The U.S. intelligence community has continued to warn that foreign actors are probably targeting American elections. A document that David Clements claims shows a failure to update voter check-in machines for 11 years is inaccurate, since the state uses a different check-in system, the secretary of states office said. SANTA FE A New Mexico judge ordered Otero County Commissioner Couy Griffin be removed from office, effective immediately, ruling that the attack on the Capitol was an insurrection and that Griffin's participation in it disqualified him under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment. The decision was made . Griffin said David Clements knows what hes talking about and that he is the kind of expert Griffin wants to explain complicated voting systems to him, rather than the election officials in his own county. Copyright 2023 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. He has appeared on Fox News and on Bannons podcast. A recent report from congressional Democrats on election misinformation highlighted Clementss activities and concluded that the greatest current threat to democratic legitimacy now comes from lies by domestic actors who seek to convince Americans that their election systems are fraudulent, corrupt, or insecure., New Mexico Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver, who has clashed repeatedly with Clements and his wife, said the misinformation and disinformation were being seeded as core beliefs, not just with elected officials but the general public.. Couy Griffin Career Griffin was found taking active participation in the 2021 US Capitol riots and was arrested for the same on 8th January 2021. Couy Griffin, one of three commissioners in Otero county in southern New Mexico, was immediately removed from his position and cannot hold elected office again, Francis Mathew, a district judge in . And yet he remains determined. This story has been shared 104,709 times. Griffin: You know the drugs right now are horrible, the property crime is horrible, and theres two of you guys riding around citing people for no seatbelts?Officer: So, wed probably be doing the drug stuff if you were wearing your seatbelt.Griffin: Oh, really? But go ahead and do whatever you need to do.Officer: Yes, sir. The trial itself is expected to commence on Tuesday February 28th, 2023 with national media attention. Clements said in an interview that as an attorney he was eminently qualified to talk about the legalities surrounding voting machines, and that his wife, Erin, has two decades of expertise working with data as a civil engineer. A state judge on Tuesday ordered Griffin removed from office, citing his role in having aided the insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021. Hed like to reinvent the sheriffs role as a brake on the governors power. "I asked him, Mr. President, do you know where Cloudcroft, New Mexico is?" C4T still also has not filed as a political action committee. "When they put this thought into people's minds, that somehow our machines are not calculating the votes correctly, then these people will not want to vote.". No fewer than 86 judges rejected at least one post-election lawsuit filed by Trump or his supporters, a Washington Post review of court filings found. As CPAC's 2023 edition kicks off, the man who greets the myriad right-wing activists and supporters descending on Maryland . Couy Griffin, an Otero County commissioner and co-founder of Cowboys for Trump, answers a question from the prosecution Monday, Aug. 15, at the First Judicial District Court in Santa Fe. The attorney general also received numerous citizen complaints about Griffin. Hes part of a smaller cadre who flirted with insurrection on Trumps behalf and may still pay a high price. Alamogordo Proud! Cowboys for Trump still owes the New Mexico Secretary of State's Office $7,800 in fines. Otero Arts Puppet Show, Authors Lecture and More, Childrens Art Exhibition Opening Night Otero Arts. As per edailybuzz, Couy Griffin is married to his wife, Kourtnie A Gates. A New Mexico judge has removed a county commissioner from office and disqualified him from running for future office in response to his participation in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol Hill riot . I stand before you as someone who used to be an award-winning professor, an award-winning prosecutor who is unemployed, Clements said. Griffin has acknowledged using the county building for promotional videos but said he never claimed they were . Im asking you all to consider showing up to an air-conditioned building, organizing, opening your mouth and saying: These machines suck. And if we dont fix our country, I cant go back to that world.. At the meeting at the Nebraska senior center in early August, Clements appealed to his audience to get on social media and to keep showing up at county commission meetings, again and again, until local leaders are worn down and give in. But much of that I believe will depend on how much support we can build during this time and nothing can replace individual Americans showing up physically and standing alongside one another.. Cowboys for Trump cofounder Couy Griffin confronted a trial by jury Tuesday on charges that he failed to register a political organization without filing related public financial disclosures. And he is disillusioned with Trump himself, citing an issue that brings him back to his earliest grievances: forest management. This is yet another example of how lies about Dominion have damaged our company and diminished the publics faith in elections, Dominion spokeswoman Stephanie Walstrom said of Clements. Otero County commissioners in July rejected Griffins request for taxpayer-funded legal representation in the lawsuit. David and Erin Clements claimed that the states voting tabulators are insecure and miscount votes. A group of prominent constitutional attorneys filed a friend-of-the-court brief on Aug. 1 arguing that Griffin should be removed from office. What is sure to be a media circus for Alamogordo next week, Jury selection will begin Monday at the Otero County New Mexico Courthouse in the trial of the state of New Mexico v Couy Griffin, leader of Cowboys for Trump. He was also one of three commissioners in Otero, a county of some . He says his obsession with politics has taken a toll, contributing to his 2019 divorce and tensions with relatives. His 12 th-round knockout of Ilunga . Both are extremely concerning and truly terrifying to say the least.. He said he began examining the alleged evidence of fraud in contested states like Georgia and Pennsylvania in the days following the election, and later had some of those who claimed to have observed it firsthand appear on his YouTube videos. "Never have. A Donald Trump supporter, Griffin founded Cowboys for Trump and listed his sister Kay Griffin as its organizer. Mr Griffin, a county official in Otero County, New Mexico, added that the aftermath of the election had added to difficulties with relatives and his divorced wife. 2-23-23 Alamogordo Town News Thursday Edition with Anthony Lucero KALHRadio.org, Creative Arts Community Action Alert Senate Action Begins Saturday. The role of creativity in resilience and community-building, Alamogordo Proud Downtown Nights Otero Arts Exhibition Opening, Late Shopping and More, Downtown stores open till 8 pm Friday student art exhibition and more, Alamogordo Proud It is All About the Fashion Spotlight Alamogordo Artisan Linda Swenson, Alamogordo Proud is All about the fashions of Alamogordo's Linda Swenson, AlamogordoTownNews.com Tularosa High School Students Excel in Competitions, AlamogordoTownNews.com Not Guilty! I dont want them. Clements, 42, was a popular tenure-track assistant professor teaching law in the business school of New Mexico State University on Jan. 6, 2021, when a mob loyal to Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol. Cowboys for Trump, or C4T as it is known colloquially, was ordered by the New Mexico Secretary of State's Office to file as a political action committee and file all campaign finance reports or face fines. He raised this the first time the president called him. The officers call Griffin. "But the need for the audit isn't necessarily here in Otero County. In what he described as a mission, he traveled on horseback from San Francisco to New York, and then across Europe and the Mediterranean to Jerusalem, arriving in 2008 after more than two years on the road. And yet, Griffin said in an interview that the audit is strategic, designed to forge a path so other counties in New Mexico audit their elections, a gambit that echoes a nationwide push by Republican officials to sow doubt about election results by pushing for audits. Cell phone video captured the violence and chaos of that day. Griffin, the only dissenter, called his vote in from Washington, where he had just been sentenced to 14 days in jail time served for his role in the Capitol attack. ALAMOGORDO, N.M. (KRQE) New video shows former County Commissioner Couy Griffin getting pulled over and getting into it with police officers. Griffin is scheduled on Monday and Tuesday for a trial without a jury before 1st Judicial District Judge Francis Mathew in Santa Fe. A jury will consider this week whether the support group . "You know, here I am still in a county that still has a great fire threat," Griffin said. Youre in the middle of elections that are fraudulent right now if what theyre telling us is true., If what theyre telling us is true, Holmes said, shouting, IF!. Couy Griffin and his horse grift America. Griffin is presumed innocent until proven guilty. More immediately, Griffin is eyeing an open 2022 sheriffs race in another New Mexico county where he grew up. The fanciful arguments of conspiracists obscure the countrys real need to continue to address election vulnerabilities, she said, such as internet voting 31 states and the District of Columbia allow it for overseas, military and in some places disabled voters as well as outdated paperless voting machines. He has sent out a public plea in an attempt to win in the court of public opinion, by garnering a large showing of supporters, shoulder to shoulder to appear at the Otero County Courthouse. A first-term commissioner in New Mexico's Otero County, Griffin rose to national prominence in May 2020 when Trump tweeted a video of him proclaiming that "the only good Democrat is a dead Democrat." In 2019, he founded the for-profit "Cowboys for Trump" organization and has described himself as a "peaceful patriot." You people are funny that claim I harass Mr Griffin. She grew up in the U.K. and has a small jar of Marmite in her kitchen for emergencies. Hes dined with Trump and Mike Lindell, the chief executive of MyPillow and high-profile election fraud conspiracist. "And they're trying to spin routine election administration processes as somehow improper. "Just struggling every day with new regulations, new laws, new taxes," he said. Ive had my own family say some pretty nasty things, Griffin said. Is it my county commissioners or these people sitting here who had lunch with Donald Trump and the MyPillow guy?, On June 17, the states deadline to certify election results, Clements drove several hundred miles in his old Buick, hoping to stop commissions across New Mexico from approving the votes. EXCLUSIVE: Blake Griffin and Ryan Kalil are getting into business with Sony Pictures Entertainment. Griffin participated in, encouraged, and promoted the January 6, 2021, attack on the United States Capitol, the suit alleges. Trumps election defeat has left the 47-year-old father in a lonely fight for his political life after preaching to crowds at the U.S. Capitol siege, promising to take his guns to Bidens inauguration and landing in jail for over a week. Since then, Griffin has led an itinerant life. The need for the audit in New Mexico was more in the likes of Bernalillo County, and Sandoval County and Doa Ana County," referring to areas where President Joe Biden won the 2020 vote. The cowboy. NELIGH, Neb. Couy Griffin: You know, those would have to go through my counsel. This Otero County election review is part of a nationwide trend. That day, Democrats on the House Oversight Committee released their report into the threat of election misinformation. Despite his Cowboys for Trump shirt, he said all but one of the fellow cowboys drifted away after January 6 last year. It is being investigated by State Auditor Brian Coln after complaints prompted concerns about the procurement process. WWG1WGA standing in Faith! Its all falsehoods and speculation. Griffin and Cowboys for Trump refused to do so and the case went to arbitration. I come to you as someone who had a future. At the June hearing in Otero, David and Erin Clements turned up to a crowded meeting room to give the commission a nearly three-hour update on their findings. The couples conclusions prompted Griffin to chastise his own clerk, Robyn Holmes, a Republican who has 30 years of experience running elections in the county. Emptying the Notebook: Can the Lobos get a defensive stop when it counts? Alice Fordham joined the news team in 2022 after a career as an international correspondent, reporting for NPR from the Middle East and later Latin America and Europe. Dysfunctional family. Who is going to break whose will? Clements said. Couy Griffin (via CREW legal filing) Leading First Amendment experts have weighed in on a lawsuit against a New Mexico man convicted in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, saying that he cannot use the First Amendment as a defense to the constitutional prohibition against insurrectionists holding public office. Their reports on election fraud are a jumble of conspiracy theories and full of errors. But David and Erin Clements pressed on, appearing before the three-member, all-Republican Otero commission with a new target: the states June 7 primary. The county sheriffs sole duty and responsibility is to protect our individual rights, he said. Griffin still wears a monogrammed Cowboys for Trump shirt to commission meetings. The first-term county commissioner forged a group of rodeo acquaintances in 2019 into a promotional Cowboys for Trump posse to spread his conservative message about gun rights, immigration controls and abortion restrictions. Kourtnie served in the US military and is a war Veteran. Couy Griffin has been booted from his seat as Otero County Commission chairman for violating his oath of office when he participated in the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol. His grandfather Wee Griffin held the Catron County post from 1963 to 1966. ", Griffin and his two fellow commissioners voted to conduct the audit despite concerns about its legality noted by County Attorney R.B. Gun safe storage bill inches closer to governor's desk Republicans express concern over high-profile measure Republicans express concern over high-profile measure during Fridays two-hour debate. So who is the leader here today? Swanson asked. But when it was operational, it offered options to donate to the organization by direct donation or by purchasing merchandise. Im not going to sit and argue with that.. Some have. Griffin has cast Democratic Gov. The pickup was emblazoned with his Cowboys For Trump logo. They even quote me and cite my work on voting systems with modems and internet connectivity, but I disagree with every conclusion they draw from my work., I dont think he understands what hes talking about most of the time, said Greenhalgh. In Washington, prosecutors unveiled photographs of Griffin climbing a toppled fence and another barrier to access the Capitol steps. For years, Otero County Commissioner Couy Griffin has been Donald Trump's most flamboyant supporter in New Mexico, creating spectacles and controversy in equal measure. Thus the State Attorney General filed the lawsuit and a trail by jury was ordered. The New Mexico attorney general investigated embattled former Otero County Commissioner and Cowboys For Trump founder Couy Griffin for using C4T funds for personal use and taking official acts as commissioner for his personal gain. I was to the point that, You guys arent even telling half-truths anymore,' she recalled. Officer: Im going to issue a citation for the seatbelt. Griffin has suggested that voting machines provided by Dominion Voting Systems across New Mexico could have been hacked. Weve got enough evidence to have indictments, people tried for treason and have the remedy of firing squads. Thats hard for me to accept.. Toward the end of the meeting, Donna Swanson, a former presiding poll judge in Otero County who worked with Holmes for years, stepped up to speak. Former President Donald Trump leads Florida Gov. "And it forced us to go out of business and it's been something that I've never forgotten because it was so unfair and unjust.". He continued per the sent email; I believe another motivation for this charge is that by forcing me to register as a c-corp or non-profit it will force me to disclose all financials to the state and by doing that they will be able to unmask any past supporters of Cowboys for Trump to only destroy them with the same vindictiveness that they have come at me with. , Case dismissed for teen accused of taking gun to, Elderly man who killed sister takes plea deal, 2023 state basketball tournament brackets, Whats happening around New Mexico Feb. 24 Mar. Because I care about the truth. "And I really thought that the president was going to come through on his end, and unfortunately, he never did. Otero County Clerk Robyn Holmes disagrees. He grew up in Reserve, in western New Mexico, where his father ran a sawmill. Griffin had recently been booted out of office following his conviction on federal charges for trespassing outside the Capitol building during the January 6 attack. And that was one that got me, said Brown, part of a committee seeking to recall Griffin. He is still facing federal charges. Banned from Washington until testimony or trial, Griffin has returned to the routines of home in a tidy double-wide trailer in Tularosa, working most days as a stone mason. Because I want to make sure our voices are accurately captured. The trail will begin Tuesday on New York Avenue Alamogordo after jury selection expected to be completed on Monday. Couy Griffin is a white man from Tularosa, Otero County, New Mexico, United States. Mr Griffin, the founder of Cowboys for Trump, said in an interview with journalist Mr Griffin that he believed both Sicknick and Ashli Babbitt are still alive. Here are 13 more things about Couy: He saw the sawmill's work as "curating" the forest. He is awaiting trial. Couy Griffin Wife, Children Griffin is currently single, he was previously married to his girlfriend Kourtnie A Gates, but they were divorced in 2019. Today, Couy Griffin is divorced, disparaged by family and confronts a political recall drive, a state corruption investigation and federal charges. He was a rodeo cowboy at Disneyland Paris and a pastor at the Cowboy Church in Alamogordo. Griffin has been rebuked by some Republicans over his racial invective. We've received your submission. "And it's cost me everything - from a marriage, to finances, to friends.". Cowboys for Trump founder Couy Griffin will face off in court Monday against three New Mexicans who argue in a lawsuit that he should be removed from his post as an Otero County commissioner for participating in an insurrection against the United States. New . In his disciplinary hearing, which Clements posted online, the university said he violated the schools covid-19 mask and vaccination policy. Their additional three locations remain open. My heart filled and I heard, We are going to win. . I can handle a lot. And since he is still in office, he was able to push for the audit. David Clements urged commissioners not to perform their statutory duty to certify the results, arguing that doing so would place them in legal jeopardy because of the problems they alleged with the machines. In a conversation with The Associated Press, Griffin says he learned to love the spotlight during five years as an expert rodeo hand in a Wild West show at Paris Disneyland park. Feb 27, 2023. Some extra notes, quotes, news and notes from the Lobos Friday night basketball game in Fort Collins, Colorado. They want to destroy our country, Griffin said in a video monologue. And I said, well, you're gonna know exactly where it's at whenever the forest catches on fire around there, because it's gonna burn the whole town down. Representing the plaintiffs are no fewer than seven attorneys listed in court records. The Couy Griffin Interview concerning the trial can be heard following the advertisement in the KALH Radio AlamogordoTownNews.com archives as the lead story following the weather report. He looked back and saw his wife and children standing in the window watching him, weeping. In Otero, two commissioners who had voted not to certify earlier in the week reversed their decisions and approved the results, bowing to an emergency order from the states Supreme Court that mandated them to follow their statutory duty. The pastors. For two hours, Clements who has the rumpled look of an academic, though he lost his business school professors job last fall for refusing to wear a mask in class spoke of breached voting machines, voter roll manipulation and ballot stuffing that he falsely claims cost former president Donald Trump victory in 2020. Griffin had previously sued Toulouse Oliver claiming he was not required to register or file as a political committee. If I was in your position I wouldnt be able to sleep at night, Griffin said to Holmes. The error was quickly corrected, but the damage was done. 70 202 As per the sources, He was married to him for a long time and got divorced in 2019. In the seatbelt citation, the officer would note Griffin got mouthy.. I do worry about potential violence toward election officials, in particular around the upcoming general election, she said. On January 17 last year, the Justice Department released a statement saying that Griffin was being charged with 'knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful entry' adding that he had said in a video, later removed, that, "we could have a Second Amendment rally on those same steps that we had that rally yesterday. Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver said dozens of people have complained about volunteers associated with the audit going door-to-door and asking residents about their vote. Dominion officials have denied all allegations made against the company, filing multibillion-dollar defamation lawsuits against various people who spread the claims. A jury will consider this week whether the support group . My mom worked at Kmart and Lowes, my dad bagged groceries, he said. I said, God save us, please, please save our country, he recalled in a speech in Michigan last year. Otero County Commission Chairman and Cowboys for Trump co-founder Couy Griffin rides his horse on 5th avenue on May 1, 2020 in New York City. They have a Son Together was born in 2014. Griffin was convicted in federal court of entering a restricted area outside the U.S. Capitol. And it was a challenging venture into the barbecue restaurant business that he said pushed him into politics. A rancher named Dave Wright raised his hand to say that it was obvious to him the Democratic National Committee had figured out how to cheat, so why couldnt the Republicans do so as well?
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