DOJ Investigation Is Closing In On Fake GQP Electors Coup Plot

CNN reports, Justice Department closes in on documents subpoenaed from GOP operatives connected to Trump fake electors plan (excerpt):

Republican operatives connected to the plan to put forward “alternate” electors for Donald Trump are set to turn over information to the Justice Department as soon as this week – as criminal investigations examining efforts to overturn the 2020 election pick up pace.

The DOJ issued numerous subpoenas in the past few weeks and is seeking information in all seven battleground states where Trump’s campaign convened the false electors as part of the effort to subvert the Electoral College. Some of the subpoenas called for Republicans connected to the scheme to provide documents by Friday, sources familiar with the investigation told CNN.

It’s the latest step by federal investigators in an already sprawling criminal investigation, and it comes as a parallel investigation in Georgia also shows signs of ramping up amid subpoenas for former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani and Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham to testify.

At the same time, the House select committee is revealing new information in public hearings from its investigation into Trump’s “seven-part plan” to overturn the election that culminated in the US Capitol attack on January 6, 2021.

That plan, according to the committee, included the fake electors, a pressure campaign on then-Vice President Mike Pence to stop the counting of electoral votes, and the assembly of a violent mob that Trump directed to march to the Capitol – which is expected to be the subject of next Tuesday’s hearing.

The Justice Department has charged more than 800 people for their role in rioting at the Capitol on January 6. More than 300 have pleaded guilty. In recent months, the DOJ’s investigation has broadened beyond the rioters. It was first focused outside the Trump administration — on fake electors, organizers of the rally that preceded the attack, and on extremist groups. Now the department is moving closer to the political circles around Trump.

While the criminal investigation moves swiftly – in recent weeks a “Stop the Steal” rally organizer testified to a grand jury and a new Oath Keepers conspiracy defendant was charged – the Justice Department has kept its next round of targets close to the vest.

“We never know where it’s going to go,” said Philip Linder, a defense attorney for Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes, who has been charged with seditious conspiracy. “There’s still stuff going. They’ve got to be looking at anything and everything they can do.”

In late June, the Justice Department issued several subpoenas to individuals involved in the fake electors plot, including GOP officials in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan and Pennsylvania. Two Republican state senators in Arizona also received subpoenas around the same time.

See, Finally! The FBI Has Subpoenaed Sens. Karen Fann And Kelly Townsend.

The documents to be turned over under subpoenas are likely to include communications between fake electors, as well as with Trump campaign officials who helped orchestrate the effort.

Also in late June, federal investigators seized electronics from Trump attorney John Eastman. Electronics were also seized during an early morning raid at the home of former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark, who attempted to help Trump enlist the department in the effort to claim the 2020 election was fraudulent.

So far, no criminal charges have been filed in connection with efforts in political circles to try to overturn the election. [Still in investigation stage of collecting evidence.]

Arizona’s fake GQP electors include three Coup Plotters (co-conspirators) who are currently running for office:

Rep. 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” [troll farm] 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.”

Former Rep. 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.

Axios reported, Arizona Senate candidate poured millions into voter registration group:

[Jim Lamon] poured millions into an ostensibly nonpartisan voter registration operation – the nonprofit Look Ahead America – affiliated with prominent election fraud conspiracy theorists.

GOP candidate Jim Lamon embraces many of these theories, and a drive to register voters with the same inclination has the potential to benefit his candidacy. Lamon also stands to get a substantial tax break from his $2 million effort to turn out conservative voters.

In late April 2021, Lamon, a renewable energy executive, announced his donation to the nonprofit Look Ahead America, designed to help register “tens of thousands of new conservative voters.”

A week later, Lamon officially entered the race to challenge Sen. Mark Kelly, a Democrat.

Records indicate Lamon had been laying the groundwork for his run by the time he donated to LAA: his campaign website’s domain was registered in March, and its social media pages were created in April.

The group said it planned to use Lamon’s $2 million to register and turn out “America First patriots” (sic).

LAA was formed as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit in 2017 but had its tax-exempt status revoked last year for a persistent failure to file annual reports with the IRS.

LAA executive director Matthew Braynard told Axios the group is in the process of reapplying for tax exemption.

Efforts by Braynard’s group to root out supposed voter fraud last year were cited in multiple failed lawsuits seeking to overturn election results in states carried by Joe Biden in his matchup with President Trump.

The group has turned its attention this year to lobbying state and local governments to abandon contracts with voting machine companies at the center of Trump-backed conspiracy theories about the 2020 election.

Lamon has pushed many of the same conspiracy theories. He joined Arizona Republican Party chair Kelli Ward late last year in unsuccessfully suing to block Biden’s victory in the state.

Lamon’s company donated $300,000 to the Arizona GOP in March 2021, as the state party used a Republican-led [sham “fraudit“] of the state’s 2020 election results to boost its fundraising substantially.

And the Arizona Senate’s liaison to the Cyber Ninjas GQP sham “fraudit,” Ken Bennett (also a candidate for legislative office), has endorsed Jim Lamon. Ken Bennett Edorses Jim Lamon.

Before he embraced Trump’s Big Lie of election fraud, Bennett built a reputuation as Ken “Birther” Bennett, a purveyor of Trump’s birther conspiracy theory against Barack Obama when he was Secretary of State in 2012. Ken Bennett’s “Birther” Request Shows the Insanity of Arizona’s GOP.

None of these co-conspirators and accessories to Trump’s coup d’etat should ever be allowed to hold political office.

The fake GQP electors are likely facing indictment and prosecution in the not too distant future. They might avoid prosecution if they cooperate with the DOJ investigation and provide evidence and testimony to the DOJ that leads to the indictment and prosecution of those higher up  the ladder in Trump’s coup plot.