ballots in November. The conspiracy-fueled hand-count movement, initiated by far-right Secretary of State candidate Jim Marchant, is gaining steam in rural counties like Nye and Esmaralda.
In Texas, the entire staff of a county-level elections office resigned last week after being stalked and receiving death threats from far-right MAGA constituents thanks to the dangerous and violent rhetoric of Trump.
In North Carolina, election conspiracy theorist and MAGA Senate candidate Ted Budd hosted a fundraising event with election denier and Jan. 6 conspirator Cleta Mitchell on Monday night.
And finally, Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos fired Special Counsel Michael Gableman last week after Gableman supported his defeated Trump-backed primary challenger. Though Gableman continues to face multiple pending lawsuits, his removal finally marks an end to the baseless partisan election review that has cost the state more than $1 million.
