Part XV: Grim Times for Team Trump

Grim Times for Team Trump. 

__________ 

“America’s democracy was almost stolen from her.” 

Judge J. Michael Luttig, speaking of events on January 6.

__________ 

Thinking about his next lie.

 

JANUARY 21, 2021: With Joseph R. Biden Jr. safely shielded in the White House, Team Trump has no choice other than to do whatever it can to undermine belief in democracy and free elections. 

In months to come – then in years – GOP election deniers proliferate. Trump wont’ be going away quietly.  

As of March 20, 2014, when I edit this post, we have seen zero evidence of significant fraud proven in court in the last presidential election.

 

1,233 days

 since the 2020 Election. 

 

April 30, 2021: Suppose you believed only Democrats cheated in elections. Suppose you thought a gazillion fake ballots were cast, or beamed down from space satellites in 2020, as one MAGA nitwit claimed. 

Would you be so dense as not to realize that people like Bruce Bartman cheated for Trump? Today, Mr. Bartman was sentenced on a felony count of casting an illegal ballot in his deceased mother’s name. He had hoped to cast a second bogus vote in his mother-in-law’s name, but couldn’t manage the crime. The man from Delaware County, Pa., cast the only ballot known to have come from a dead voter in 2020, in that county, and ends up on probation for five years. 

Whereas if he were a Democrat, Trump fans would be shouting about commie traitors and suggesting he be put to death. 

 

“Demonstrably false and misleading statements.” 

June 24, 2021: Rudy Giuliani is barred from practicing law in New York. A panel of judges determines that he has made a host of false statements in court regarding the supposed “Stolen Election.” In their ruling they write that “there is uncontroverted evidence that respondent [Giuliani] communicated demonstrably false and misleading statements to courts, lawmakers and the public at large” in defending Trump’s false claim that he won the 2020 election. 

On Truth Social, Rejected-President Trump erupts. “Can you believe that New York wants to strip Rudy Giuliani, a great American Patriot, of his law license because he has been fighting what has already been proven to be a Fraudulent Election?” 

(Zero proof, so far, Trump fans. Read what the judges said.) 

 

August 10, 2021: Claims that the 2020 election was stolen are selling at discount. Dominion Voting Systems, accused of rigging the vote, has sued Newsmax and One America News for continuing to tout such lies. 

As one example, Dominion says, One America trotted out an “expert mathematician” to explain how voting was rigged. 

 

A mathematical analysis! 

In an interview in January 2021, Ed Solomon told his One America host and the channel’s misinformed audience that he had performed a mathematical analysis. And the votes in Fulton County, Georgia had to have been rigged! Results, he said, could “only have been done by an algorithm.” He said that the probability of Biden’s victory in the county was “1 over 10 to an exponent so large there’s not enough stars in the universe, there aren’t enough atoms in the universe, to explain the number.” 

(There are fewer people in Fulton County than atoms, so that claim is absurd.) 

 

Lawyers for Dominion spit in his soup, pointing out that Solomon was, at the time of his report, a convicted felon, with no college degree. 

His day job was installing swing sets for children. Dominion also noted in a subsequent court filing that OAN “had effectively acknowledged” the claims made by Solomon and others were false “by secretly removing several articles and broadcasts from its own website that made similar claims.” 

 

August 26: Judge Linda V. Parker of the Federal District Court in Detroit delivers a fresh blow to Team Trump and their hopeless battle to prove that massive voter fraud truly exists. Parker orders sanctions against nine Team Trump lawyers, including Sidney Powell and L. Lin Wood. 

(We won’t know this until two more summers pass, but to avoid a smorgasbord of legal problems in Georgia and elsewhere, Wood surrenders his license forever. Then he floats a novel explanation for his predicament. He’s being targeted by “devil worshippers” who run the Deep State.) 

 

“Undermining the people’s faith in our democracy.” 

In the wake of Trump’s November 2020 defeat, Powell and Wood had filed a lawsuit challenging the Michigan vote. Judge Parker was not impressed, calling it a hopeless mess, marked by “speculation, conjecture and unwarranted suspicion.” Their legal arguments, she said, were backed by neither law nor evidence, and represented “a historic and profound abuse of the judicial process [emphasis added throughout].” 

It was “one thing to take on the charge of vindicating rights associated with an allegedly fraudulent election,” the judge agreed. It was another to deceive “a federal court and the American people into believing that rights were infringed.” 

“This case was never about fraud,” Judge Parker wrote. “It was about undermining the people’s faith in our democracy and debasing the judicial process to do so.” 

Now, Judge Parker recommends that the nine attorneys be considered for disbarment, or have their licenses to practice suspended. (If you want to know their names, just skip to the last page of her 110-page ruling.) 

 

January 12, 2022: Conspiracy nuts continue to multiply, until the modern GOP begins to look like a pecan tree. In Florida, Jason Mariner gets walloped in a special election to fill a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. Before all the votes are even counted, he files suit, complaining about how the election was being run. Court action isn’t going to help. Mariner loses by 60 points. 

 

February 2022: Speaking of nuts, Mr. Trump continues to insist he won a second term, and says results of that election should be “overturned immediately.” A novel concept, surely – and nowhere hinted at in the U.S. Constitution. 

ADD PICTURE OF KING

 

Ever the dutiful blogger, I keep looking for evidence of massive voter fraud. I usually turn to red states, where I figure government officials are working hard to ensure voting is fair and accurate. 

The situation in Ohio is typical – where a Republican attorney general has 27 possible cases of illegal votes cast in the 2020 election. 

That’s twenty-seven cases – in all races for office – in a state with more than 5.9 million votes cast. That works out to one in every 219,341 ballots. Not exactly what you’d call “massive” anything. 

Meanwhile, the winner of the Nevada Republican Party primary, to pick a nominee to become the state’s next secretary of state, has prepped voters beforehand – in case he loses. In a February candidates’ forum, Jim Marchant warns his audience that their vote “hasn’t counted in decades.” 

He also likes to tell everyone, “It’s almost statistically impossible that Joe Biden won” the 2020 election. 

(Many Trump supporters are terrible with statistics.) 

 

The “frivolous side of the line.” 

May 2022: A federal judge – appointed by Rejected-President Trump – slaps aside another “Stolen Election” claim, this one filed by the perpetually-deluded-and-cluelessly-loyal Mike Lindell. The legal language is abstruse, but boiling it down as best this blogger can, U.S. District Court Judge Carl Nichols orders Mr. MyPillow to pay court costs and legal fees for Smartmatic, a voting software company suing Mike for defamation. This wasn’t a total defeat for Lindell, but did not bode well for his overall defense. Nichols noted in his ruling that at least one of Lindell’s stolen vote claims was “frivolous,” and noted that “other claims” fell on the “frivolous side of the line.” 

 

June 8, 2022: The final tally shows that Mehmet Oz, the Trump-endorsed candidate for a seat in the U.S. Senate from Pennsylvania, has won the GOP primary, very narrowly defeating David McCormick. Oz polls 419,999 votes, McCormick 419,048. 

That’s a margin of 951 votes. 

(Those figures were based on an automatic recount.) 

 

The original vote had shown Oz with a 972-vote lead. 

In other words, the original count was accurate to within nineteen votes, out of 1.3 million cast. 

(There were several other candidates.) 

 

What makes this story even more important is that before all the votes could be counted in the May primary, Trump was urging Oz to declare victory. “It just makes it harder for them to cheat with the ballots that they ‘just happened to find,’” Trump explained on Truth Social – though he lacked evidence of actual fraud. 

The obvious question is why anyone would listen to – or be surprised – by Donald’s knee jerk election-denying lies. 

For some reason, former Pennsylvania state GOP chairman Rob Gleason was! He told reporters that it was “just shocking” that Trump was calling for canceling Republican ballots cast in a Republican primary. That is: to stop the counting of mail-in ballots, with the candidate he endorsed barely ahead. 

Consider Trump’s history. Gleason should have been shocked if Donald didn’t try to stop the count.

  

Candidate gets 3.4% of the vote – claims she really won. 

June 14 (Flag Day – Donald’s birthday): In Republican circles it’s the fad to claim any election lost was “rigged.” Even more telling, Republicans are increasingly likely to hurl feces at one another. In Georgia, far-right candidate Kandiss Taylor, comes up a little short in her bid to unseat Governor Brian Kemp – a Trump-hated man. 

(Kemp’s “crime?” Saying the Georgia election in 2020 wasn’t stolen.) 

 

In the GOP primary, Taylor gets just 3.4% of the total vote. Kemp “nips” her at the end with 73.7%. 

Taylor wastes no time before claiming that the fix is in! “We have a national data team working on the 2022 primary election fraud. More will be forthcoming,” a spokesperson for her campaign says. 

“Given that my vote total currently lags my number of volunteers by nearly 20,000, I do not trust these election results and neither should any supporter of either of my opponents or candidates in any other races,” Taylor explains in a press release. In her opinion, Georgia elections have “become a travesty spearheaded by the corrupt, organized, willful assault” on democracy by Gov. Kemp, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, Attorney General Chris Carr, and, for good measure, gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, who won the Democratic primary. 

Taylor is battered by reality, but unbowed. “I want y’all to know that I do not concede,” she announces in a shrill online video. “I do not. And if the people who did this and cheated are watching, I do not concede.” 

(Trump couldn’t have said it any better himself.) 

 

In other news, we continue to learn more about what Ginni Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, was doing in the wake of the 2020 election. That is, she was working diligently behind the scenes to overturn results. She was determined to keep Trump in the White House, by any means necessary, only short of gunfire and cluster bombs. 

Investigators now know she communicated with every major player involved in the Team Trump plot to overturn voting results. The latest discovery: Mrs. Thomas was in communication, via email, with Dr. John Eastman.

Ginni Thomas, right, was in regular communication with Dr. Eastman.

  

June 22: The investigation into the only real attempt to steal the 2020 election continues. Wednesday Dr. Eastman steps out of a restaurant into the waiting arms of federal agents, who relieve him of his phone. 

On Wednesday, federal agents also raid the home of former Assistant Attorney General Jeffery Clark. As more than two dozen Republican witness have made clear in congressional hearings, Eastman and Clark were two main cogs, driving the plot to keep Donald J. Trump in office for a second term. 

(Team Trump will describe all such searches as “weaponizing” the Department of Justice. In reality, a state or federal judge will have believed there was “probable cause” to issue a warrant in every case.) 

(That’s the law.) 

 

Even more interesting, according to the Washington Post, the inspector general for the Department of Justice may be involved in ordering the searches and seizures. An inspector general operates independently. Their whole job is to uncover and deal with waste, fraud, or abuse within their departments. 

We also learn that Dr. Eastman was frisked, and forced to provide bio-metric information to allow agents to open his phone, which no doubt disrupted his digestion. Eastman is famous for deciding – in the waning days of the Trump administration – to email Rudy Giuliani. Could Rudy please let the Boss know: “I’ve decided I should be on the pardon list, if that is still in the works.” 

Eastman’s problems only mount. U.S. District Judge David O. Carter rules against the professor and orders him to turn over 101 of 111 disputed emails requested by the House Committee on January 6. 

 

“A coup in search of a legal theory.” 

In his 44-page opinion, Judge Carter insists that the crime-fraud exception negates Eastman’s claim that as a lawyer any communications he might have had with Mr. Trump are privileged and not subject to judicial review. 

Carter is blunt, warning: 

If Dr. Eastman and President Trump’s plan had worked, it would have permanently ended the peaceful transition of power [emphasis added, unless otherwise noted], undermining American democracy and the Constitution. If the country does not commit to investigating and pursuing accountability for those responsible, the Court fears January 6 will repeat itself.

 

Judge Carter has only limited jurisdiction in the matter, but blasts both Eastman and the former president for their actions leading up to and including on January 6. The two, he says, “launched a campaign to overturn a democratic election, an action unprecedented in American history.” 

And they did it when they knew (or should have known) they had no evidence to prove their claims of massive voter fraud. 

That plot to steal the election, the judge describes as “a coup in search of a legal theory.” The plan hatched by Eastman and Trump “spurred violent attacks on the seat of our nation’s government, led to the deaths of several law enforcement officers, and deepened public distrust in our political process.” 

The “Court finds it more likely than not that President Trump corruptly attempted to obstruct the Joint Session of Congress on January 6, 2021,” Carter says. He further notes that “an agreement to enact the electoral count plan likely existed between President Trump and Dr. Eastman” and that it was “more likely than not that President Trump and Dr. Eastman dishonestly conspired to obstruct” the final counting of the electoral votes. 

 

BLOGGER’S NOTE: By this point Trump and the other election deniers, who riddle the GOP, have lost something like two hundred major cases in court, and multiple recounts continue to show how accurate election results are. 

 

Lyman cries fraud…wait…I won? 

June 27, 2022: Lightning doesn’t strike twice in the same place, according to today’s GOP. It strikes every time an election is lost. 

Once again, a Republican claims voter fraud in a fraud-free contest. This time the man with the bogus complaint is Rep. Phil Lyman, a Utah lawmaker, who cries fraud in the GOP primary. There were “reports” in Wasatch County that a machine changed voters’ choices and … oh … the hell with it. 

Lt. Governor Deidre M. Henderson (also a Republican) explains that the problem was “small font size” and every voter had three chances to verify their choice. 

Lyman goes on to win a seat in the state legislature – which shows you just how idiotic these incessant “Stolen Election” claims are. 

 

June 28: How bad for the former president has testimony been at the January 6 hearings in Congress? 

(Those hearings, we have covered in Parts VII through XIII.) 

 

Today, Mick Mulvaney, Trump’s old White House Chief of Staff, having listened to the most recent hearing, tweets: 

[Rep. Liz] Cheney’s closing is stunning: they think they have evidence of witness tampering and obstruction of justice. There is an old maxim: it’s never the crime, it’s always the coverup. Things went very badly for the former President today. My guess is that it will get worse from here[.]

 

Mr. Mulvaney also felt a need to add this, in regard to Cassidy Hutchinson, whose testimony during the hearing has been highly damaging to the former president. “I know her. I don’t think she is lying.” 

(Whereas even Melania probably thinks her husband is.) 

 

Former White House Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Matthews also comes to her former colleague’s defense. Anyone “downplaying Cassidy Hutchinson’s role or her access in the West Wing either doesn’t understand how the Trump [White House] worked or is attempting to discredit her because they’re scared of how damning this testimony is,” Matthews tweets. 

Donald pipes up to say he hardly knows who Hutchinson was (she’s quite attractive – so you know he does) although her office in his White House was only a few feet down the hall from the Oval Office. 

And, of course, he feels a need to label her a “whack job.” 

(She had, of course, testified under oath.) 

 

“When people start to believe their own lies.” 

Alex Holder, the British film maker given access to interview and record President Trump and his family members, both before and after the January 6 attack, verifies what informed Americans have already deduced. After he lost the November election it became impossible to reason with the defeated president. “It’s very scary when people start to believe their own lies and when you can’t have a rational conversation with them – that’s when things become very dangerous,” Holder explains. 

There’s good news, however, for Mr. Trump. Holder describes the former president as living in “cloud cuckoo land.” He believed his own “Stolen Election” lies. “Donald Trump is not a rational player. I mean, he just isn’t.”  

How is that good news? Now that we know Trump has been indicted, his lawyer may be able to prove his innocence by way of insanity. 

And for fun, we should note. Donald has been indicted: 

FOUR TIMES!!!! 

July 1, 2022: Having listened to the testimony of Cassidy Hutchinson and two dozen other witnesses in the January 6 hearings, GOP Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson (no relation) makes clear. As far as Mr. Trump, and his conduct in the months leading up to and after the last election, he says, “I will not be supporting him for 2024, he acted irresponsibly during that time, he was a risk to the nation, absolutely.” 

 

Flush $190,000 down a toilet. 

July 2: The gremlins strike afresh. In Nevada, two Joe’s face off in a bitter GOP primary for governor. On one side is Joey Gilbert, a COVID-truther and believer in stolen elections (now including his own). 

With votes left to count, on Wednesday morning, the day after the primary, Gilbert cries foul. His opponent, Joe Lombardo, appears to have won with 38.4% of the vote. Gilbert, at 27.6%, isn’t going to take his democratic medicine like a man. Rather, like an angry toddler told he can’t have Fruit Loops for dinner, he explodes in a Facebook rant. He even capitalizes a random word, like Donald, when he still had a Twitter account, and dreamed of pardoning himself. “Maybe the establishment and swamp rats forgot who they’re dealing with,” Gilbert writes. “I smell a lawsuit because this STINKS! I will concede nothing. No one likes No Show Joe and he absolutely is not beating me, and will not beat me in a fair fight/race.” 

Love it! “No Show Joe,” a kind of Trumpian insult. And bonus points, I guess: Gilbert added a rat emoji to his post. 

In any case, Nevada election officials keep counting votes. Lombardo’s lead grows. He garners 45% of the total vote, nearly doubling up on Gilbert, who finishes a very distant second, at 23.8%. 

Well, not so fast! 

Gilbert and his supporters decide to pay for a recount of the state’s two most-populous counties, Clark, and Washoe. The recount  takes five days and costs Mr. Gilbert’s campaign $190,000, and he still loses in those two counties by 28,648 votes. 

In Washoe, where almost 30,000 people showed up to vote, Gilbert picked up two (2) votes! 

In Clark, a recount of more than 88,000 votes shows that Lombardo lost eight (8), and Gilbert gained … okay, none. 

He lost seven (7). 

At a cost of $190,000, Gilbert netted three (3) votes.

Nevada landscape - from the blogger's bicycle ride across the USA.

  

He must cough up $2,322,500 in restitution. 

July 5: Remember Lev Parnas? Back in 2020, he worked cheek to jowl with Rudy Giuliani, in a noble effort to “clean up corruption” in Ukraine. Lev and Rudy and Igor Fruman – the Three Musketeers of Justice. 

Searching high and low for Hunter Biden’s laptop. 

Lev just got sentenced to twenty months in prison, which we can all agree is a terrible look for any corruption fighter. Or, as the Department of Justice puts it, Parnas will be spending the next chapter of his life in the slammer, as a result of “conspiring to make political contributions by a foreign national along with solicitation and aiding and abetting the making of the same, conspiring to make straw donations, participating in a wire fraud conspiracy, and making false statements and falsifying records.” 

And just whose money was Lev funneling to U.S. politicians? Not just tainted cash from, say, Canadians. 

No. 

Russian money! Andrey Muraviev’s Russian money to be exact. 

Lev was a sh*tty corruption fighter. And as part of his sentence, he must cough up $2,322,500 in restitution.

Left to right: VP Pence, Fruman, Parnas, Trump, Giuliani.

 

So, to recap. Lev is going to jail. Fruman will be out first, having been sentenced to 366 days in prison for similarly larcenous acts. Two lesser lights in the scheme, Andrey Kukushkin and David Corriea, are also having living expenses footed by the federal government, as they, too, have been sentenced to a year and a day behind bars. 

Muraviev remains free – having decided to hunker down in Russia, beyond the reach of U.S. law. 

If one is keeping track of all things Trump, one will remember how Konstantin Kilimnik, a Russian pal of Trump 2016 Campaign Manager Paul Manafort, was wanted for questioning by the F.B.I. in regard to the Mueller investigation. Kilimnik booked a flight to Russia just hours ahead of the law. 

He remains on the “Most Wanted” list, with a reward of $250,000 offered for information leading to his arrest. 

You might also recall that another person of interest, Natalia Veselnitskaya, the Russian lawyer who met in secret with Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner, and Mr. Manafort, in June 2016, also absconded. 

Veselnitskaya:
Me? Offering  Russian help to Don Jr., Jared and Paul?

In fact, if you haven’t noticed, there are all kinds of shady characters in the story of Donald J. Trump, including all kinds of convicted felons. 

(For some reason, Trump had a pronounced penchant, as president, for pardoning people who might otherwise have testified against him. Paul Manafort, for example, immediately comes to mind. He got a Golden Pardon, too.) 

If you are doing the math the Three Musketeers have now been cut down by 66.667%. And the way Rudy is going, he might be cut off at the ankles next. We now know that a Georgia grand jury has subpoenaed Mr. Giuliani, in an investigation into efforts to steal the last presidential election, wrap it in a red, white, and blue bow, and hand it over to Rejected-President Donald. That way, he might serve a second, undeserved term and pardon Rudy and all his criminally inclined pals. 

In the January 6 hearings, at the time I first put this post together, Cassidy Hutchinson, the former White House aide, had just testified under oath that Giuliani pursued the idea of a pardon in the dying days of Trump’s first term. 

“America’s Mayor” has denied that he ever asked for such a boon, but seems to have undercut his denial, when he assured reporters that Ms. Hutchinson was “a reckless liar,” and “was never present when I asked [emphasis added] for a pardon.” 

That may have been nothing more than a poor choice of words, but considering the track record of the Three Musketeers, where legalities were involved, you go with Ms. Hutchinson’s word over Rudy’s. 

(Rudy also “testified” under oath – and repeatedly took the Fifth.) 

 

Mr. Giuliani might feel a little better knowing that he’s not alone in being subpoenaed by Georgia investigators. Also sent legal missives were the six other Seven Dwarfs of Insurrection, namely: Sen. Lindsey Graham, Jenna Ellis, John Eastman, Cleta Mitchell, Kenneth Chesebro and Jacki Pick Deason. 

All are suspected of pushing “Stolen Election” lies, and conspiring to pressure Georgia officials to overturn the fair vote of that state in the 2020 election. 

 

“If the justices start to fear.” 

In fact, early evidence seems to indicate that the Dwarfs had a plan to purposely stir up chaos on January 6. 

Both the former Attorney General Bill Barr, and the then-Acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen, had told the president by late December 2020, that there was no evidence of significant voter fraud. Yet, Trump and the Dwarfs kept plotting. In one email exchange, Eastman admitted that a legal challenge to the vote in Wisconsin, aimed at the U.S. Supreme Court, was unlikely to yield results. Four justices had to agree to take the case (and only Justice Clarence Thomas had shown any inclination). “So the odds are not based on the legal merits but an assessment of the justices’ spines,” Eastman said, “and I understand that there is a heated fight underway.” 

(As mentioned above, at that time, Justice Thomas’s wife was working hard to undermine voting results – and she and Eastman were in regular contact.)

Chesebro was no more optimistic about the case, based on merit, but still saw a path to success. Five days after Trump called upon supporters to descend on the nation’s capital and make it “wild,” Chesebro had hope. The “odds of action before Jan. 6 will become more favorable if the justices start to fear that there will be ‘wild’ chaos on Jan. 6 unless they rule by then, either way.”  

So: that was the plan. Scare the U.S. Supreme Court into action – and if it took the threat of a riot – or civil war – fine. 

Again, jumping ahead, Ellis and Chesebro have already pled guilty to felony raps in the Georgia election fraud case. So, we bold their names – as among the individuals who know Trump is a liar. You can even watch Ms. Ellis plead guilty, in a video posted by PBS. The story on Chesebro is here. 

We can also point out, for additional fun with facts (which true MAGA Heads will ignore): the ten individuals chosen to be fake electors for Trump, in Wisconsin, finally admitted the truth. In December 2023, they agreed to settle a lawsuit filed by the real electors, and acknowledge that Joe Biden won the popular vote in 2020, in their state. 

 

Meanwhile, back to events in 2022, we go:

 

For $256,000 you can gain one (1) vote in a recount. 

July 16: Wherever right-wingers can be found, conspiracy theories abound. Tina Peters, a Colorado candidate for secretary of state, losses her primary by a “razor thin” margin of 14 points. Ms. Peters washes up on Steve Bannon’s podcast and claims there has been “extensive malfeasance” in the race, and demands a recount. The dupes begin donating, and she forks out a quarter of a million dollars for a recount. 

What did she get for $256,000? 

She gained one (1) vote in a test county – but the winner gained two, as did the third-place finisher. Peters got nothing but heartbreak for her money. 

(Actually, “their” money, which came from silly folks who believed her, and regularly believe in Steve “I Got a Pardon” Bannon.)

For that kind of money, you could have bought the Ferrari F8 Spider.

 

Nor was Peters the only GOP kook to demand and pay for a recount and still end up toast. Also in Colorado: Dr. Rae Ann Weber picked up five votes – but not enough to close the 31-point victory margin for the winner in her race. 

Peter Lupia picked up three votes, but his opponent gained two. So he still lost by 28 points. 

Finally, a third Republican primary candidate trumpeted the “Stolen Election” claim. Zamora Wilson gained zero votes (0) in her recount. Her opponent notched one, padding his 32-point win. 

The same warping could be seen in South Carolina – a deep crimson state, where GOP officials control all major levers of voting. Two primary challengers, gubernatorial candidate Harrison Musselwhite and attorney general candidate Lauren Martel, claimed something was fishy in how they went down to defeat. 

Musselwhite, who goes by the nickname “Trucker Bob,” and campaigned on a promise to end “medical tyranny,” and conduct a “forensic audit of the 2020 presidential election” in the state, lost by 66 points. 

Martel ran a closer race – but still got doubled up by the incumbent, who outpolled her, 168,330 to 82,085. 

 

“Surprised to learn that they were allegedly deceased.” 

August 2, 2022: The Attorney General of Arizona, Mark Brnovich, issues his final report on voter fraud in 2020, in his state. 

Ever since Trump’s defeat, his cult followers have insisted that in Arizona, dead people trooped to the polls by the trillions – as cemeteries emptied their plots. Brnovich, who’s a Republican, examined every claim put forward by partisans of Rejected-President Trump, as he explained. 

Our agents investigated all individuals that Cyber Ninjas [an investigating team put to work and paid for by Team Trump] reported as dead, and many were very surprised to learn that they were allegedly deceased. In addition, we received dead voter reports from other sources that were also reviewed. Three reports were submitted to the [Election Integrity Unit] that combined alleged 409 dead voters. One additional report, making no distinction between dead voters and dead registrants, included 5,943 registrations. Once again, these claims were thoroughly investigated and resulted in only a handful of potential cases.

 

Brnovich went on to say of such claims, “Some were so absurd the names and birthdates didn’t even match the deceased, and others included dates of death after the election.” 

So, there you had it. R.I.P. “Stolen Election” lie. The story of dead voters in Arizona had been hauled off to the morgue. 

(Then again: A full slate of fresh election deniers was on the ballot in the coming Republican primary in that state, and all of those deniers were endorsed by the delusional Donald J. Trump.) 

 

Election deniers galore! 

August 3: In Arizona, Trump-endorsee Kari Lake, running on the idea that the state’s 2020 election results were fraudulent, had warned that more fraud might be coming in her primary. She suggested that shady operators “might be trying to set the stage for another steal.” Now, on Election Night, Lake claims her campaign was “already detecting some stealing going on,” but disdains to provide evidence. She tells reporters that changing election laws will be her top priority if nominated. 

“This is why we’re in this race,” she exclaims. “This is why we have this movement right here.” 

And, lo, did, the fraudsters prevail…and…Kari Lake piled up a 12,000 vote lead, with 82% of results counted. 

(She goes on to win the primary – and then lose, and cry “fraud” – in the general election. Because, of course, she would.) 

Mike Lindell and Kari Lake, right – two election-denying nuts.

  

In Michigan, Ryan Kelley finishes fourth in the GOP gubernatorial primary. Naturally, he claims it was a “predetermined outcome.” 

And the fact he had been arrested for his role in the January 6 riot was definitely not part of the problem! 

The sap lost by 25 points. 

In another nail-biter, Michigan Senate candidate Mike Detmer, who carried the coveted Trump endorsement into the GOP primary, posted on social media that he was “not buying” voting results. And, oh, so close! Detmer lost his challenge to incumbent Sen. Lana Theis, by 16 percentage points. 

 

August 6: Rudy Giuliani, thrice-divorced lawyer pal of twice-divorced, three-time adulterer Donald J. Trump, continues to be battered by the courts. Not only is Rudy one of several Trump lawyers or Trump-loving media outlets named in a damage claim of $1.3 billion in a defamation case. 

Now he’s being sued by ex-wife #3. Judith Giuliani says her ex has failed to pay her $262,000 that the court says he owes. 

 

Subverting democracy at a rate of $20,000 per day. 

Rudy is also a target of the January 6 Committee in the U.S. House of Representatives, looking into a scheme to create fake electoral votes in 2020. Those votes were then to be submitted to Vice President Mike Pence. Then Rudy and Donald would sit back on January 6, 2021, and watch Mr. Pence overturn the real electoral vote. 

Anyone else involved in that scheme? Yes. Alex Jones – who has other legal woes – would be one. 

And let’s not ignore Dr. Eastman, the alleged mastermind of the fake electoral votes plot. We know that while Eastman and Giuliani, and a host of others close to then-President Trump, had dinned in his ears claims of epic election fraud, that even they understood such claims were weak. 

On January 20, 2021, just hours after President Biden was inaugurated, Eastman sent Giuliani a request. He wanted help collecting $270,000 he was owed by Team Trump for his efforts to subvert democracy. Eastman knew he and like-minded conspiracy kooks had failed to prove their case. He suggested looking into the special elections for U.S. Senate in Georgia, which had taken place on January 5. 

“A lot of us have now staked our reputations on the claims of election fraud,” he admitted, “and this would be a way to gather proof.” So far, Eastman realized, they had little. “If we get proof of fraud on Jan. 5, it will likely also demonstrate the fraud on Nov. 3, thereby vindicating President Trump’s claims and serving as a strong bulwark against [a] Senate impeachment trial.” 

In other words, they had been working to contest the November election, all along, but didn’t have proof. 

The invoice Eastman sent included $10,000-per day charges for eight days in January 2021. That included efforts on January 4, and January 5, when Dr. Eastman and President Trump pressed Vice President Pence to throw out all the electoral votes that Mr. Trump didn’t like. Election-denying had proven lucrative (assuming Trump came through and paid his bills – always a shaky proposition). 

Rudy also sent in a bill for services. In his case, he was charging the Trump campaign $20,000 per day. 

(These prices will buy you a lot of lying.) 

 

August 9: We would be remiss if we failed to mention Congressman Scott Perry, of Pennsylvania. Rep. Perry was stopped Tuesday by federal agents – while traveling with his family. The Republican lawmaker is allegedly involved in the same voter fraud conspiracy as Rudy – the one that hinged on sending fake electoral votes to Congress and gifting Donald an unearned second term. Under yet another court-ordered search warrant, he was forced to give up his phone. 

(Rep. Perry eventually goes to court to block authorities from using anything they might find on his phone. He claims 2,219 records should be protected. The first judge to hear his case says 90% of those records should not be protected. That’s another loss for Team Trump – in particular, Rep. Perry – and the matter goes to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. 

In September 2023, a three-judge panel issues a ruling, which remains under seal, limiting access to some of those records.) 

FOR NOW, WE’LL COUNT THIS AS A RARE ELECTION DENIER’S WIN!! 

 

UPDATE (December 20, 2023): Having examined the contents of Rep. Perry’s phone, U.S. District Judge James Boasberg rules that he may shield 396 records on his phone. Then again, he must turn over 1,659 records to investigators – which are likely to reveal loads of election-stealing plotters’ fun. 

Boasberg is the dreaded “Obama judge” of Trumpian lore; but it’s worth noting that when he was chosen to fill a spot in the federal judiciary, he was approved by unanimous U.S. Senate vote, 96-0. 

 

August 10, 2022: Joey Gilbert, loser of the GOP primary for governor of Nevada, goes to court again. He demands the results of the primary be tossed out. 

Alas, his suit is tossed instead. 

Gilbert, a former professional boxer, is the kind of election denier Donald J. Trump can get behind, but it would seem he suffered too many shots to the head in the ring. Gilbert appeals his loss all the way to the Nevada Supreme Court. 

Once again, his suit is tossed. 

(Another year will pass, before the highest court in the state rules against Gilbert once more. The justices uphold sanctions ordered by a lower court. Joey and his lawyer must reimburse the state $250,000 for wasting election officials’ and the courts’ time. Fraud allegations filed by Gilbert and his attorneys, the Nevada Supreme Court rules, “fall far short of being legitimate.”) 

 

Only the mob – and Donald J. Trump – take the Fifth. 

Meanwhile, the former president is required to show up and give a deposition in New York City, related to possible financial trickeries involving the Trump Organization. So, how did that go? 

Let Mr. Trump tell the story: “Under the advice of my counsel ...  I declined to answer the questions under the rights and privileges afforded to every citizen under the United States Constitution.” 

This would be fine if you were a fan, as is Mr. Blogger, of the U.S. Constitution and the rights guaranteed to defendants under the Fifth, Sixth, Seventh and Eighth Amendments. We don’t want innocent people to be dragged into court and convicted unfairly. 

(See: Trump and the Central Park Five.) 

 

Sadly, if you have kept your wits about you, you may recall a happier time when Candidate Trump, in 2016, repeatedly barked at rallies about how, if people who worked for Hillary Clinton were innocent, “Why were they taking the Fifth?” 

In those days, Trump scoffed at the rights of “every citizen” under investigation. “Only the mob takes the Fifth,” he would shout. 

With that, his fans would start chanting. “Lock her up!” Then the howl would build. “Lock her UP! LOCK HER UP!” 

It was the roar of the mob – and Trump loved it immensely – and promised, as soon as he was president, he would lock Hillary up. (Don’t forget that whenever you hear Republicans whining now about how Biden has “weaponized” the Justice Department. That was Trump’s plan.) 

 

This might be funny now, were Trump’s loyal fans not so impenetrably uninformed, regarding how the U.S. justice system works. 

So: Trump shows up in NYC, partly under threat of a criminal contempt order. And, lo, doth he sayeth that he is innocent. And the investigation is a “witch hunt.” And he will prove it by “pleading the Fifth,” to every question, save one. 

Had he been asked, “Were you ever President of the United States?” he would have invoked his right not to incriminate himself. In fact, he took the Fifth on more than 440 questions, over a span of four hours. 

Meanwhile, Mr. Blogger learns something new! Under New York State law, if a defendant in a civil case takes the Fifth, as did Donald a “mere” 440 times, a jury can draw the inference that the defendant is liable. 

That is: a liar and a crook. 

 

Democracy in action – or maybe Uber. 

Donald wasn’t the only member of Team Trump to take a judicial crack to the skull this week. Giuliani suffered several. “America’s Mayor” has been served a subpoena himself – to show up for deposition in Fulton County, Georgia. In his case, a grand jury is considering indictments in a possible Republican conspiracy to commit election fraud. Rudy fought the subpoena and the law won. Then he informed the judge that he couldn’t make it to Atlanta on August 17, as required. 

Why? 

He claimed he was too sick at 78 to fly. The judge told Rudy to hire an Uber and make the drive if he must. 

 

August 12: If you still  believe in the “Stolen Election” fairy tale, as the delusional former president does, you are probably going to feel sadder at a new report out of Wisconsin. State Assembly Leader Robin Voss, a Republican, has officially ended a review of that state’s 2020 voting results. 

After more than a year devoted to looking for fraud, at a cost to taxpayers of $1 million, Voss pulled the plug, since nothing of note had been discovered. 

Team Trump suffers another kick in the legal nuts, when a judge in New York City rules that the criminal fraud case against the Trump Organization, and Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg may proceed. The fifteen-count indictment includes charges of tax evasion and grand larceny. 

 

Ballots aren’t loaves and fish. 

August 13: We also have fresh evidence to show that right-wing types will never lose another election without claiming to have seen Bigfoot the Illegal Voter stopping to poop in the woods, on his way to the polls. Kansas voters just blew up a GOP bid to amend the constitution and take abortion rights away. The margin of victory, for the pro-choice side, was a whopping 165,000 votes. 

Nothing fazed, Melissa Leavitt, an anti-abortion activist, asked for a recount, insisting in a social media post that she had seen “data…that there were irregularities” on election night. This was Kansas, folks, a bright red state, where Republican officials control all levers of power. 

But Leavitt had her pet conspiracy theory, and launched a campaign to raise the $275,000 required to pay for a recount of all 922,000 ballots. As of Saturday afternoon, she had raised $4,000. 

“I’m just going to say the next 48 hours is going to have a lot to do with God moving in people’s lives,” Leavitt said in a TikTok video. 

“And if it’s going to happen it’s going to happen and if it doesn’t it doesn’t. But I’m praying. I’m praying that we get it.” 

 

UPDATE: When I check back to see what happened, I find that Leavitt did raise almost $120,000, with $80,000 coming from a single donor, and managed to pay for a partial recount in nine Kansas counties, including Johnson, the most populous, and Douglas, home to the University of Kansas main campus. 

There are 105 counties in the state. 

God “rewarded” her efforts with a net change of  63 votes in her favor – not enough to close the 165,000 gap.

In Kansas a large majority voted for abortion rights.

 

If you’re a true believer in Trump, and all his incredible lies, please find a recount that shows huge discrepancies. 

(Email your find at: vilejjv@yahoo.com. And thanks for your help.) 

(Hahaha. Seriously. You’re not going to find diddly.) 

 

I couldn’t resist doing a little more digging. The nine counties where recounts were conducted had polled the following numbers of votes: 

Crawford:        10,222

Douglas:           46,490

Harvey:             12,243

Jefferson:            6,623

Johnson:         248,904

Lyon:                  9,658

Sedgwick:       142,691

Shawnee:          63,648

Thomas:             2,498

                        ______

 

Total:              542,977 (well over half the total across the entire state)

 

Abortion opponents, Leavitt’s “team” if you will, had lost the vote in all those counties except the last. 

(That would be an error rate of 1 for every 8,619 ballots.) 

 

We’re going to need a bigger wall! 

August 15: This morning we learned that Rudy Giuliani has been notified. He is a target of a grand jury investigation in Fulton County, Georgia, involving possible conspiracy to commit election fraud. 

Finally! Courts are taking efforts to steal the 2020 election seriously – but these are the efforts of Rudy and Donald J. Trump and their feloniously-inclined pals. In related news, Sen. Lindsey Graham, who may have played a supporting role, has been ordered by a federal judge to show up and testify before the same grand jury. We should also note, that since the investigation in Fulton County involves violations of state law, a president could not pardon himself – or his pals. 

And we’re still not done with court news for the day! The New York Times is reporting that the Chief Financial Officer of the Trump Organization has reached some sort of plea deal. Andrew Weisselberg is expected to cop to a felony, but spend only five months behind bars. Hefty fines also seem likely. 

Weisselberg is refusing so far to implicate anyone else in this case (such as his boss, Donald J. Trump) but we will soon be adding another convicted felon to the Team Trump “Wall of Shame.” 

(We’re going to need a bigger wall.)

Allen planning his next felony.

  

August 17: Team Trump takes another hit when it is learned Mr. Weisselberg is ready to plead to – not one felony – not two – not three. 

FIFTEEN!! 

He will admit he committed tax fraud. He will admit he committed grand larceny. He will admit he falsified business records. Finally, he will admit to having taken part in a conspiracy. In other words, the guy is a one-man crime wave. Now, get this. He’s expected to serve only five months in jail. 

“WTF,” you are thinking. 

Don’t despair. Weisselberg was conspiring to commit a variety of crimes. Now he will be required to spill the beans on how the Trump Organization operated. Weisselberg will admit he managed to hide $1.76 million in income, as part of a complicated, years long tax avoidance scheme. 

Prosecutors must believe he can spill some beans on other tax cheats linked to the scheme. 

Donald J., perhaps? 

(When I edit this post, in March 2024, Weisselberg has plead guilty again! At the business fraud trial, in which Donald J. Trump was the primary target, his old CFO at the Trump Organization, just couldn’t help himself. Perjury is fun, so he commits perjury again; and now he’s going to jail. Again. He’s sentenced to five more months in the slammer – kind of the wages of working for Trump.) 

 

I’ve listened. You should too. 

Also on Wednesday, Rudy Giuliani showed up to give testimony in a grand jury probe in Fulton County. That probe is investigating a conspiracy to commit election fraud – organized by Joe Bi… 

Ha, ha, no. Rudy is a target of the investigation – suspected of helping organize a plot to steal the 2020 election in that state – and hand over sixteen unearned electoral votes to Donald J. Trump. According to news reports he was grilled for more than six hours. 

So, what do we know for sure? Should we start drooling like Trump supporters at a rally, and start chanting, “Lock him up!” 

Rudy could be innocent. 

Trump could be innocent too; but I’ve listened to his call to the Georgia secretary of state, where he asked him to “find” 11,780 votes, so Trump could “win” the state. I’m not going to start chanting till the courts decide; but I’ve listened, and you should too. 

 

Without a morsel of evidence. 

August 25: Once again, a Republican loser in a losing election fight cries “voter fraud wolf!” This time, it’s Laura Loomer – disdained in decent GOP circles (which still exist) as a hateful white nationalist and proud Islamophobe – who lost a GOP primary in Florida. In other words, the crazy Republicans continue to eat the sane Republicans whenever they feel a need for a snack. 

“I’m not conceding, because I’m a winner!” Loomer cried, even though a count of the votes showed she wasn’t. “And the reality is, this Republican Party is broken to its core,” she continued. “What we have done tonight is really, honestly shocked the nation,” she said through tears, in a speech to supporters. 

In fact, the nation wasn’t shocked at all. Not even baffled or befuddled. The vote went as follows: 

Webster:        43,471    (51.2%)

Loomer:         37,612    (44.2%)

 

The rest of the ballots were marked for a third candidate – or ended up scattered for other dark horse choices. (Did you know “Mickey Mouse” often gets votes? Also, random people vote for themselves.) 

“Loomer the Loser” wasn’t having it. “We have further exposed a corruption within our own feckless, cowardly Republican Party. And that is exactly the reason why, right, I decided to go against the RINO Republican Daniel Webster, do-nothing Daniel Webster,” she claimed. “We are losing our country to big-tech election interference,” she added – without offering a morsel of proof – which isn’t required in right-wing circles today. “And I am pleading with the Republican Party to please start taking this issue seriously, because the American people deserve representation.” 

Which in fact, the “American people” (at least a chunk who voted in a GOP primary in Florida) got by giving Webster a chance to get back to Congress, while sending Loomer home to do more hating on minority groups.

Loomer, left, and that other election denier oaf.

 

 

Hitler: “The kind of leader we need today.” 

Since we’re talking racist creeps, let’s add Carl Paladino to our list. The Buffalo, New York businessman also suffered defeat in a GOP primary, this one in New York. Even before polls closed a spokesperson for his campaign warned, “We are seeing a number of statistical irregularities in a number of counties that we will be looking [into] in the coming days. We want every single legal vote to count.” 

Mr. Paladino’s official Twitter account also commenced seeding the field with conspiracy theories. Stories of “irregularities” were shared, and voters were urged to call his “electoral integrity hot line.” 

That number: 716-539-2994. 

I had to restrain myself from dialing and swearing I saw the Loch Ness monster dog paddling along the Lake Erie shore. 

Paladino’s chances for victory were no doubt dented when he suggested recently that Adolf Hitler was “the kind of leader we need today.” 

And if America should have been shocked, as Loomer the Loser claimed, it might be by the fact that Paladino (who once said Michele Obama should go back to Africa, live in a cave, and mate with gorillas), got 47.9% of the vote (22,283) in a GOP primary, losing to Nick Langworthy, who had 52.1% (24,275 votes).

 

 

Fox brings the “Fake News!” 

August 27: It’s not “Fake News,” if the free press helps expose political corruption. No matter which party (or none) the crooks in office represent, honest Americans should rejoice when they’re exposed. (We look at the example of Democratic U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez, below.) 

We also want the free press to do a good job, and, as a liberal blogger, I would argue that as long as Fox News is functioning, even if it attacks Joe Biden daily, we should be happy to live in a country with a working democracy, where differing political opinions cannot be suppressed. 

Having pitched in favor of free press, I should also note that Fox may need to fumigate its sets. The massive $1.6 billion defamation suit filed against the company and some of its biggest names continues to move forward in the courts. Dominion Voting Systems, the boogie man in endless “Stolen Election” stories on Fox, has asked the courts to punish the media giant for making baseless allegations that Dominion helped rig the 2020 election. 

Thus, causing Trump’s presidential demise. 

The following Fox hosts (and ex-hosts) have already been ordered to appear in the matter and give depositions: 

Tucker Carlson

Lou Dobbs

Steve Doocy

Sean Hannity

Jeanine Pirro

 

According to The New York Times, the chief executive of Fox News media, Suzanne Scott, may also be deposed, along with the president of Fox News, Jay Scott. Laura Ingraham is also named. 

Dominion would appear to have a compelling case – since no election fraud of any significance has been found – and none of the marginal fraud so far discovered has anything to do with Dominion. 

Both Rupert Murdoch and his son Lachlan, who own and run Fox, may be required to put up or shut up (and pay) by the courts. 

 

“Lies have consequences.” 

As the Times explains: 

The suit accuses Fox of pushing false and far-fetched claims of voter fraud to lure back viewers who had defected to other right-wing news outlets. In its initial complaint, Dominion’s lawyers framed their lawsuit as a matter of profound civic importance. “The truth matters,” they said, adding, “Lies have consequences.”

 

The judge overseeing the case allowed Dominion in late June to expand the suit to include the cable news network’s parent company, Fox Corporation, potentially broadening the exposure of both Murdochs. Shortly after, Fox replaced its outside counsel on the case and hired one of the nation’s most prominent trial lawyers, Dan Webb.

 

There are First Amendment issues at stake. And Fox may prevail. But it’s worth noting, several recent defamation cases show that the courts still consider sustained lying out of bounds. 

Alex Jones has been held liable, in one defamation suit, for $49.2 million in damages. 

Newsmax has already agreed to settle with Eric Coomer, an employee of Dominion, apologize for its lies, regarding voting fraud, and (we are guessing – since terms were confidential) pay an undisclosed sum, because they had no chance of backing up the untruths they had been spreading. 

Hannity and Fox have paid before. Back in 2016, Hannity pushed the idea that Seth Rich, a young Democratic operative, had been killed by kingpins in the party, after he supposedly leaked damaging emails to Wikileaks, which published them in the run-up to the election. Fox had to retract a good chunk of its “reporting” – which in this case we can definitely describe as “Fake News.” 

With Hannity and Lou Dobbs both scheduled to be deposed by lawyers for the Rich family, and embarrassing details sure to be revealed in court, Fox agreed to pay “millions” and settle in 2020. 

One oddity of the agreement? 

Fox, which would be talking endlessly about the coming election that year, did not want viewers to start wondering about the veracity of their reporting. As part of the settlement, the Rich family agreed that nothing would be revealed until after November 3, 2020, when voters would have already gone to the polls – many swayed by ridiculous stories they had listened to on Fox News. 

 

“Have a new Election, immediately!” 

August 29: If you missed it, Trump went on a wild rampage on Truth Social today, posting eighty-eight times, including one truly bonkers idea. Claiming yet again that he had prevailed in the last election, he insisted he should be reinstated as president! 

“Declare the rightful winner or – and this would be the minimal solution – declare the 2020 Election irreparably compromised,” he demanded, “and have a new Election, immediately!” 

Since there are no provisions in the U.S. Constitution, or in federal law, or in reality, that would allow this to happen, you have to assume one or all of the following statements are true: 

A)    Trump has been drinking heavily, or abusing hallucinogens. 

B)     Trump has lost his marbles. 

C)    Trump is acting out because Melania won’t sleep with him anymore. 

D)   Trump doesn’t care what the Constitution says, and wants to be president again at any cost.

 

(Several of his other posts are almost as nutty, but we can’t possibly keep up with every twisted idea he has.) 

 

Democrats have their share of craziness. 

September 7, 2022: We know, if we have any brains in our skulls, that “dangerous idiots” can be found hiding in the political weeds, regardless of party. Trump is mostly different, because he doesn’t bother to hide – and his followers still can’t see him for the unprincipled huckster that he is. Plus, he loves to stir up the dangerous idiots and bring them out of the weeds. 

Today, the Democrats did their share, giving us Nevada’s Clark County public administrator Robert Telles. 

We aren’t ready to scream, “Lock him up!” But we are ready to say you might not want Telles to have access to your cutlery drawer. 

Police have executed a search warrant at his home, related to the stabbing death of Jeff German, an investigative journalist, who had written about the hostile work environment Telles created. 

That cost Telles in the last election. 

(On March 1, 2023, Telles is formally charged with murder.) 

(We colored this entry blue, as in “blue states.”) 

 

September 9: Steve Bannon turns himself in to authorities, has himself fitted for handcuffs, and gets perp-walked into the New York Supreme Court. At one point, he can be seen, being led down a hall, shouting that he is being “persecuted” because he is a conservative – when, in fact, he’s a garden-variety crook. You may remember that Steve was indicted, along with three partners, for fraud while Trump was still in office. And then Trump pardoned Steve – but not his pals. 

Now, state authorities are coming after Bannon – since presidential pardons cover only federal crimes. Bannon finds himself charged with money laundering, conspiracy, and fraud. 

Bannon always looks like he was just released from the drunk tank.

 

Bannon was one of the masterminds behind the “We Build the Wall” scheme, meant to bilk the MAGA dolts. He and his partners, Brian Kolfage and Andrew Badolato, promised that if enough of the faithful would donate their dough, Bannon and Co. would make sure a border wall, funded privately, was built. 

The same dopes who believed Trump when he claimed Mexico would pay for the wall blissfully chipped in millions, and the schemers pocketed almost every dollar, and not even a white picket fence went up. 

A third business partner’s trial has been delayed. 

Unlike Bannon, Bannon’s partners were not granted Golden Pardons by then-President Trump – and so they’ve had to plead guilty. Now they await sentencing and may very well end up in jail. 

Places with real walls. 

 

UPDATE: On April 26, 2023, Kolfage learns the cost of missing out on a pardon. He is sentenced to spend four years and three months in prison. 

Andrew Badolato had already been sent to prison for three years, for his part in the “Fake Wall” scheme. 

We won’t know until July 26, 2023, but the third Musketeer – assuming Bannon is the D’Artagnan of the fraudster bunch – gets hit up for 63 months in a federal lockup. 

 

Trump “attempted to remain in power illegally.” 

September 10: Yet another person who used to work for President Trump weighed in today, regarding his old boss’s legal problems. This time the voice of sanity spilled from the lips of Ty Cobb, who had defended Trump during the Mueller investigation. Mr. Cobb offers his thoughts on the search for classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, and investigations in Congress related to the January 6, 2021, attack on Capitol Hill. 

“I think the president is in serious legal water,” he tells CBS News, “not so much because of the search, but because of the obstructive activity [emphasis added] he took in connection with the Jan. 6 proceeding. That was the first time in American history that a president unconstitutionally attempted to remain in power illegally.” 

Cobb goes on to blast the former president for spreading the “Big Lie” of a stolen election. Trump’s treatment of his own vice president in January 2021 should disqualify him from holding office again, Cobb opines. 

Interfering with Pence, saying Mike deserves this when people are shouting “Kill Pence,” I think that’s outrageous. I think interfering with what the vice president was obligated to do, trying to persuade him in a very aggressive effort not to certify the election, and to send certain electors back, I think that was criminal. 

 

September 12: The Justice Department has subpoenaed dozens of the former president’s aides and associates (dare we say “accomplices”) as part of the federal investigation into the alleged election fraud plot. (The idea being: to create fake electors in seven key states, send in fake votes to gum up the January 6, 2021, count, and pressure Mike Pence to go along, and throw out real votes.) 

(This is not to be confused with the Georgia investigation into election fraud.) 

 

We don’t know all of the lucky recipients – but we do know Boris Epshteyn and Mark Roman had phones seized. Epshteyn is known to have copied on emails sent by Professor John Eastman, believed to be the mastermind of the plot. And we know Eastman has already refused to answer questions in two investigations, one in Georgia, one in Congress, citing his Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate himself. 

Dan Scavino, Trump’s former social-media director, also had a subpoena delivered to his hands. 

According to CNN, former Trump 2020 campaign manager Bill Stepien and Sean Dollman, chief financial officer of the campaign, were served too. 

(Not all of these individuals will be charged.) 

 

Stephen Miller, who bills himself as “Senior Advisor to President Trump,” insists that none of Trump’s aides or allies have broken any laws. Rather, he and they are in a fight to save the country from “irreversible decimation.” Miller paints himself as a victim in the story, tweeting Friday, “The DOJ is now an extension of the Democrat Party – armed with the power of personal destruction.” 

In point of fact, DOJ isn’t destroying anyone. It’s investigating a plot, and judges keep upholding the efforts of various investigators – such as agreeing to issue search warrants – across this great land. 

 

(While editing my posts, in June 2023, I note that Mr. Roman has accepted a deal of some kind and is cooperating in investigations into the plot to steal the election, not from Trump, but for Trump.) 

 

Invoking the Fifth Amendment 440 times. 

September 21: In New York, Donald Trump has been sued for his role in an alleged $250 million fraud scheme. This is the same scheme which led Allen Weisselberg, chief financial officer of the Trump Organization, to plead guilty to a baker’s dozen, plus two, of felony charges. 

A fraud that big would take a lot of work to pull off. Yet, as we always note, Trump could be cleared of wrongdoing in the end. But it’s a civil case, and he’s already in a jam. In a civil case, at least in the State of New York – as noted above – a defendant who refuses to answer questions, by pleading the Fifth, can be considered to be admitting wrong. When Donald had a chance to testify in his own defense, we know he invoked his right against self-incrimination a whopping 440 times. 

If the astute juror failed to catch the drift, they might notice when Eric Trump, a co-defendant, took the Fifth 500 times.

Like father, like son: Pleading the Fifth.

 

In that regard, Eric tied Mr. Weisselberg, who still had to cop to a deal in a separate trial, and plead to fifteen felony charges. 

New York Attorney General Letitia James soon announced that her investigation had uncovered “staggering” amounts of falsified business information and fraud in the case. Also charged were Donald Trump Jr., Weisselberg (again) and Jeffrey McConney, the controller at the firm. 

In one curious example from the 222-page case filing, Ms. James noted that Donald Sr. had claimed his penthouse apartment was 30,000 square feet, and estimated its value at $327 million, when asking for bank loans. 

Someone should have handled Melania a tape measure, because the apartment was a third that size. Mrs. Trump, we must note, has not been charged, and I woud say there is no reason why she should. 

Yay, Melania! 

Team Trump can't even measure.

  

September 22: Mike Lindell, the QAnon-spouting MyPillow guy, and Sidney Powell, former Trump attorney, are in a pickle over their roles in an alleged MAGA plot to commit election fraud in multiple states. Mike was stopped in the drive-thru lane of his local Hardee’s, when federal agents surrounded him, served a warrant, and confiscated his phone. Sidney was scheduled to appear before a Georgia grand jury, investigating election fraud, but failed to appear – which means she could face legal consequences. 

In other “fake electors” news, Kelli Ward, head of the Arizona GOP, gets slugged in the legal jaw by U.S. District Judge Diane Humetewa – who rules that she and her husband must turn over phone records, since they are alleged to have been part of the plot to submit bogus votes. 

 

September 23: Court defeats continue to stack up for Team Trump. Mr. Giuliani skipped out of a court appearance on Friday. Hiding out didn’t help. He was ordered to pay $225,000, plus legal fees, to his third ex-wife, and do so within two weeks or go directly to jail. 

 

Alien lizard people – and other conspiracy theories. 

September 28: The former president is now cozying up to his QAnon base. In one recent Truth Social post, Donald could be seen sporting a “Q” lapel pin. On other occasions, he has linked to stories and memes created by believers in QAnon myths. 

One story he did not link, was the one about Igor Lanis, a Michigan husband and father, who shot his wife multiple times in the back with a shotgun, killing her, and then critically wounded his daughter Rachel, 25. He also killed the family dog – and when police arrived opened fire again. 

Return fire claimed his life. 

Rebecca Lanis, 21, another daughter, was at a birthday party at the time of the shooting. Growing up, she later told reporters, her parents were “extremely loving.” So, what went wrong? 

QAnon. 

The Daily Beast sums up the tragic tale: 

“He had a sense of reality,” Rebecca Lanis said of her dad. “But then after 2020, when Trump lost, he started going down these crazy rabbit holes.”

 

That year, Mr. Lanis became fascinated by QAnon and the idea that Joe Biden stole the election.

 

“It’s a very big contributor to what happened,” Rebecca Lanis said of her father’s QAnon beliefs.

 

Igor Lanis’ mental health worsened as he was drawn deeper into conspiracy theories. He insisted that family members watch conspiracy-theory videos about 5G cell towers, vaccines, and the election. He started to believe some world leaders were in fact alien lizard-people in disguise, a fringe conspiracy theory even among QAnon supporters. Rebecca said family members tried to pull him out of his beliefs, but arguing with him was “pointless.”

 

Like trying to convince the MAGA faithful that there has been no proof shown in any court in the land that Donald really won the last presidential election, and that alien lizard-people do not exist.

Beware of the alien lizard people.

  

October 1, 2022: We have a snippet of election-stealing activity to report. Finally! Trump fans will be… 

Thrilled? 

James Donald Holkeboer, of Kent County, Michigan, has been charged with tampering with voting machines during the 2022 primaries. If you believe the last midterm elections were rigged by evil Democrats, we can report that Holkeboer is a Republican. He is staring at a felony rap. 

 

BLOGGER’S NOTE (March 2024): I keep checking back, but Holkeboer is still fighting charges in court. 

 

October 3: A clip of General Michael T. Flynn turns up on YouTube. Trump’s ill-fated first choice for National Security Advisor can be seen explaining at a campaign event for Mark Finchem, who wants to be Arizona’s new Secretary of State, that “governors can declare war.” 

Which is wrong, by the way. 

Flynn warns that we are “probably going to see that.” He meant governors were going to declare war on…the United States! I think Flynn was auditioning for the role of Gen. Braxton Bragg in 1861. 

Battle of Gettysburg – the reality of a Civil War.

  

Ventriloquist dummy doesn’t speak. 

While the U.S. judicial system may be flawed (every judicial system is, some fatally), we can be thankful that under the Fifth Amendment no one can be forced to give testimony against him-, her-, or theyself. (I guess that’s a word.) 

Still, it might seem suspicious if multiple Trump allies implicated in multiple alleged plots to steal the 2020 election, keep having to show up in court, and keep invoking the right not to say anything about all the laws they may have tried to break. The latest example would be Arizona Republican Party Chair Kelli Ward. When hauled before the Jan. 6 Select Committee, Ward decided she’d rather not talk. 

“Dr. Ward was deposed…and she declined to answer on every substantive question [emphasis added] and asserted her rights under the Fifth Amendment,” a lawyer for the congressional panel said. 

She was like a ventriloquist dummy – if the ventriloquist had killed her husband with a machete. 

Add her to the list of dummies, with John Eastman, Jeffrey Clark, Roger Stone, and General Flynn himself. Also ripping a page or two from the Dummy Playbook, we have: Donald J. Trump, himself, Eric Trump, and Trump Organization Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg. 

  

We would be remiss if we did not add Steve Bannon and Peter Navarro to our list. Both Trump toadies boldly chose not to plead the Fifth – by simply not showing up to testify at all. Bannon has since been convicted by a jury and sentenced to four months in jail for contempt. 

Navarro fought his subpoena in court – and another jury convicted him of contempt, too. As of March 2024, he can still be found, cluttering up the court docket and appealing his own jail sentence in court.) 

(Team Trump has just as much “success” with juries as with judges.) 

 

“In furtherance of a conspiracy to defraud the U.S.” 

October 20: Former President Trump and Possible Future Felon Trump had a rough time in court today. First, Donald was ordered to give a deposition in the E. Jean Carol rape lawsuit – a civil matter accusing the former president of defamation. Ms. Carroll’s lawyers are also seeking a sample of Don’s DNA. 

Second, a judge in California ruled that additional emails, from Dr. John Eastman to Trump, and the reverse, are evidence of probable Trump crimes and must be turned over to the January 6 Committee in Congress. 

“The emails show that President Trump knew that the specific numbers of voter fraud [cited in dozens of legal challenges] were wrong but continued to tout those numbers,” the judge pointed out, “both in court and to the public. These emails are sufficiently related to and in furtherance of a conspiracy to defraud the U.S.” 

In related news, an excerpt from former Vice President Mike Pence’s new book, So Help Me God, describes a scene from late November 2020, when Pence writes that a “new low” in the Trump presidency was reached. Campaign lawyers had been telling the president that his chances of overturning voting results were slim and grim. 

During an Oval Office meeting, outside lawyers – the kind of loons who would tell Trump exactly what he wanted to hear – plugged in via phone: 

After his own legitimate campaign lawyers gave Donald a sober and somewhat pessimistic report on the state of election challenges, the outside cast of characters went on the attack [emphasis added, unless otherwise noted] ... Giuliani told the president over the speakerphone, “Your lawyers are not telling you the truth, Mr. President.”

 

“Even in an office well acquainted with rough-and-tumble debates, it was a new low .... [and] went downhill from there,” Pence writes.

 

“In the end, that day the president made the fateful decision to put Giuliani and Sidney Powell in charge of the legal strategy ... The seeds were being sown for a tragic day in January.” 

 

Getting to the truth was not that goal. 

October 31: Rudy Giuliani had been seeking to have a defamation suit filed against him by two Georgia poll workers thrown out. His request has now been shredded in a 27-page ruling – a ruling which even a reasonably intelligent Trump fan could read for him- or herself, and probably figure out was very bad news. 

At issue was a suit filed by Ruby Freeman and Wandrea “Shaye” Moss, Freeman’s daughter. In their filing the two women claim that repeated accusations made by Giuliani and other members of Team Trump – that they had been involved in counting tens of thousands of illegal ballots during the 2020 election – had been made with “reckless disregard” for the truth, and repeated with “actual malice.” 

Those accusations of crookery in the counting resulted in both Freeman and Moss (who are African American) facing multiple death threats, and fearing for their lives. Moss’s 14-year-old son was also recipient of multiple threats, with one caller stating that he “should hang alongside [his] nigger momma.” 

You could almost smell Judge Beryl A. Howell’s outrage when she issued her ruling, denying Rudy’s request. In the plaintiffs’ original suit they also named “One American News Network, its owners and its chief White House correspondent” as defendants. Howell notes that those defendants were dismissed in May 2022, after “reaching an undisclosed settlement with Moss and Freeman.” 

In other words, Moss and Freeman have already won once in court. Because the people at OANN were lying. 

Judge Howell continued, “As election workers across the state worked long hours carefully ensuring the accuracy of the election the Trump Campaign and its allies, including Giuliani, engaged in a media offensive that at best questioned, and at worse condemned, their work.” With results in Georgia too close to call, right-wing types fostered “outlandish paranoia,” insisting against all credible evidence that the vote had been rigged. Freeman and Moss, Judge Howell said, were victims of a “false narrative.” 

She laid out the facts: The original computer tally of votes in Georgia, once complete, showed Joseph Biden pulling off a narrow win. 

The “largest hand count of ballots” in American history confirmed computer results. Biden won again. 

A second recount was demanded, which by law was fine. Again the tally showed Biden beating Trump. 

Mr. Giuliani did not care about recounts. Nor did Mr. Trump. They accused Freeman and Moss of pulling a hidden “suitcase” stuffed with votes out from under a table late at night. Then, Rudy claimed, they counted them, but only after checking to ensure that no Republican poll watchers remained at the vote-counting site at State Farm Arena in Atlanta. Rudy insisted, repeatedly, as did the president, that there was video proof that tens of thousands of votes were “stolen.” Giuliani figured it was at least “30,000.” In a call made by President Trump, on January 2, 2021, Donald J. would tell Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and two other officials that there had been 18,000 votes inside the mythic “suitcase,” and claim they were run through scanners three times. 

Presto: 54,000 illegal votes. 

The three Georgians on the call shot down his claims. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) had found no evidence of voter fraud. Hours of video had been reviewed. The video Rudy claimed proved there was fraud had been heavily edited, GBI found. 

Judge Howell explained: 

After “review[ing] the security videotape in its entirety” and “interview[ing] all witnesses who were present at the time of the alleged misconduct,” officials “found no evidence whatsoever to substantiate any of the claims,” and in the early morning hours of December 4, Georgia’s statewide “Voting Implementation Manager” tweeted, “The 90 second video of election worker at the State Farm arena, purporting to show fraud was watched in its entirety (hours) by @GaSecofState investigators. Shows normal ballot processing.

 

Howell focused next on the plan put together by Giuliani and other members of the Trump legal team. This plan had one goal. 

Getting to the truth was not that goal. 

“Strategic Communications Plan[,] Giuliani Presidential Legal Defense Team” (the “Strategic Plan” or “Plan”). A section of the Plan was dedicated to exposing the alleged voter fraud schemes in Georgia. Freeman was named in the Plan as being “under arrest” and part of “coordinated effort to commit voter/election fraud.” Giuliani specifically accused Freeman and the other workers in the Edited Video of “ballot stuffing” by rolling out “suitcases” filled with ballots when “press and all third parties were required to leave the premises” – an event the Strategic Plan calls “Suitcase Gate.”

 

Yet, we know Georgia officials had already torched such claims. Rudy knew too. There was no “suitcase,” but only a regular bin to hold ballots. 

There was no “stuffing.” The recounts proved that. The GBI had already shown this claim to be false. 

Freeman had never been arrested at all. 

Howell supplied an extensive list of claims Giuliani made, none supported by fact. A few examples should suffice: 

On December 23, 2020, Giuliani, on his podcast, named Freeman as someone with “a history of fraud participation,” and claimed that she, with the help of other election workers, counted the same ballots “eight times,” “cheating” in [a] manner that “look[ed] like a bank heist.”

 

On December 25, 2020, Giuliani, again on his podcast, accused “Ms. Freeman and her crew” of attempting to scan ballots multiple times, likening them to “crooks spr[i]ng[ing] into action.”

 

Rudy further claimed: 

During that videotape [which the GBI had debunked], that we can all see right in front of our eyes, we can see them stealing the votes. We can see them throwing out the people [the Republican poll watchers]. We can see them counting it four and five times. We also have the statistics during that period of time, 120,000 votes for Biden, couple hundred votes for Trump, no observers, makes it totally illegal. That alone changes the election. . . . For a hundred years, this film will show that the, the 2020 presidential election, there was an attempt to steal it.

 

A reasonably observant person might note that Trump and Giuliani couldn’t even get the idea of how many times the votes were counted right. Rudy says “eight,” then changes to “four and five times.” 

In his call to Secretary Raffensperger, Trump insisted the ballots were counted “three” times. 

On January 2, 2021, as mentioned, Trump placed a call to Mr. Raffensperger. That call lasted an hour and two minutes. The president made numerous claims of “stolen” votes, claims multiple officials from the Department of Justice had previously, and repeatedly, told him were untrue. 

Truth didn’t matter to the president. As Howell explains, “He stated Freeman’s name ‘no less than 19 times,’ calling Freeman ‘a vote scammer,’ ‘a professional vote scammer and hustler,’ ‘known scammer,’ ‘known political operative,’ and ‘ballotteer[.]’” 

Raffensperger cautioned the president. “You’re talking about the State Farm video,” he said. “And I think it’s extremely unfortunate that Rudy Giuliani or his people, they sliced and diced that video and took it out of context.” 

None of this stopped Trump – and none of this stopped Giuliani, who was toiling in his service. 

(As noted above: For $20,000 per day.) 

 

Rudy appeared on multiple occasions on OANN, in the next few months, and repeated his claims – that the video of the women counting votes was “clear evidence” of massive fraud. 

He was still repeating that claim in January 2022, when during a podcast he said the two women had been in clear “violation of the law.” 

 

“Ample circumstantial evidence of a civil conspiracy.” 

Even though authors of the “Strategic Plan” knew there was no truth to the allegation that Freeman “had been arrested/had a criminal record regarding voting fraud” Rudy kept repeating that claim. Not because it was true, but because it fit the narrative he and others were spinning. 

Judge Howell pointed to evidence to suggest “that Giuliani fabricated Freeman’s arrest and criminal record out of whole cloth.” 

Even worse, as the judge wrote, the existence of the Strategic Plan, and other conduct on the part of Giuliani and other actors “provide ample circumstantial evidence of a civil conspiracy between Giuliani and members of the Trump Campaign. The stated goal of the Plan was to engage in a ‘[n]ationwide communications outreach campaign to educate the public on the fraud.’” 

But there had been no fraud. 

To make such claims, Howell ruled, could well lead a jury in a civil case to believe defendants had acted with “reckless disregard” for the truth, and with “actual malice” toward plaintiffs. In summing up the request to dismiss the suit, Howell was direct. In legal terms, she was saying Giuliani, Trump (and others) were lying: 

A reasonable jury could accordingly infer that (1) Giuliani, Trump, and the “[k]ey [t]eam [m]embers” listed in the Strategic Plan (2) created a plan to sow doubt in the outcome of the 2020 election by (3) launching a misinformation campaign, which included accusing Freeman, Moss, and others of participating in schemes of electoral fraud, and (4) injuring plaintiffs in the process. Plaintiffs have pled a plausible civil conspiracy.

 

For the reasons set forth above, Giuliani’s motion to dismiss is denied and the entirety of plaintiffs’ claims may advance to discovery.

 

A “cult” with “no set of central principles.” 

November 1, 2022: As an inveterate poll-watcher, the blogger admits it is looking grim for Democrats. They’re facing the possibility of losing control of both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives. 

One GOP senator who might not be celebrating is Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected his attempt to avoid testifying in a Georgia investigation into efforts, by Team Trump, to steal that state’s sixteen electoral votes and gift them for the boss. The Georgia Secretary of State, Brad Raffensperger, has said Graham pressured him to throw out legal votes. 

 

November 2: The former Republican governor of New Jersey, Christine Todd Whitman, tells reporters she hopes “all the crazies do win,” in next week’s midterm elections. And by that, she meant all the election-denying “crazies” backed by the former president, election-denying, crazy Donald J. Trump. 

Then she catches herself. 

She explains that while she wants Americans to understand the drastic consequences of electing this sorry crew before the 2024 election, it might make for disaster in the end if they did win power next week. 

“But then I realize no,” she continued, “I don’t want to live in that world, and I don’t want to leave it for my grandkids either, the damage they can do.” Whitman warned that her beloved Republican Party had become a “cult,” adding, “there’s no set of central principles on which it’s based.” 

Speaking of which, Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich has come out and called election deniers running for office in his state “clowns.” 

That would include Kari Lake, GOP candidate for governor, who has Trump’s backing. Brnovich has labeled her claims that the 2020 Arizona election was rigged against Donald “horseshit.” 

“Horseshit, and that’s what it is, most of it’s horseshit, and I’ve been trying to scrape ... scrape it off my shoes for the last year,” he said during an interview on 60 Minutes. 

Brnovich, who was defeated in the Republican primary, by another election denier (also backed by Trump) explained that he had voted for Trump himself. He had wanted Trump to win. He said he looked hard for proof of election fraud – but found basically none. Twelve Arizonans, one fraudulent vote per, were charged as a result of investigations into the last presidential election. 

Twelve. 

In summing up the problem of election deniers, who have no proof, Brnovich said, “It’s like a giant grift in some ways.” 

 

* 

I LIKE FACTS, as I often say on this blog. So I like to check up on all the evidence piled up so far, indicating that at least eight billion fraudulent votes were cast in the 2020 election, and the 2016 election, and all the other elections Republicans have lost, going back to the dawn of the Neolithic Age. 

(In those days, voters chipped their choices on stone tablets.) 

 

All these voter fraud cases don’t equal one big case in Georgia. 

So, let’s start with beet red Texas, where Attorney General Ken Paxton devotes his finest efforts to hunting down vote-stealing Democratic scum. It turns out there have been 534 successful prosecutions related to voter fraud in Texas – but that includes cases from every election, and every office up for grabs in that state, since 2005. 

(Paxton once claimed 58,000 undocumented people had voted in his state!) 

 

This blogger has no problem with prosecuting those who double vote, or violate election law in sundry ways. When you look for big cases – like someone harvesting a hundred ballots, or a thousand, you come away empty. 

The lone exception I have found involved a GOP lawmaker in North Carolina. While he did manage to eke out a win in his 2018 bid for reelection to Congress, he was found to have cheated so blatantly that a new vote had to be held. A different candidate replaced him on the next ballot and won. 

 

In Texas what you mostly find are people like Crystal Mason, who voted in 2016, thinking she was eligible, but was not, as a result of a previous felony conviction. Small potatoes, considering that election deniers insist millions voted illegally – and will again – unless we make voting harder for everyone. 

Or shoot all Democrats. 

In Ohio, a state where mail-in ballots are readily accessible, you figure the red state election police must be locking up tens of thousands of scofflaws. Actually, Frank LaRose, the Secretary of State, says illegal voting is “exceedingly rare.” The tally of illegal Ohio voters, as of last month: seventy-five individuals who allegedly voted in one state, then voted a second time in Ohio in 2020. LaRose, who is endorsed by none other than Donald J. Trump, and running in next week’s election, says the total number of possible cases his office has uncovered since 2018 would be 630. 

 

Ron DeSantis cleans up all the voter fraud! 

In Florida, a tipster turned up evidence of 282 potential double-voting state residents, and then another batch of 45. How many actually voted illegally remains to be seen. We do know – and this is fun – that in several proven cases, the illegal voters were big Trump fans. 

As for prosecutions, Gov. Ron DeSantis was proud to announce that his Election Integrity Unit had vacuumed up twenty illegal voters, many of them convicted felons, who thought they were eligible. That included several who had been issued voter registration cards … by the State of Florida. 

This, DeSantis promised, was only the “opening salvo,” of what this blogger suspects will end in a fabulous fizzle. 

Nevertheless, for the sake of argument, let’s assume all of these cases are proven in court. We add up the 155 individuals in Texas. We count the possible 630 in Ohio, and the possible 282 in Florida, and the other possible 45. That gives us 1,112 cases. Even if we figure each of those individuals cast two illegal votes (most suspects cast only one) then we have 2,224 illegal votes in total. 

That’s not even close to the one big case of alleged voter fraud in Georgia. That’s the one where good old Donald J. Trump called on state officials to “find” 11,780 votes, just enough for him to “win” the state. 

In other words, if some Trump or Biden fan voted twice or even thrice in 2020, and it can be proven, lock them up. But do the goddam math! If Crystal Mason is going to jail, and Donald gets convicted in court, he should too.

Innocent until proven guilty.