moorhead, sam
Those charged over their roles as false electors include two sitting lawmakers, state senators Jake Hoffman and Anthony Kern. The former Arizona Republican party chair Kelli Ward and her husband, Michael Ward, have been charged, as has Tyler Bowyer, a Republican national committeeman and Turning Point USA executive, and Jim Lamon, who ran for US Senate in 2022. The others charged in the fake electors scheme are Nancy Cottle, Robert Montgomery, Samuel Moorhead, Lorraine Pellegrino and Gregory Safsten.
nOTE gohmert COS CLArence clerk, Bunch of az FAKE ELECTORS:
LOUIE GOHMERT,TYLER BOWYER, NANCY COTTLE, JAKE HOFFMAN, ANTHONY KERN,JAMES R. LAMON, SAM MOORHEAD, ROBERT MONTGOMERY, LORAINE PELLEGRINO, GREG SAFSTEN, KELLI WARDAND MICHAEL WARD,
Applicants, v. THE HONORABLE MICHAEL R. PENCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, IN HIS OFFICIAL CAPACITY. Respondent.
EMERGENCY APPLICATION TO THE HONORABLE SAMUEL A. ALITO AS CIRCUIT JUSTICE FOR THE FIFTH CIRCUIT FOR ADMINISTRATIVE STAY AND INTERIM RELIEF PENDING RESOLUTION OF A TIMELY FILED PETITION FOR A
WRIT OF CERTIORARI
William L. Sessions Texas Bar No. 18041500 SESSIONS & ASSOCIATES, PLLC 14591 North Dallas Parkway, Suite 400 Dallas, TX 75254 Tel: (214) 217-8855 Fax: (214) 723-5346 Email: lsessions@sessionslaw.net Lawrence J. Joseph DC Bar #464777
LAW OFFICE OF LAWRENCE J. JOSEPH 1250 Connecticut Av NW, Ste 700 Washington, DC 20036 Tel: (202) 355-9452 Fax: (202) 318-2254 Email: ljoseph@larryjoseph.com Counsel for Applicants Sidney Powell* Texas Bar No. 16209700
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HOWARD KLEINHENDLER ESQUIRE 369 Lexington Ave., 12th Floor New York, New York 10017 Tel: (917) 793-1188 Fax: (732) 901-0832 Email: howard@kleinhendler.com * Counsel of Record
advocates for Arizona's 'fake electors' plan had legal doubts, new report finds
Ronald J. Hansen
Arizona Republic
Fake electors cast votes for Trump
Some of those involved in submitting presidential electors for President Donald Trump in Arizona after he had lost the state in 2020 knew their plan was legally dubious and want to keep its low public profile as long as possible, according to a report published Tuesday.
Citing previously undisclosed emails, the New York Times painted the picture of an effort in key swing states, including Arizona, the closest contest in the country, that was both desperate and probably wouldn't pass legal scrutiny.
Their plan was to submit papers to Congress suggesting Trump won the states, even though certified results showed then-President-elect Joe Biden had won them. Trump's allies hoped the dual slates of electors would serve as a justification for slowing or reversing the Jan. 6, 2021, certification of Biden's victory.
After Vice President Mike Pence refused to consider the "fake electors," a pro-Trump mob stormed the U.S. Capitol, halting the process for hours.
Video:Gov. Doug Ducey with Karrin Taylor Robson and former Vice President Mike Pence
Long before then, those pushing the long shot plan knew they stood on shaky ground, the Times reported. People familiar with the plan at the time have told The Arizona Republic that while the strategy was legally questionable, they didn't view their activity as criminally wrong.
“We would just be sending in ‘fake’ electoral votes to Pence so that ‘someone’ in Congress can make an objection when they start counting votes, and start arguing that the ‘fake’ votes should be counted,” wrote Jack Wilenchik, a Phoenix lawyer who helped convene the Trump electors for Arizona.
The Dec. 8, 2020, email went to Boris Epshteyn, an adviser to Trump's campaign who served as a bridge between the Trump campaign and John Eastman, a California law professor who helped devise the legal strategy.
In a follow-up email, Wilenchik wrote that “‘alternative’ votes is probably a better term than ‘fake’ votes,” the Times reported Tuesday.
Wilenchik also seemed to acknowledge in an email that they should submit the fake electors "even though the votes aren't legal under federal law — because they're not signed by the governor."
Pence and his legal team rejected the alternate electors legal strategy even before Jan. 6, 2021.
Wilenchik and Epshteyn declined to comment about the matter to the Times and The Republic.
Wilenchik has ties to key figures involved in the Arizona Republican Party efforts to overturn the state’s 2020 presidential election results.
He represents Cyber Ninjas, the firm hired to lead the Senate’s partisan review of ballots in Maricopa County, in a months-long battle to prevent thousands of documents from public disclosure.
Wilenchik also has represented state Rep. Mark Finchem, R-Oro Valley, an election denier who led "Stop the Steal" rallies and who was outside the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6 riot.
Christina Bobb, a lawyer and former reporter for the conservative One America News Network, wrote an email four days after Wilenchik's, saying that Doug Mastriano, the man heading the alternate electors' effort in Pennsylvania, had been told their plan may be illegal, the Times reported.
Mastriano now is the GOP's gubernatorial nominee in that state.
The Times also reported that correspondence about the fake electors wasn't shared with the White House Counsel's Office, which had already rejected the idea as legally unsound.
Wilenchik wrote in a Dec. 8, 2020, email that Arizona Republican Party Chair Kelli Ward wanted “to keep it under wraps until Congress counts the vote Jan. 6th (so we can try to ‘surprise’ the Dems and media with it) — I tend to agree with her.”
Ward did not immediately respond to The Republic's request for comment. Last month, she and her husband, Michael, were subpoenaed by the U.S. Justice Department in connection with the alternate electors plan, according to Politico.
Paul Bender, an Arizona State University law professor who worked as deputy solicitor general in the Clinton administration, said Wilenchik's emails were troubling.
"If they are submitting documents they know are false in order to delay Congress from doing something, ... it's clearly unethical for a lawyer to do that," Bender said.
the 84 people who signed bogus documents claiming that Donald Trump won the 2020 election include dozens of local Republican Party leaders, seven current candidates for public office, eight current office holders and at least five previous state and federal office holders.
Groups from Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, New Mexico, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin all allegedly sent lists of so-called alternate electors to the National Archives after the 2020 election. The slate of fake electors includes Lou Barletta and Charlie Gerow, both candidates for governor in Pennsylvania; Burt Jones, a candidate for lieutenant governor in Georgia; James Lamon, a candidate for U.S. Senate from Arizona; and candidates for state legislative seats.
The group also includes eight current officeholders:
- Jake Hoffman, an Arizona state representative.
- Burt Jones, a Georgia state senator.
- Stanley Grot, the Shelby Township clerk in Michigan.
- Amy Facchinello, a member of the school board in Grand Blanc, Michigan.
- Robert Spindell Jr., a member of the Wisconsin Election Commission.
- Sam DeMarco III, an at-large member of the Allegheny County Council in Pennsylvania.
- Josephine Ferro, the Monroe County Register of Wills in Pennsylvania.
- Kelly Ruh, an alderperson for De Pere, Wisconsin.
In addition to the chair or co-chair of the state Republican Party in all seven states, the group includes people for whom political controversy and investigations are nothing new:
- Michael Ward of Arizona has been accused of spitting in the eye of a former campaign volunteer for his wife, Kelli Ward.
- Tom Carroll of Pennsylvania was accused by a Black colleague of leaving a stuffed monkey on her desk in a racist act, while he was serving as an assistant district attorney.
- Gloria Kay Godwin of Georgia has been accused of stalking after allegedly attempting to interfere in a citizen effort to obtain signatures for a recall election petition.
The Justice Department has announced that it is investigating the attempt by the false electors to subvert the election.
On Friday, the Congressional Select Committee on January 6th also announced it has subpoenaed 14 of the counterfeit electors who it believes have information about how they met and who was behind the scheme, according to committee Chairperson Bennie G. Thompson, (D-Miss.). Each of the 14 served as “chair” or “secretary” on the state slates of fake electors.
According to recent reports, Trump’s then-attorney Rudy Giuliani led the scheme by submitting the slates of “alternate electors” to the National Archives. In March 2021, D.C.-based watchdog group American Oversight made public the documents, which it received in response to a public records request.
Attorneys general from the seven states involved in the scheme are investigating whether to bring charges against the Trump backers who participated. Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel has said there is “absolutely” enough evidence to charge the false electors with election fraud.
Here is the 11 bogus electors from Arizona:
- Nancy Cottle: Cottle is the first vice president of programs for the Arizona Federation of Republican Women. She has been active in Arizona politics for the past decade and holds various other positions on the Maricopa County Republican Committee and the AZGOP executive committee.
- Loraine B. Pellegrino: Pellegrino has served as president of Ahwatukee Republican Women.
- Tyler Bowyer: Bowyer is the chief operating officer of Turning Point USA, a Phoenix-based nonprofit organization that advocates for conservative values in schools. He has previously worked for the Republican National Committee and the Maricopa County Republican Party.
- Jake Hoffman: Hoffman is an Arizona state representative for the 12th District. Hoffman also runs a conservative digital marketing company, Rally Forge, that was banned from Facebook and suspended from Twitter for engaging in “coordinated inauthentic behavior” on behalf of Turning Point Action, an affiliate of Turning Point USA. The company was enlisting and paying teens to share comments with right-wing opinions, including that mail-in ballots would lead to fraud and that coronavirus numbers were intentionally inflated. Experts told the Washington Post in 2020 that the effort was “among the most ambitious domestic influence campaigns uncovered this election cycle.”
- Anthony T. Kern: From January 2015 until January 2021, Kern was an Arizona state representative for the 20th District. He is currently running for election to the Arizona state Senate to represent the 20th District. Kern participated in the January 6 riots in D.C. and has lied about breaching the U.S. Capitol building
- James Lamon: Lamon is running for election to the U.S. Senate to represent Arizona. He is a veteran and was previously CEO of DEPCOM Power, a solar energy contractor, according to his LinkedIn profile.
- Robert Montgomery: In 2020, Montgomery served as the chairman of the Cochise County Republican Committee.
- Samuel I. Moorhead: Moorhead serves as the second vice chair of the Gila County Arizona Republican Party.
- Greg Safsten: Safsten is the executive director of the Republican Party of Arizona. He previously worked for Rep. Andy Biggs and Rep. Matt Salmon, both of Arizona, in their U.S. House offices, according to his LinkedIn profile.
- Dr. Kelli Ward: Ward is an osteopathic physician who has served as the chair of the Arizona Republican Party since 2019. Following the 2020 election, Ward aided Trump’s efforts to invalidate the election results and filed a number of lawsuits to nullify Arizona’s results. In 2016, she challenged the late U.S. Sen. John McCain in the Republican primary but lost with 39 percent of the vote. She previously served in the Arizona state Senate.
- Dr. Michael Ward: Ward met his wife, Kelli Ward, while he was serving in the Arizona Air National Guard. In 2019, he was accused of spitting in the eye of a former volunteer of his wife’s when she was a candidate for Senate because the volunteer went on to support her former political foe, Martha McSally. Michael Ward denied touching, pushing, threatening or spitting on the volunteer in an email to police, according to AZ Central.
Kira Lerner is the democracy reporter for States Newsroom based in Washington, D.C.
if You Can’t Beat ‘Em, Hire ‘Em: #AZSen Edition To compete with fake elector Jim Lamon, Blake Masters just put one on his payroll... PHOENIX — In the latest desperate attempt to out-election conspiracy theory the GOP Senate primary field for “an active participant in the fake elector scam, co-conspiring with Masters’ opponent, Jim Lamon, in an attempt to override millions of Arizona votes. And yes, this is the same fake elector scam that Masters’ other opponent, Mark Brnovich, is refusing to investigate in the hopes that his cooperation will score him points — and a quick dollar — with Trump.
But Masters — a Silicon Valley sweetheart who has the backing (and $10 million pledge) of tech tycoon Peter Thiel — couldn’t just hire any fake elector. He picked Safsten, a like-minded hypocrite so clearly beholden to big tech that the Arizona GOP voted to nominate Trump for his 2020 re-election bid via a blockchain app under his leadership. Blake Masters also called for the U.S. to have a strategic reserve of Bitcoin.
“This latest move by Blake Masters confirms what we already knew: He was bred by big tech, is funded by big tech, and is now staffed by big tech,” said ADP spokesperson Hannah Goss. “What’s more, Masters just made it crystal clear that this primary field is in a race to the bottom to prove who is most focused on an election that occurred nearly two years ago instead of on the issues that matter most to Arizonans right now — and all to win the approval of one man: Donald Trump.”