New discoveries in Pennsylvania:

- 30+ leftwing organizations had access to voter rolls...maybe up to 40 hack fuck organizations....planned parenthood- NAACP so on and so forth

- over 120,000 more votes than voters on the rolls.

- 740,000 are not properly documented with chain of custody.

 

Interesting to hear that, wonder whats going to happen?

 

BREAKING: Georgia Investigators have ‘Ballot Trafficker’ Who Is Talking — Admits to Being Paid THOUSANDS in 2020 Election Ballot Boxes Ballot Harvesting Scheme — 242 Ballot Traffickers Detected
By Jim Hoft Published January 4, 2022

…....The group informed the secretary its evidence included video footage from surveillance cameras placed by counties outside the drop boxes as well as geolocation data for the cell phones of more than 200 activists seen on the tapes purportedly showing the dates and times of ballot drop-offs, according to documents reviewed by Just the News.

…..The group does not allege the ballots delivered by couriers were fraudulent. Nonetheless, lawful ballots delivered by third-parties to drop boxes would run afoul of Georgia’s law.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/20...boxes-ballot-harvesting-scheme-via-true-vote/

 

It's a new one every month. I found several versions of this story. One claimed that this was done for the Senate runoff election. Another claimed they found the same scheme in Arizona, and they have video proof there was well.

Forgive me if I don't take The Gateway Pundit claims as credible.

You would think that with all of the claims of fraud, in whatever form, that one of them would have been proven correct. But so far... Nothing.

 

Yuppp, move along. Nothing to see here. Not one documented case of election fraud....

We’re told vote fraud is a myth but the Democrats didn’t get the memo.
by David Catron October 1, 2021

According to the Democratic Party, the corporate media, and some ostensibly nonpartisan think tanks, vote fraud is all but nonexistent in the United States. Last year, during the post-election controversy caused by the unique vote counting practices adopted by certain swing states, the New York Times summed up the conventional wisdom, “Claims of voter fraud are common. It’s the fraud that’s rare.” It must, therefore, have been vexing for the editors of the Gray Lady to run the following headline last Monday: “Election Workers in Georgia Are Fired for Shredding Voter Registration Forms.” The fired workers had been employed by Fulton County, where questionable election night conduct attracted nationwide attention in 2020.

According to the Times, “The workers, at the Fulton County Board of Elections, were dismissed on Friday after other employees saw them destroying registration forms awaiting processing before local elections in November.” The heavily Democratic county has a well-established reputation for election skullduggery stretching back for decades. This latest scandal was made public when Georgia’s GOP Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, the state’s chief election official, issued a press release indicating that his office was investigating the matter. Raffensperger has also requested the U.S. Justice Department to investigate the Fulton County election process pursuant to these latest irregularities.

-------

https://spectator.org/election-fraud-is-alive-and-well-in-2021/

 

Democrats never tire of telling the world that there was no evidence for voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election. Yet, all of a sudden, more and more of them are now warning us that if things don't go as they want in 2022 and 2024, we will probably have suffered through.....yup, you guessed it....gasp -- voter fraud. They're even trying to pass a bill which takes away the counting of votes from the state and puts the Federal government in charge. Is this even constitutional?

Biden says elections might not be legitimate if reform bills aren't passed
https://news.yahoo.com/biden-says-elections-might-not-233305818.html

Democratic Sen. Chris Coons says he's 'gravely concerned' about the 'abundant evidence' of nationwide voter suppression
https://news.yahoo.com/democratic-sen-chris-coons-says-171346795.html

Congressman warns ‘voting as we know it in this country will be gone’ if Republicans take control of House
https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/congressman-warns-voting-know-country-082823741.html
Of course, it had to be the moronic Eric Swalwell...

Rep. Eric Swalwell issues dire warning about midterms: 'Could be the last election'
https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment...rms-could-be-the-last-election-084425144.html
And again...

Illinois senate Democrats warn of voter fraud
https://www.wbez.org/stories/illino...er-fraud/62c65940-7027-4699-b299-4465e4938edb

Biden: It’s Not Who Can Vote, But Who Gets to Count the Vote
https://cnsnews.com/commentary/ken-blackwell/biden-its-not-who-can-vote-who-gets-count-vote
“It is a shocking statement that could easily be attributed to a third-world dictator. When asked about election legislation earlier in January, the president of the United States of America stated, “It’s no longer about who gets to vote; it’s about making it harder to vote. It’s about who gets to count the vote and whether your vote counts at all."”



Even more bizarre, where liberal rags like Huffington Post once scolded retired military officers for signing an open letter regarding possible violations in the 2020 election...

Former U.S. Military Leaders Sign Bizarre Open Letter Pushing Election Lies
Over 120 retired generals and admirals signed on to a letter falsely claiming the 2020 election was stolen in a move other veterans say erodes democratic norms.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/reti...cy-theories-letter_n_609c1d0ae4b0909247feb276

…..these same liberals are now happily supporting “their” generals. By the way, the thinking of these three is far more dangerous to the Constitution than was January 6.

Retired generals share time-sensitive warning for military ahead of 2024
Inside Politics
CNN political analysts discuss a Washington Post op-ed in which three retired generals say they are "chilled to our bones at the thought of a coup succeeding next time" and warn that the US military needs to prepare now for a 2024 insurrection.
https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics...w-for-2024-insurrection-wapo-op-ed-ip-vpx.cnn

 

Yeah right. You are just laughable. I can take just about anything you post c&p it into my search bar and simply add "+false" and expose your lies in less than 30 seconds.



Malcolm Nance




Get 10% Off
A career US Navy terrorism intelligence collector, code breaker, and interrogator with wide-ranging field and combat experience in the Middle East, South West Asia, and Africa, Mr. Nance is a counterterrorism analyst for MSNBC. He’s the author of The Terrorist Recognition Handbook, The Terrorists of Iraq: The Strategy and Tactics of the Iraq Insurgency, An End to al-Qaeda: Destroying Bin Laden’s Jihad and Restoring America’s Honor, and the New York Times best seller Defeating ISIS: Who They Are, How They Fight, What They Believe. Drawing on his experience as a thirty year veteran of the US intelligence community’s program on combating terrorism, he’s been a Middle East policy advisor to the US and international governments on special operations, homeland security, and intelligence.

Presentation Topics
Insurgency Surge: The Rise of ISIS and how Spies can Defeat Them
What is an insurgency? You’ve heard the word before, but how do terror groups like ISIS and al-Qaeda use this strategy to destabilize places like Iraq and Syria? Malcolm Nance, author of Terrorists of Iraq: Inside the Strategy and Tactics of the Iraq Insurgency and Defeating ISIS, will share with you how Iraq became the center of the ISIS strategy to create an Islamic caliphate, what the American and British coalition soldiers endured on the ground as they fought to dismantle these forces, and even some of the street-level tactics used by the insurgents.

Don’t Be Intimidated: How to Speak Up and Manage the Hierarchy
There is a strict hierarchy in the military and intelligence field. But that shouldn’t stop you from trying to improve the system. Career counterterrorism and intelligence officer Malcolm Nance talks about working for the SERE (Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape) program and how it led him to testify against waterboarding before the US Congress. A fierce champion of ethics, human rights, and cultural integration in intelligence practitioners and activities, Malcolm Nance has trained and advised numerous defense, intelligence, and law enforcement agencies worldwide – and so could you.

A Black Man vs. Russia
Malcolm Nance received attention from the Russians after accusing them of orchestrating a disinformation campaign during the 2016 presidential election. They wrote articles about him and sent out social media attacks against him. So why did it he do it? How did he figure it out? And why did he think it was important to share his findings on national television to the American public? Nance answers all these questions and more as he talks about his experience and skills in identifying Russian espionage tactics.

Thinker, Sailor, Black Man, Spy
“I come from a very old US military family. And for African-Americans, that's sort of an achievement.” Career intelligence expert Malcolm Nance candidly discusses his experiences being black in the intelligence community. He explores themes discussed in his upcoming autobiography, Thinker, Sailor, Black Man, Spy and remembers some funny as well as thought-provoking anecdotes about his early foray into this majority white community.

Hostage Survival School
You survived High School, but can you survive Hostage Survival School? Career counterterrorism officer Malcolm Nance conceptualized and implemented the Advanced Terrorism, Abduction and Hostage Survival school (ATAHS) in resisting torture, exploitation and escaping terrorist captivity from 1997-2001, and he’ll share with you some of the most important tactics for staying alive. At ATAHS Nance created and led the terrorism training team formed to simulate the Al Qaeda organization and its attacks for Tier-1 National Mission Units and select members of the US Intelligence community in the pre-9/11 era.

The Not-So-New-Anymore Frontier: Cyber Warfare and the Threat to Democracy
They are younger, faster, and stronger than the Cold War’s KGB. Cyber warfare is big business and intelligence agencies are looking for the best. Join Malcolm Nance in a discussion on the use of cyber warfare, theft and management of criminals, and cyber criminals being hired as subcontractors to intelligence agencies. Using research from his books, The Plot to Hack America and Hacking ISIS: How to Destroy the Cyber Jihad, Malcolm Nance will also talk about the power of Dark Web operations and social media campaigns designed to undermine democracy.

Spying in Any Language
Were you a French Major? Spanish Major? Chinese Major? Language skills are an important asset to have in an inextricably connected world, and spies with language skills are increasingly more valuable than ever. Malcolm Nance studied Russian, Chinese, Spanish and French in grade school. It was his Arabic skills, however, that took him overseas with the Navy working in cryptologic intelligence. Hear from Nance as he talks (mostly in English) about his first decrypt of a Hebrew text and the importance of lightening-speed linguistic decrypts during times of war.

The Long Ball Game: Russian Disinformation Campaigns
Perception management is a technique where you frame the information sphere around your opponent, whether it’s an individual or a nation, with so much information that is relatively credible that your opponent adopts the framework that you are giving him. Sowing disinformation has been a robust spy tactic used throughout the world for centuries. Everybody lies, and spies use that to their advantage. Let Malcolm Nance take you on a journey, exploring the old KGB disinformation tactics that have been brushed off and improved by modern day Russian intelligence agencies and illustrating how these tactics were used in the 2014, 2016, 2018 and 2020 US political campaigns.

https://www.spymuseum.org/host-an-event/spy-speaker-series/malcolm-nance/

 

Trump's pardon threat could quickly come back to haunt him in Georgia: CNN analyst

Matthew Chapman
January 31, 2022



President Donald Trump at Trump National Golf Club Bedminster (screengrab)


On CNN Monday, "Early Start" anchor Laura Jarrett said former President Donald Trump's weekend rally suggestion he would give pardons to the perpetrators of the January 6 Capitol insurrection could land in him further trouble in the Fulton County, Georgia criminal investigation, following reports that the prosecutor behind the investigation is requesting FBI protection.

"What will be the FBI be looking at in terms of how to respond to this request for more security following the president's words that his supporters should come out and protest massively in these three cities where he's being investigated?" asked anchor Bianna Golodryga.

READ: 'Lock and load': Trump-backed candidate tells Michigan voters to 'show up armed' at the polls

"This weekend's rant does him no favors from a legal point of view," said Jarrett. "Judges usually give criminal defendants a lot of latitude, a lot of rope when it comes to how they push back in cases. Trump will say, I wasn't advocating for violence, I just called for big protests. That's where the FBI will look at the context of his statements."

However, noted Jarret, "The context is he's saying it in a statement where he's actually talking about floating pardons, dangling pardons who carried out violence on January 6th. The DA in Georgia, Fani Willis, is trying to draw a direct link from what happened on January 6th to today saying, if he did it then, he can do it now. That's what the FBI is going to look at. The big question is do they sit down with the former president, do they actually sit down and question him about what his mindset was, what his intent was over the weekend?"

Watch below:




https://www.rawstory.com/trump-pardon-threat/

 

I probably should have been a little more specific regarding Malcolm Nance (you have no idea how it hurts to say that regarding something on which stumbles has challenged me). He is a guy who nobody in the real intel community respects. However, the way he presents his bona fides is probably enough to fool most Leftist politicians and certainly casual readers like @stumbles.

I realize that this is a long post, but I cannot allow @stumbles to just post whatever Nance has most likely written about himself and let it go unchallenged. So, here, let me buff up his resume just a little..... By the way, the SOF in SOFREP stands for Special Operations Forces, and this was posted under News on their site. These are the real heroes, and Nance has been disowned by them.

Also, @stumbles, all of this was out there for you look up too.

Opinion: A Matter of Honor and the Fiction of Malcolm Nance
by Peter Morlock Jun 1, 2018
https://sofrep.com/news/a-matter-of-honor-the-fiction-of-malcolm-nance/

Reminiscent of Hillary Clinton’s “deplorable” comments when she referred to supporters of then candidate Donald Trump, MSNBC analyst Malcolm Nance — and self-appointed counter-terrorism, cryptology, intelligence, interrogation and linguistics expert — has stated that all military persons that support the President are “not honorable.”

As a retired Senior Chief (E-8), Airborne Mission Supervisor, cryptologist (Arabic) and SPECWAR operative I have given (as most of the naval cryptologic community has) retired Senior Chief Malcolm Nance a wide berth. Bottom line: he left the Naval Security Group in disgrace and we (our professional communities and associations) generally have a good laugh at his self-promotion, exaggeration of performance and associations, and his pretense of expertise.

The proverbial “eye roll” precedes any response we give when asked about his exploits. He has been declared persona non grata (PNG) from his profession, and then presumes to question service members’ honor based on a vote and lawful support for a candidate (now President). Nance, in fact, called for ISIS to bomb Trump Towers in Istanbul following President Trump’s call to Turkish President Erdogan after his reelection; Nance deleted that tweet but did not apologize, according to the Washington Times.

My first experience with then-Chief (E-7) Nance came soon after Desert Storm. If memory serves, it was late 1992 or 1993 and I was on the mid-watch at the Naval Reconnaissance Support Activity (NRSA) in Rota, Spain. I received a phone call early in the morning — it was my Commanding Officer (CO). Having recently been meritoriously promoted via the Command Advancement Program (CAP) to Petty Officer Second Class (E-5) from our Det Jeddah EA-3B missions during that original Gulf war, I nearly spilled my coffee thinking that my CO had changed his mind. Then he said distinctly (imagine the caller in his best southern Georgia draw):

“Petty Office Morlock, do you recognize my voice?"

I replied in the affirmative.

“Open up the log book and write this down verbatim,” he said. “Chief Petty Officer Malcolm Nance is persona non grata in our spaces. You may remove him by force… now read that back to me.” After complying, my CO said good night. I did not know, nor had I heard of Malcolm Nance, but was bitterly disappointed that I did not see a uniform with that name tag on it during my watch.



The next story discusses Malcolm Nance's inadvertent admission that the Deep State intel community (of which he is obviously a part), was literally targeting the Trump team with massive leaks just to get them out. This should scare the hell out of any normal person who does NOT want un-elected people controlling our government like that.

Stephen Miller Takes Down MSNBC Analyst After His Admission About Intel Community
By Nick Arama | Jan 17, 2022 8:45 PM E

There was an interesting Twitter exchange today that included a revealing admission about the intelligence community and the leaking against President Donald Trump.

Ric Grenell, Trump’s acting Director of National Intelligence, tweeted today, “The intelligence leaks have stopped. And it actually points to the partisan credibility problem of the leakers and their allies in the media. Remember when they return, and they will return, they are domestic enemies.”

Indeed. If members of the intelligence community (IC) were leaking under Trump and now aren’t leaking under Biden, it tends to show the political nature of the leak. First, because if you have any legitimate concerns that you want to whistleblow about, there are avenues you can use, you don’t have to improperly leak to the media. When you do that, it means that you are trying to hurt the person you’re targeting — in this case, Trump. Now that they have someone who will not challenge them in Biden, they don’t feel they have to leak.

---

MSNBC contributor Malcolm Nance responded to Ric Grenell’s tweets today. Nance was part of the intelligence community for years. He tries to clap back on Grenell but doesn’t seem to understand what he appears to be admitting.

@RichardGrenell tweeted:
· Jan 16
The intelligence leaks have stopped. And it actually points to the partisan credibility problem of the leakers and their allies in the media. Remember when they return, and they will return, they are domestic enemies.

@MalcolmNance responded”
Intelligence leaks have stopped because your sorry existence as a craven toady & full time #Lickspittle is finally out of the job you had no business or qualification being in.

“Intelligence leaks have stopped because your sorry existence as a craven toady & full time #Lickspittle is finally out of the job you had no business or qualification being in.”

First, Nance doesn’t get what an unhinged hyperpartisan his tweet shows him to be. Second, many took Nance’s response as admitting the leaks were targeting the Trump team. Once they achieved their purpose — of helping get them out — the leaks stopped. It says something about critical thinking ability that so many on the left didn’t get that and seemed to think that Nance had somehow trumped Grenell with this comment.

Former Trump official Stephen Miller summed up the thoughts of many. “Another instructive missive from a deep state affiliate,” Miller declared. “Anyone objectively reading the unhinged tirade below will have all doubt removed that the deep security state leaks in order to achieve political, personal and partisan objectives.”


Then, there's a YouTube video of Malcom Nance attacking Glen Greenwald as a Kremlin tool. Greenwald is one of the few honorable Liberals left in the media. The title says it all....

Glen Greenwald Attacked As Kremlin Tool By MSNBC Bought Fmr "Intel" "Expert" & "Jedi" Malcolm Nance


Next, we have Nance making it into PJ Media's infamous 50+ Grifter's list...

50+ Journalists, Politicians, Celebrities, and Grifters Who Peddled the Russia Collusion Hoax
By Debra Heine Mar 26, 2019

Intel Insiders and “Experts” Who “Know” Stuff
Last October, the Russia-obsessed Trump critic (i.e., Nance) said that the president wants the same kind of authority held by the Russian oligarchy. “He has grown up knowing nothing, but what he has grown up is how to convince people to vote against their own interests. What he wants is, he wants a nation that is no longer America,” Nance said. “He wants to be like the Russian oligarchy.”

During March 24 appearance on A.M. Joy, Nance said: “I’ve said this 100 times today. Everyone repeat after me,” Nance said. “The single most serious scandal in the history of the United States: Was the president of the United States an agent of the enemy of the United States?”

He later added: “This could technically eclipse Benedict Arnold who at least did it for money, you know. But we’re talking a president here in control of the country under the sway of a foreign power.”

Mind you, he said this after the news broke that there would be no new indictments in the Mueller report.


Finally, we have the sparring (shown on YouTube) which took place between Malcolm Nance and Ben Shapiro on the HBO's Bill Maher show. The subject was Republican's attempts to muzzle teacher's regarding teaching CRT. I am not a Shapiro fan, and I admit that I only watched a little of it. I soon became frustrated with the way Nance just couldn't answer Shapiro's questions without becoming exceedingly partisan. After the show, Nance tweeted that all the praise Shapiro received was from "bot tweets." Note to readers: Shapiro don't do bots.

Comments about a video like this can be partisan as hell, but following are just a few of them. As an aside, there were very, very few positive comments about Nance's performance:
---
Shapiro defined CRT. Nance fully agreed with him. THEN Nance changed the definition and accused Shapiro of not agreeing with Nance's new definition. "CRT is just about teaching history". These people lie because they cannot help themselves. Hucksters gotta' huck. Baiters gotta' bait. And liars gotta' lie.
---
I just saw Shapiro's appearance on Bill Maher's show. I must say - Malcolm Nance acted like a piece of shit. There are no better words to describe him. Ben sat there tried to explain his position like a normal human and Mr Piece of SHIT decided to attack his personality over and over including pushing words into Ben's mouth.

It was horrible to watch. Really. I could not stay calm if some piece of shit sat on national TV saying how much I am racist or something and non-stop attack my personality or my background instead of my CLEAR opinions.
---
Agreed, the most notable thing I remember was Ben giving some information and Malcom saying, "is this what you do on your show? Because it sucks" I wish ben replied with saying that Malcom was a pathetic excuse for a human being because instead of having civil discourse, he chooses to attack him because he didn't know what he's talking about.
---
Every time Ben backed him into a corner, Malcolm resorts to insults. Every. Single. Time. He knew he was getting destroyed so leaned on the friendly crowd to score points. Malcolm got his ass kicked...not that anyone on the left would ever admit it.
---
He blamed bots when Twitter ate him alive after the show. It was hilarious. "I've seen a hundred of these 'I don't like Shapiro but ...' bot tweets Tonight,"

This is not the kind of show which many Conservatives will normally watch. All I can say however, is that there were many more comments like these on various forums. But you should go and see this for yourself. Malcolm Nance remains a self-serving buffoon of the first order no matter how much @stumbles admires him...


\

 

Oh, don't make the mistake of thinking that stumbler "admires" Nance.
Doubtful stumbler even knows much about Nance, or cares.
A deplorable went at Nance, so the knee jerk reaction from stumbler is to put Nance on a pedastal.
But, when it's all said and done, stumbler will drop Nance under the bus as soon as he's done with him.
It's a despicable thing, you see.

 

More Russian Disinformation
“The Russian Collusion Hoax” was actually a Russian Election Interference in 2016 to help Donald J Trump get elected President.
The only thing was they could not prove that the Trump Campaign actually conspired with the Russians, though they PROBABLY did.

 

Oh this its always a good move to make veiled threats against prosecutors. And give them an excuse to drag Garland's reluctant ass into the fight.

Georgia prosecutor requests help from FBI following "alarming" Trump comments

Ivana Saric

Former President Donald speaks to a crowd a rally at the Montgomery County Fairgrounds on Jan. 29, 2022 in Conroe, TX. Photo: Sergio Flores/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images


Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis asked the FBI on Sunday to conduct a risk assessment of the county courthouse and government center in Atlanta following "alarming" comments by former President Donald Trump during a rally Saturday.

Why it matters: Willis is conducting an investigation into Trump's efforts to interfere with the outcome of the 2020 presidential election in Georgia.

• Earlier this month Willis was granted a special grand jury to aid her investigation. The special grand jury will be able to issue subpoenas to witnesses and gather additional evidence.

Driving the news: During a rally in Conroe, Texas on Saturday, Trump floated the idea of possibly pardoning people who have been charged and sentenced over their participation in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.

• In a letter to J.C. Hacker, the special agent in charge of the F.B.I.’s Atlanta field office, Willis noted that during his speech Trump also denounced multiple criminal investigations against him, including hers, and claimed she was involved in "prosecutorial misconduct at the highest level."

The big picture: Willis wrote in the letter that while her office has already been dealing with security concerns during their investigation, Trump's "alarming" rhetoric this weekend "escalated" these worries.

• "I am asking that you immediately conduct a risk assessment of the Fulton County Courthouse and Government Center, and that you provide protective resources to include intelligence and federal agents," Willis wrote.
• Willis added that it was "imperative that these resources are in place well in advance" of the convening of the special grand jury in May.
• “We must work together to keep the public safe and ensure that we do not have a tragedy in Atlanta similar to what happened at the United States Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021,” she concluded.

https://www.axios.com/georgia-prosecutor-fbi-safety-trump-10755cd8-74d7-4ee4-8dae-a87a443e1016.html

 

Damn if the hack fucks on here aint circling them some wagons today....LMMFAO.

 

An arch conservative member of Arizona’s state House of Representatives has proposed a mammoth overhaul of the state’s voting procedures that would allow legislators to overturn the results of a primary or general election after months of unfounded allegations and partisan audits.

The bill, introduced by state Rep. John Fillmore (R), would substantially change the way Arizonans vote by eliminating most early and absentee voting and requiring people to vote in their home precincts, rather than at vote centers set up around the state.

Most dramatically, Fillmore’s bill would require the legislature to hold a special session after an election to review election processes and results, and to “accept or reject the election results.”

Fillmore’s legislation is unlikely to gain much traction, but it is a sign that some Republicans have embraced the idea that legislators should have veto power over the will of the voters if they do not like the results.

 

I cannot in good conscience post while my sparring partner is suspended so I will stick to GD for a few days.

Thinskin

 

I just brawl with all the treasonous conservative/Republicans so I feel no such compulsion.

 

Oh fuck yes. I did not think we could get lucky enough to drag both the Federalist Society and ALEC into the attempted coup. They are usually way smarter than that and do most all their dirty work hiding behind closed doors and getting other people to do it for them. This really does just make my day.


Trump’s fake Arizona electors got the green light from a scholar with ties to major conservative groups

Jordan Green, Staff Reporter
February 02, 2022



AZGOP on Twitter.


When Republican lawmakers in Arizona convened in December 2020 to forward an alternate slate of electors to Congress in a bid to overturn the election of Joe Biden, they were acting on the advice of a little known conservative constitutional scholar with ties to American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC, and Federalist Society member.

The role played by Rob Natelson, a former University of Montana law professor and Federalist Society member who serves on ALEC’s board of scholars, in guiding the development of the alternate electoral slate in Arizona has been previously reported, but has received little attention to date.

The Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol recently issued subpoenas to alternate electors in seven states, including Nancy Cottle and Lorraine B. Pellegrino, two of the 11 electors from Arizona. The subpoenas compel Cottle and Pellegrino to produce documents relevant to the investigation by Feb. 11 and to appear for deposition on Feb. 16. Signed by the committee chairman, Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), the subpoenas notified Cottle and Pellegrino that the committee is “seeking information about your role and participation in the purported slate of electors casting votes for Donald Trump and, to the extent relevant, your role in the events of January 6, 2021.”

Two state attorneys general have referred the alternate electoral slates to the US Justice Department for prosecution. After evaluating whether to the bring state charges against the alternate electors in her state, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said she referred the matter to the US Attorney’s Office in the Western District of Michigan on Jan. 13.

READ: Federal fraud case against Trump's fake electors revealed in documents

“This is part of a much bigger conspiracy, and our hope is that the federal authorities at the Department of Justice and United States Attorney General Merrick Garland will take this in coordination with all the other information they’ve received and make an evaluation as to what charges these individuals might face,” Nessel told MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow. “I can think of forgery of a public record for the purpose of defrauding the United States or conspiracy to commit an offense to defraud the United States.”

New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas has also reportedly referred the matter to federal prosecutors.

Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco confirmed that the US Justice Department is reviewing what she termed the “fraudulent elector certifications” during a Jan. 25 interview with CNN.

“Our prosecutors are looking at those, and I can’t say anything more on ongoing investigations,” she said.

Chairman Thompson said in a formal statement accompanying the subpoenas that the Select Committee “is seeking information about attempts in multiple states to overturn the results of the 2020 election, including the planning and coordination of efforts to send false slates of electors to the National Archives. We believe the individuals we have subpoenaed today have information about how these so-called alternate electors met and who was behind that scheme.”

READ: Maddow lays out a damning timeline as she slams Arizona's attorney general for ignoring phony electors scandal

Kelly Townsend, then a state senator-elect and now a candidate for Congress, described Rob Natelson’s role in advising the Arizona lawmakers on their powers over the outcome of the presidential election in an interview with Trump-friendly podcaster JD Rucker on Dec. 17, 2020.

“You have a plan that you’ve initiated to be able to take Arizona’s electors — the alternate electors, the GOP electors — and have them count,” Rucker said, introducing Townsend. “Is that a fair assessment of what you’ve initiated?”

Claiming that the Arizona election was in “dispute” and that there were “some serious allegations that need to be looked at,” Townsend told Rucker that 21 sitting lawmakers and eight incoming lawmakers had “signed on to a resolution stating that we wish Congress to support the alternate slate and to not award any electors until all of these irregularities and accusations are investigated and resolved.”

Later in the podcast, Townsend said, “I want to mention — I want to give a shoutout to attorney and scholar and professor Rob Natels [sic].” She added, “When he tells us that we have the ability to do this, I think that’s who I’m going to listen to, as far as what we can and cannot do. He advised on the language of the resolutions, so we’re very happy to have that.”

Natelson’s advice to the Republican lawmakers has also been confirmed by Bret Roberts, who was serving in the Arizona House of Representatives at the time. Arizona Daily Star columnist Tim Steller reported in a column originally published on Dec. 9, 2020 that Roberts told him that the state lawmakers communicated with Natelson. Steller’s reporting — based on Roberts’ account — indicates that Natelson advised the Republican lawmakers that they had the power to call themselves into session to deliberate on an election question, and also to overturn Arizona’s system for assigning electors — both by a simple majority.

READ: Expert: 59 phony Trump electors should be the next target of criminal prosecutions

Townsend appears to have backed up Roberts’ account on the first count.

“So, some really smart people — way smarter than I am — have told us that we are not under the Arizona constitution and that we can bring ourselves in with a simple majority,” she told Rucker during the Dec. 17, 2020 interview, just before citing and praising Natelson.

Natelson made the same points during an interview with Mitch Kokai, a political analyst with the conservative John Locke Foundation in North Carolina, on Nov. 16, 2020.

State legislatures are granted “significant powers” by the US Constitution, he said.

“When they exercise those powers, such as deciding how electors are chosen, they get their powers directly from the Constitution — the US Constitution; they don’t get it from the state constitution,” Natelson said.

He continued: “The legislature can literally call itself into session and then choose the electors itself.”

Natelson’s role in advising the Arizona Republican lawmakers was also previously reported by the Colorado Times Recorder, which cited a Telegram post by Townsend in the summer of 2021, while she was promoting the bogus Arizona audit.

“I wanted to give a shoutout to Rob Natelson, our country’s premiere Constitutional scholar who educated the Legislators in Arizona on the plenary power we possess in elections, our ability to do the audit, and our responsibility to finding the truth, all at no cost,” Townsend wrote.

Natelson could not be reached for comment for this story, and a voicemail for him at the Independence Institute in Denver, where he is employed as senior fellow, went unreturned.

In a response to the Colorado Times Recorder last June, Natelson acknowledge communicating with the Arizona lawmakers, but suggested the guidance he provided was far more constrained than what Townsend and Roberts described in their accounts of the discussions.

“My communications with the [Arizona] legislature were limited to clarifying issues of constitutional law,” Natelson said, according to the newspaper. “I informed lawmakers that… the Constitution grants the state legislature power to determine the method of choosing presidential electors. I said that they should take action only if they thought there were irregularities and if they thought those irregularities might have changed the election result. I don’t recall suggesting any particular course of action.”

Walter Holton, a former federal prosecutor appointed by President Clinton, said the participants who are most directly implicated in the alternate electors scheme are likely those who signed their names to the false electoral certificates submitted to the Vice President Mike Pence, as acting president of the US Senate; the archivist of the United States; the state secretaries of state; and chief judges in US district courts. The 11 electors in Arizona, which include Arizona Republican Party Chair Kelli Ward and state Rep. Jake Hoffman, voted for Donald Trump while attesting that they were “the duly elected and qualified electors” from the state of Arizona.

State lawmakers who promoted the scheme are also likely culpable, albeit to a lesser degree, Holton said.

“The individuals who signed the documents, are they knowingly attempting to commit a fraud against the United States?” Holton said. “They can come up with whatever excuse they want. [They can say], ‘I didn’t realize. I didn’t know.’ That’s why you have trials.

“If there are legislators or others who are knowing aiding and abetting this conspiracy, then they are culpable,” Holton added. “They’re a minor player. They are going to get a reduction, but the crime’s the same. Which is a conspiracy to defraud the United States.”

As for those who played an advisory role, Holton said culpability largely depends on whether they crossed the line into actually directing the activity.

“I don’t think think the person giving the advice has any culpability unless he directed them,” Holton said. “If they call him up, and he says, ‘Do this, this or this.’ If you advise someone to commit what turns out to be a criminal activity, it doesn’t matter — it’s what the judge says.” He added, “There’s no law against being stupid.”

According to reporting by the Washington Post and CNN, Rudy Giuliani, who peddled a number of outlandish claims of election fraud as Trump’s campaign lawyer, coordinated a plan to assemble rival slates of electors in states narrowly won by Joe Biden.

Mark Meadows, Trump’s chief of staff, appears to have also been aware of the scheme. A resolution recommending contempt for refusing to cooperate with the Select Committee states that Meadows “received emails regarding apparent efforts to encourage Republican legislators in certain states to send alternate electors to Congress, a plan which one member of Congress acknowledged was ‘highly controversial’ and to which Mr. Meadows responded, ‘I love it.’ According to the contempt resolution, Meadows responded to two different emails regarding the alternate electors scheme by saying variously, “We are,” and, “Yes. Have a team on it.”

It remains unclear whether Natelson communicated with anyone from Trump’s team while advising the Arizona lawmakers. But in comments to the “Talk Back” show on KGVO radio in Missoula, Mont. on Dec. 7, 2020, Natelson seemed to criticize Trump’s campaign legal team.

An article recapping Natelson’s remarks paraphrased him as saying “the president’s legal team has been making claims they cannot fulfill,” while directly quoted him as saying, “What they’ve been doing is kind of over-promising.”

Natelson’s support for the principle that presidential electors are not bound by the popular vote in their respective states predates the 2020 election. In a 2018 blog post, Natelson wrote that the record of the Constitutional ratification debates in Philadelphia in 1787 “suggests that the ratifiers and the voting public understood presidential electors were to exercise their own judgment when voting.”

Soon after the 2020 election, Natelson began publicizing his novel views on state legislatures’ powers to remedy what he described as an election “disaster” based on his aversion to “mail-in voting extending over weeks.”

“If a legislature becomes convinced its returns are hopelessly muddled or corrupt, it may arrange a new way of choosing the presidential electors,” Natelson wrote in a column for the Epoch Times on Nov. 8, 2020. Under such a circumstance, Natelson opined that state legislatures have two options. One would be to “call a new statewide presidential election for a single day,” while the other would be for state legislatures to “choose the electors by legislative vote on a single day.”

Speaking with Mitch Kokai at the John Locke Foundation on Nov. 16, Natelson argued that state legislatures in six states narrowly carried by Joe Biden — almost all of them Republican-controlled — were duty bound to act.

Natelson told Kokai said that the Constitution provides “that if, for some reason, you don’t have firm results, nobody’s really selected on November third, then the state legislature can decide how to choose the candidate.

“The state legislatures have to stand up and determine how serious the confusion is in their states,” he continued. “If it is serious enough so that we don’t know who’s been elected in that state, then the state legislature has to deal with it.”



https://www.rawstory.com/arizona-electors/