MAGA's Ongoing Plot To Steal The 2024 Election

The government ethics and accountability group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) published a report earlier this week that looks at the real threat posed by right wing MAGAts in a number of states who are poised to block the certification of elections won by Democrats. With the experience of their fake elector plot in 2020 as a "lessons learned" exercise, the election deniers aim to help the felonious authoritarian the Malignant Loser (a.k.a. "Donald Dump") steal the election if the vote count doesn't go his way. From CREW's report:

"In this report, CREW identifies 35 rogue election officials across the country who have already refused to certify election results and may be in a position to do so again. The report focuses on the eight states where county officials have unlawfully refused to certify elections since 2020: Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Michigan. The report also identifies the legal remedies available to state and federal authorities, as well as voters, to protect the certification of the 2024 election. 

These remedies include emergency court orders to compel compliance with the law, criminal charges to punish and deter misconduct and legal procedures to remove obstructionist officials from their county positions.

So far, states have shut down these dangerous efforts to sabotage the certification process—including in Arizona and New Mexico where state authorities secured emergency court orders, called writs of mandamus, compelling county officials to follow the law. But the threat of disruption looms large in this year’s election. 

If county officials successfully obstruct certification, it could have a cascading effect on state and federal certification deadlines. It could also lead to mass disenfranchisement of qualified voters."  (our emphasis)

These local election officials were emboldened by the Malignant Loser's continuing Big Lie about the 2020 election being "stolen" from him, despite losing challenges in over 60 courts of law and being told by his senior advisors that he lost in a fair election. The report continues:

"That election certification is a ministerial, non-discretionary function has been a settled principle of American election law since the turn of the twentieth century, when state courts across the country shut down partisan attempts by county officials to refuse to count lawful votes. But some officials emboldened by former President Trump’s 2020 election denial movement now seek to weaponize this routine government process, undermining the foundations of our election infrastructure." (our emphasis)

Having identified the coming assault on our voting rights, and having attorneys and voting rights advocates like Marc Elias and the NAACP's Legal Defense Fund fighting for us, should diminish their impact. But only by us beating them by a substantial amount will their plans for election theft be curbed.  

 

Bannon: Trump Was Going To Declare Victory Regardless

 

A leaked audio obtained by Mother Jones has fascist flotsam Steve Bannon previewing the plan for the Malignant Loser to declare victory and stay in office, no matter what the voters decided:

On the evening of October 31, 2020, Steve Bannon told a group of associates that President Donald Trump had a plan to declare victory on election night—even if he was losing. Trump knew that the slow counting of Democratic-leaning mail-in ballots meant the returns would show early leads for him in key states. His “strategy” was to use this fact to assert that he had won, while claiming that the inevitable shifts in vote totals toward Joe Biden must be the result of fraud, Bannon explained.

 

Of course, the Malignant Loser did, in fact, follow Bannon's script, as laid out on October 31:

The nearly hour-long audio obtained by Mother Jones is new evidence that Trump’s late-night diatribe—which came a few hours later than Bannon had anticipated—followed a preexisting plan to lie to Americans about the election results in a bid to hold onto power. The new recording stands out for the striking candor and detail with which Bannon described a scheme to use lies to subvert democracy. Bannon also predicted that Trump’s false declaration of victory would lead to widespread political violence, along with “crazy” efforts by Trump to stay in office. Bannon and his associates laughed about those scenarios at various points in the recording.

"Lock them up!  Lock them up!"

Trump's Big Lie Mouthpieces Land In Deep(er) Shit

 

 

Dominion Voting Systems' multi- billion dollar defamation suits against the Trump campaign, Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell, and Mike Lindell just got a major boost:

Former President Donald Trump’s campaign was aware that some of its claims about fraud in the 2020 election were false, according to an internal memo that was just made public.

The New York Times reported that the memo was released Monday night as part of a defamation lawsuit against the Trump campaign from Eric Cooper, a former employee of Dominion Voting Systems.

The company has been the subject of a torrent of conspiracy theories and false claims regarding the 2020 election. Cooper, as well as Dominion and another voting systems company called Smartmatic, have all launched defamation lawsuits against proponents of those claims.

According to the Times report, the Trump campaign crafted an internal memo acknowledging that its legal team’s allegations against Dominion and Smartmatic were false. The document was put together before the infamous Nov. 19 press conference in which Trump lawyers Sidney Powell, Rudy Giuliani and Jenna Ellis pushed a series of insane conspiracy theories about the election, suggesting the campaign “sat on its findings.”

It's fortunate that Dominion and Smartmatic brought these defamation suits, otherwise such damning facts might never have been discovered.  As the process works its way to the end, they deserve as much compensation as they can squeeze from the sleazeballs already named, as well as from any other persons or organizations that were involved in giving this Big Lie legs.

A certain un-indicted co-conspirator may also have vulnerability due to the surfacing of these documents:

 

If (it’s not clear from this story), Trump was also in the loop on this, it will dramatically impact his position in civil cases over Jan 6 brought against him by Capitol Police & @RepSwalwell & potentially, even, proof of mens rea in a criminal case. https://t.co/v5wQfYO07K

— Joyce Alene (@JoyceWhiteVance) September 21, 2021

 

The facts wouldn't have mattered to Trump either way, of course.  His delusions are such that it's impossible for him to admit to himself that he could have lost the election.  But Trump potentially facing more legal jeopardy is an outcome to be welcomed.

 

Wisconsin: Trump Should Pay Our Legal Costs

 

Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers (D) has filed a brief in U.S. District Court to have the demagogic former guy pay for the costs the State incurred in beating back his frivolous lawsuits that sought to void Wisconsin's 2020 election results. According to the brief:

“More than eight months ago, former President Trump filed this lawsuit in an audacious attempt to overrule the will of the voters by fiat,” the governor’s attorney Jeffrey A. Mandell wrote in a 17-page legal brief. “He sought unprecedented relief, and his team pressed the case in a slapdash manner incommensurate with the gravity of the subject matter. Now, Trump recasts the litigation in a sepia tone, glossing over flaws with conclusory exculpations and dismissing criticism as ‘Monday morning quarterbacking.'” 

Every state that the unstable former guy put through audit after audit and lawsuit after lawsuit should follow Wisconsin's example, now that they have a template in the Kraken Krackup Kaper:

"Requesting attorneys’ fees, Evers pointed to the far heavier sanctions sought by the city of Detroit in a case by the so-called “Kraken” lawyers, whose efforts to overturn election results in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, and Wisconsin were rejected by every court. On Wednesday night, a federal judge in Michigan referred each of the nine attorneys associated with the Michigan arm of that litigation to face disciplinary proceedings in their home states for 'possible suspension or disbarment.'”

Of course, the chances of the delusional con man paying out of his own pocket are vanishingly small, as he can always tap his cultists for the money. But the residents of Wisconsin, especially Dem and Independent supporters of President Biden, shouldn't have to expend public funds to answer costly suits that were only intended to soothe a malignant narcissist's wounded ego.

 

The Kraken Krackpot Krack-Up

ICYMI, Judge turns the Kraken into sushi:

The team of “Kraken” attorneys who sought to overturn the 2020 election “scorned their oath, flouted the rules, and attempted to undermine the integrity of the judiciary along the way,” according to a Wednesday opinion from a Detroit federal judge.

U.S. District Judge Linda Parker for the Eastern District of Michigan referred the team of lawyers — who sought to overturn the election in courts through a series bogus claims — for suspension or disbarment while granting requests for sanctions.

Parker also ordered the “Kraken” team — which included Trump-aligned lawyers Sidney Powell and Lin Wood — to pay for legal fees for the city of Detroit and state of Michigan, and referred them for “at least twelve (12) hours of continuing legal education in the subjects of pleading standards (at least six hours total) and election law (at least six hours total).”

Parker wrote in the ruling that the “Kraken” lawyers had tried to create a “haze of confusion, commotion, and chaos” around the election.

“And this case was never about fraud — it was about undermining the People’s faith in our democracy and debasing the judicial process to do so,” Parker wrote.  [snip]

“It is not acceptable to support a lawsuit with opinions, which counsel herself claims no reasonable person would accept as fact and which were ‘inexact,’ ‘exaggerate[ed],’ and ’hyperbole,’” Parker wrote. “Nor is it acceptable to use the federal judiciary as a political forum to satisfy one’s political agenda. Such behavior by an attorney in a court of law has consequences.”

In her closing, Parker found that all of the “Kraken”‘s actions — when taken in sum — added up to a basic truth: that “once it appeared that their preferred political candidate’s grasp on the presidency was slipping away, Plaintiffs’ counsel helped mold the predetermined narrative about election fraud by lodging this federal lawsuit based on evidence that they actively refused to investigate or question with the requisite level of professional skepticism.”

Disbarring or suspending these bonkers shysters should be the least of their punishment (though Powell, Rudy "Toot Toot" Giuliani, and My Mein Pillow's Mike Lindell are each facing $1.3 billion defamation lawsuits) -- especially since Powell remains recalcitrant, saying "We would file the same complaints again." That'll be hard to do if you're no longer allowed to practice law, Ms. Kraken, Esq.

(Photo: Krackpot Kraken team Sidney Powell and Lin Wood)

Letters We Wish We'd Written -- Fraudit Dept.

 

It has a lot more kick coming from the Chairman of the Maricopa County (AZ) Board of Supervisors, though (click/ tap to enlarge):

 

 

(Pdf version here.)

Michigan Republicans Find No Evidence Of Fraud In 2020 Results

 

Well, lookee here:

A months-long Republican investigation into Michigan’s 2020 election uncovered no evidence of widespread fraud and concluded Wednesday with a recommendation the attorney general investigate those who made false claims for "personal gain." 

The 35-page report prepared by Sen. Ed McBroom, R-Vulcan, dives deep to debunk conspiracy theories perpetuated by former President Donald Trump and some of his supporters in the wake of the Michigan election, which Democratic President Joe Biden won by 154,188 votes.

While the Senate Oversight Committee investigation revealed some “glaring issues” and vulnerabilities the Legislature should fix, “there is no evidence presented at this time to prove either significant acts of fraud or that an organized, wide-scale effort to commit fraudulent activity was perpetrated in order to subvert the will of Michigan voters,” McBroom wrote.

"Our clear finding is that citizens should be confident the results represent the true results of the ballots cast by the people of Michigan," the report concluded. “The committee strongly recommends citizens use a critical eye and ear toward those who have pushed demonstrably false theories for their own personal gain.”  (our emphasis)

Prepare for incoming from the malignant, former Big Lie guy!

(Side note -- we're curious what "glaring issues" and "vulnerabilities" they uncovered requiring the Republican legislature to "fix."  We're not sanguine.)