ex- off-duty cops
see pvt intel
see infiltration
cop trainers racist
https://www.alternet.org/2022/05/police/
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Details about a call between well-known Republican donor Dr. Steven F. Hotze and a federal prosecutor in Texas are now coming to light. According to The Washington Post, documents filed by prosecutors in a Harris County, Texas court on Friday, May 6, 2022, indicate that the call took place on October 17, 2020. The audio of the call was presented as part of Hotze's indictment.
Per The Post,Hotze claimed, "private investigators funded by his nonprofit group had been trailing a mysterious white van as it shuttled phony ballots around the city in an effort to rig the upcoming election." At the time, he reportedly requested that federal authorities stop the mysterious van and detain its driver. He also insisted that "one of his hard-nosed investigators was prepared to do the job himself."
A transcript of the phone conversation was also included in the filing. “In fact, he told me last night, ‘hell … the guy’s gonna have a wreck tomorrow night. I’m going to run into him and I’m gonna make a citizen’s arrest,” Hotze told Ryan Patrick, the Trump-appointed U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Texas, who recorded audio of the conversation.
Just two days after the recorded call, Hotze's private investigator ran the driver of the van off the road and ended up holding him at gunpoint. However, the accusations were deeply flawed as the man turned out to be an air conditioning repairman. Local police also reportedly confirmed the man's innocence and occupation as they indicated that "his truck only contained repair parts."
In addition to targeting the delivery driver, Hotze is also said to have raised concerns about an alleged election conspiracy he believed Democrats had crafted.
Per The Post: "In the run-up to the 2020 presidential election, Hotze received regular briefings about the private investigation from a former Houston police officer hired to run the probe, he said in his deposition. During weekly calls, he said, the ex-cop, Mark Aguirre, detailed his pursuit of a sensational theory: Democrats were using undocumented Hispanic children to forge signatures on hundreds of thousands of phony ballots to rig the election in Harris County, home to Houston."
During the deposition, Hotze said,“From what he told me, it appeared he was hot on a trail."
“The defendants were charged as part of a bizarre scheme that crossed the line from dirty politics to violent crime and we are lucky no one was killed,” she said Friday. “The entire plan was backward from the start, alleging massive voter fraud occurred and then trying to prove it happened.”
Despite the incriminating phone call audio, Hotze's attorney Jared Woodfill argues, "the recording did not capture the complete conversation between Hotze and Patrick." He also insists, “The Ryan Patrick tape further demonstrates that the indictment of Dr. Hotze was politically motivated and that Dr. Hotze is innocent of any criminal or civil wrongdoing.”
However, Democrats argue otherwise. Democratic District Attorney Kim Ogg condemned the whole voter fraud conspiracy describing it as a “misguided fantasy.” She weighed in on the debacle on Friday.
“The defendants were charged as part of abizarre scheme that crossed the line from dirty politics to violent crime and we are lucky no one was killed,” she said. “The entire plan was backward from the start, alleging massive voter fraud occurred and then trying to prove it happened.”
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GOP mega donor Steven Hotze charged after a bogus election fraud scheme led a former cop to threaten a repairman" was first published by The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans — and engages with them — about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.
Conservative activist Steven Hotze on Wednesday was indicted on two felony charges related to his alleged involvement in an air conditioning repairman being held at gunpoint in 2020 during a bizarre search for fraudulent mail ballots that did not exist, according to his attorney, Gary Polland.
Hotze, 71, was indicted by a Harris County grand jury and faces one count of unlawful restraint and one count of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. Court filings in the case were not available Wednesday evening. Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg declined to comment.
The charges stem from Hotze’s hiring of more than a dozen private investigators to look for voter fraud in Harris County ahead of the 2020 presidential election.
One of the investigators,former Houston police captain Mark Aguirre, was arrested in December 2020 and charged with aggravated assault. Prosecutors said Aguirre used his vehicle to run an air conditioning repairman off the roadbefore dawn on Oct. 19, 2020.
Aguirre then detained the repairman at gunpoint and ordered an associate to search his truck, according to court filings. When a Houston police officer happened upon the scene and stopped to investigate, Aguirre said the truck contained 750,000 fraudulent mail ballots prepared by Democrats.
The truck contained only air conditioning parts and equipment. Hotze’s investigators have not produced any credible evidence to support allegations that Democrats orchestrated a wide-ranging mail ballot scheme in Harris County during that election.
Polland said the charges against Hotze are “outrageous” and his client had no knowledge of the roadside incident until he read media reports of Aguirre’s arrest. He said Aguirre asked Hotze for funds to investigate alleged election fraud, Hotze agreed, and that was the extent of his involvement in Aguirre’s affairs.
“All I know is Hotze didn’t aid or abet this in any way,” Polland said. “The donation of funds was for a righteous activity of rooting out ballot fraud.”
Grand jury subpoenas in Aguirre’s case show that Hotze paid Aguirre $266,400. Most of that sum, $211,400, was paid to Aguirre on the day after the alleged holdup.
Aguirre remains free on bond awaiting trial. One of his conditions of release is that he no longer work for Hotze.
Hotze, however, plans to continue monitoring election activity in Houston. At a “Freedom Gala” fundraiser Hotze hosted on April 2 with Attorney General Ken Paxton, Hotze said donations would be used to investigate voter fraud in Texas.
Also attending the event was Mike Lindell, the MyPillow CEO who has promoted the baseless theory that former President Donald Trump was the rightful winner of the 2020 presidential election.
Polland said Hotze does not plan to alter his plans because of the indictments.
Hotze, a physician, has long advocated on behalf of conservative issues. He was instrumental in the 2015 defeat of Houston’s anti-discrimination ordinance, which he derided as “pro-homosexual.” He opposed the legalization of same-sex marriage spurred by a Supreme Court ruling earlier that year.
In 2020, he unsuccessfully sued Harris County in an attempt to have 127,000 ballots cast at drive-thru locations thrown out.
His far-right beliefs have sometimes led to disputes with other Republicans. In June 2020, during protests following the police killing of George Floyd, Hotze left a voicemail with Gov. Greg Abbott’s chief of staff urging the governor “to shoot to kill if any of these son-of-a-bitch people start rioting.” U.S. John Cornyn called the remarks “absolutely disgusting and reprehensible.”