8-30-2023 10:39am

Democratic Controlled New Mexico a Donald Trump Co-Conspirator

Chris Edwards Editor

Trump cardboard cut out from fanatical New Mexico Representative District 52 John Block

With the multiple indictments against former president Donald Trump, for many it seems odd that the Deep Blue Democratic Party led state, of New Mexico, is even mentioned in Trump indictments.

New Mexico was never seen as a state at risk to vote for Trump. New Mexico is a state that is deep blue with every major state and federal official being a Democrat.

So why is New Mexico getting attention of multiple state and Federal agencies and prosecutors related to election fraud and fake electors?

New Mexico, which was not among the key states in the most recent presidential election was tossed into the mix of Trump co-conspirators the night before the December 14th gathering of federal presidential electors.

At the request of a Trump campaign staffer, fake certificates for New Mexico electors were drafted and to the state of New Mexico for Donald Trump.

The decision came despite there being no pending litigation on Trump's behalf in New Mexico and the fact that he lost the state by nearly 100,000 votes.

The New Mexico Republican Party sent out a press release stating they requested their five electors to vote for Donald Trump given pending litigation concerning the election results.

Who were the Republican New Mexico electors?

They were businessmen Jewll Powdrell and Lupe Garcia; Deborah Maestas, a former state GOP chairperson; Rosie Tripp, a former GOP national committee member from Socorro who has held elected offices; and Anissa Gallacini Ford-Tinnin, who signed as a substitute for oil businessman (and another former state party chairperson) Harvey Yates.

At the time, a news release from the New Mexico Republican Party stated, “As the legal proceedings arising from the Nov. 3 presidential election continue to work their way through our nation’s judicial system, we requested that the New Mexico Republicans who pledged to vote for President Trump and Vice President Pence in the Electoral College to convene on Dec. 14, cast their ballots and send them to Congress, where the Electoral votes are to be opened and counted beginning on Jan. 6.”

But when the electors got to Santa Fe they were turned away by the Secretary of State. They did, however, sign a certificate of votes for Trump and Mike Pence and sent it to Washington.

The Trump campaign filed an election challenge suit in New Mexico, six minutes before the deadline for the electors' votes, "as a pretext so that there was pending litigation there at the time the fraudulent electors voted," prosecutors allege.

On Dec. 14, 2020, as Democratic electors for Biden in key swing states met at their seat of state government to cast their votes, Republican electors for Trump gathered as well. They signed and submitted false Electoral College certificates declaring Trump the winner of the presidential election in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, New Mexico, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

Those fraudulent certificates were mailed to Congress and the National Archives. Ultimately, only the legitimate election certificates were counted, despite Trump's effort to create what prosecutors called a "fake controversy."

Trump's allies in the days before January 6th, exerted intense pressure on Vice President Mike Pence, urging to use the fake certificates to justify delaying the certification of the election during the joint session of Congress. One of Trump's lawyers even suggested that Pence could simply toss out electors and declare Trump the winner.

Time and again, Pence refused, prompting Trump to complain that he was "too honest," according to the indictment.

One potential issue with any potential prosecution in New Mexico is that unlike the fake electors in the other five states, New Mexico and Pennsylvania fake electors included a caveat that their votes for Trump should only be counted if their states’ electoral votes for Biden were found to be invalid.

Legal experts continue the debate that New Mexico’s fake electors most likely broke state law and the caveat probably would not be enough to shield them from legal liability. However the judiciary is mixed on how it handles election cases.

In addition to New Mexico’s role in the scheme, now-former New Mexico Congresswoman Yvette Herrell voted against certifying Biden’s victory hours after rioters had been cleared from the U.S. Capitol.

The timeline

Every four years prior to November general elections, New Mexico political parties choose their party’s presidential electors at state conventions.
Nov. 3, 2020, US presidential elections are held. In New Mexico, Biden wins the popular vote by almost 100,000 votes. So it is the New Mexico Democratic slate of presidential electors which wins.
December 14, 2020, New Mexico Democratic electors cast their vote for Joe Biden at the New Mexico Secretary of State’s office. But New Mexico Republicans also try to submit their own slate of presidential electors. Rejected by the Secretary of State, these false electors cast their own votes for Trump and send the results to Washington. Six other states do the same thing. However, New Mexico adds a caveat to its presential certificate suggesting that its electors should go forward, pending the outcome of legal proceedings related to the 2020 presidential election.
On the same day, December 14, 2020, Trump and his legal team file an election lawsuit in U.S District Court in New Mexico, expressing concerns with the use of drop boxes. The federal grand jury later calls this lawsuit “a pretext so that there was pending litigation there at the time the fraudulent electors voted.”
January 11, 2021: Trump’s lawsuit against New Mexico is dropped.

In Michigan 16 people including Meshawn Maddock, a former co-chair of the Michigan Republican party, and Kathy Berden, a national committeewoman for the Republican National Committee have been charged with felony offenses in relation to the alleged 2020 election plot.

Kathy Berden
William (Hank) Choate
Amy Facchinello
Clifford Frost
Stanley Grot
John Haggard
Mari-Ann Henry
Timothy King
Michele Lundgren
Meshawn Maddock
James Renner
Mayra Rodriguez
Rose Rook
Marian Sheridan
Ken Thompson
Kent Vanderwood

Will New Mexico charge their fraudulent electors?

The New Mexico Attorney General’s Office has been tight-lipped about the progress of their investigation into former President Donald Trump’s allies in New Mexico. Following Trump’s federal indictment on charges that he illegally sought to overturn the 2020 election, the attorney general’s office has revealed it is working with special counsel Jack Smith’s team to gather evidence related to the investigation.

Lauren Rodriguez, director of communications for New Mexico’s attorney general, said in a statement that the previous Attorney General Hector Balderas referred the fake elector case to the Department of Justice.Current AG Raúl Torrez opened a separate state investigation into the scheme. The office has been in regular contact with the federal Department of Justice regarding New Mexico’s fake electors, Rodriguez said.

“That inquiry is ongoing and now that Special Counsel Jack Smith has unsealed a federal indictment referencing specific conduct in New Mexico, we will work with his office to obtain any and all evidence relevant to the state’s inquiry,” Rodriguez said in the statement.

Sources: AlamogordoTownNews.com, KALHRadio.org, Brookings Institute, Newsweek, KOB News, The Journal, the Federal Newswire