They embrace the instructions of leaders like former Trump adviser turned podcaster Stephen K. Bannon, who has urged election deniers to run for local races and sign up to be poll workers in what he calls his precinct-by-precinct takeover strategy. 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!. By MORGAN LEE February 28, 2023. His concern is the direction of this country, where its going.. Griffin is presumed innocent until proven guilty. He sees. Officer: Youre free to go. And something happened. Griffin, an ardent conspiracy theorist who refused to certify the state's primary election results this summer in Otero County, told CNN he has been ordered to clean out his office and attacked. Republican primary candidates embracing Trumps stolen election rhetoric have flourished this year. Dozens of Albuquerque Academy students volunteered to help unload and deliver the furnishings, Olivier Uyttebrouck / Journal Staff Writer. "I was raised in the shadow of a great man," he said. He is still facing federal charges. Given his intelligence and accomplishments, the fact that hes decided to pursue this provably false theory is tragic and surprising, said Chris Luchini, the head of the Libertarian Party of New Mexico and a former colleague of Clements. Brittany Costello: A number of people are facing charges, including you. Mr. Griffin has opted to be defended by a public defender for this case with home court advantage. He has made baldly racist and violent statements. 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. US District Judge Trevor McFadden heard one day of testimony without a jury on Monday before handing down a verdict in the misdemeanor case against Otero County Commissioner Couy Griffin, a. That day, Democrats on the House Oversight Committee released their report into the threat of election misinformation. Friday night on, Senate Bill 2 would bring the pay of state Supreme Court justices in line with. Clementss allegations extend to voting machines made by multiple companies, including Dominion Voting Systems, which are used in New Mexico and have been the target of false claims by Trump supporters. Its about the money, and this week in Otero County, New Mexico a jury will decide. ", Griffin and his two fellow commissioners voted to conduct the audit despite concerns about its legality noted by County Attorney R.B. It sounds good and people believe it because it sounds authoritative if you dont know much.. 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. McFadden also acquitted Griffin of a disorderly conduct charge. New . Its been real hard.. However, the new evidence . The decision was made . Griffin plans to ride the charges out to trial, claiming theres more than meets the eye. Investigators said the investigation was launched after Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver referred her investigation into Griffins refusal to register C4T as a political committee and disclose donors and expenses. They have a Son Together was born in 2014. Here you have Couy Griffin as Cowboys For Trump not only hiding assets from his ex-wife and son. I wasnt charged with insurrection because the evidence to criminally charge me was not there according to the letter of the law, he said. I totally take exception to the idea that Robyn Holmes our Republican clerk doesnt know what shes doing. Some have. Cowboys for Trump co-founder Couy Griffin confronted a trial by jury on Tuesday on charges that he failed to register a political organisation without filing related public financial disclosures. Thus the State Attorney General filed the lawsuit and a trail by jury was ordered. Trump won there in 2020 with 73% of the vote. Washington - The founder of the "Cowboys for Trump'' organization and commissioner of Otero County, New Mexico, Couy Griffin, was sentenced Friday to 14 days in jail, a $3,000 fine, 60 hours of . Today, Couy Griffin is divorced, disparaged by family and confronts a political recall drive, a state corruption investigation and federal charges. Griffin said he is confident the judge will dismiss the lawsuit. She said in an online press conference that she feared, "a scenario where the tabulators would instantly become, you know, questionable, and we would have to completely take them out of serviceIt's just a really scary, unfortunate and nonsensical situation. Because what they get away to doing to me will be what they inevitably do to you. And yet he remains determined. Sledgehammers! a woman at the back of the room yelled out. C4T still also has not filed as a political action committee. John Block voted against job creation. Griffin has been rebuked by some Republicans over his racial invective. Brittany Costello: Do you personally have any of those videos? 13:00, Joe Sommerlad. Couy Griffin back in court over 'Cowboys for Trump' An off-duty sheriff follows reckless driver, shoots $20,000 in mattresses donated to a local non-profit 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. He is a pastor, a Republican and the son of a former commissioner in Catron County, New Mexico. "The reports that we've subsequently seen put out by these people have been riddled with falsehoods," she said. and signed a child-support check to his ex-wife from his Cowboys for Trump account. Wearing a Cowboys for Trump shirt, and sitting in the office he shares with the heads of a deer and an elk, Griffin discussed the roots of his brand of populist politics. 89.9 FM Live From The University Of New Mexico. 0:00. "When they shut our sawmill down, it just leaves all of that useless material, if you will, in our forests which creates more fire hazards.". By MORGAN LEE Associated Press February 28, 2023, 1:31 PM SANTA FE, N.M. -- 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. The election was stolen from me, and then you just walk away? And yet he remains determined. The effort sparked a voter intimidation inquiry by the House Oversight Committee. Its all falsehoods and speculation. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. 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. The pickup was emblazoned with his Cowboys For Trump logo. But the project seems confusing at first glance, given that Trump won in Otero County. A New Mexico judge on Tuesday disqualified Couy Griffin, a county commissioner who founded Cowboys for Trump, from serving in public office ever again because of his participation in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.. Driving the news: The judge ruled that Griffin is "barred for life" from serving as an elected official, effective immediately, under the 14th Amendment because he took part in the . Shows how clueless you really are. The believer. Theyre going to eat some crow.. 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. I take the seatbelts very serious just because the amount of crashes weve both seen.Griffin: What is it? You people are funny that claim I harass Mr Griffin. ", "To the extent that their goal is to actually have a negative impact on voter confidence," she added, "we are very concerned about the election in 2022, and obviously in 2024.". Pull him out of his pick-up, take him to the ground, and charge him with resisting arrest! Were in a contest of wills. He said he went to pray and exercise his right to peacefully protest, but he was arrested for his involvement. FILE - Otero County, New Mexico Commissioner Couy Griffin speaks to reporters as he arrives at federal court in Washington, June 17, 2022. His grandfather Wee Griffin held the Catron County post from 1963 to 1966. They want to destroy our country, Griffin said in a video monologue. Who is going to break whose will? Clements said. But this is also a man who beat a "Mom and Pop business" that has 5 kids out of thousands of dollars. I come to you as someone who had a future. "When they come up with these conspiracy theories, it really confuses the voters, and we have a hard enough time getting our voters out to vote as it is," she said. Some extra notes, quotes, news and notes from the Lobos Friday night basketball game in Fort Collins, Colorado. Pecchia said his respect for Clements evaporated one day when he saw his former teacher leading an anti-mask march through a craft market where Pecchia sold his woodworking, causing a disturbance. He grew up in Reserve, in western New Mexico, where his father ran a sawmill. Public defense attorneys say a close reading of the law shows the area wasnt off limits. Clements came down from the mountain filled with zeal and sitting down in his garage armed with nothing more than a laptop and a crappy microphone soon began posting about alleged election fraud on YouTube. Griffin is one of thousands of Trump loyalists in public office who are charting an uncertain future ahead of the 2022 election cycle. In Washington, prosecutors unveiled photographs of Griffin climbing a toppled fence and another barrier to access the Capitol steps. Dysfunctional family. And yet he remains determined. Griffin was convicted in federal court of entering a restricted area outside the U.S. Capitol. Couy Griffin has been barred from in-person visits with his son due to social media posts that have produced threats and for refusing to comply with the requirements of the COVID-19 mask. "I wanted to go from just being a voice to having a vote.". With the pickup still running, the state cop walks back to his patrol car and notes to his partner.. "I don't think there's any more productive way to spend tax dollars than to make sure our elections aren't compromised," he told an Otero County Commission meeting in January. Couy Griffin Wife, Children Griffin is currently single, he was previously married to his girlfriend Kourtnie A Gates, but they were divorced in 2019. 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. 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. Griffin lost that case but still appears to have failed to follow the court order. For now, Griffin has halted the petition with an appeal to the state Supreme Court, which hasnt decided whether to intervene. As CPAC's 2023 edition kicks off, the man who greets the myriad right-wing activists and supporters descending on Maryland . 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. Yet two independent election security experts who have examined the Clements work Susan Greenhalgh, senior adviser on election security for the nonprofit Free Speech For People, and Kevin Skoglund, president and chief technologist for the nonpartisan Citizens for Better Elections said the fraud charges are baseless and misleading. 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. Copyright 2023 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. He had hoped the president would address some problems with the forest near the town of Cloudcroft, which is at risk for fire. Stay turned to KALHRadio.org and the Alamogordo Town News and AlamogordoConservativeDaily.org for daily updates. Clements says he is not paid for his appearances but asks for donations for travel expenses at the door. 2023 NYP Holdings, Inc. All Rights Reserved, Trump proposes building futuristic, Jetsons-like freedom cities on federal land, Pompeo calls $31 trillion national debt indecent at CPAC, Trump recites Pledge of Allegiance in collaboration on new song with J6 Prison Choir, Bidens laughable, late-to-the-game crackdown on massive COVID fraud. In the seatbelt citation, the officer would note Griffin got mouthy.. The countys attorney disagreed, calling the argument highly unlikely.. The former Disneyland rodeo cowboy once rode down New York's Sixth Avenue wearing the furs of bobcats and coyotes he trapped and skinned, brandishing an American flag. Copyright 2023 2nd Life Media AlamogordoTownNews.com. Authors of the brief include Laurence Tribe, a professor emeritus of constitutional law at Harvard, and Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the University of California Berkeley School of Law. It singled out fraudulent audits in Maricopa County, Ariz., and Otero County as key drivers in an effort by malicious domestic actors to erode trust in American democracy. He has appeared on Fox News and on Bannons podcast. Couy Dale Griffin (born 1973) is a former politician who served from 2019 to 2022 as a county commissioner for District 2 of Otero County, New Mexico, which covers Tularosa, Three Rivers, La Luz, the western parts of Alamogordo, and the Mescalero Apache Reservation.In September 2022, Griffin was removed from office under the Disqualification Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United . So whats the solution?. Griffin lists himself as manager of Cowboys for Trump. The arbitrator, who was chosen by Griffin and Cowboys for Trump, found for the Secretary of State's Office. Griffin has claimed he did not knowingly trespass. It is being investigated by State Auditor Brian Coln after complaints prompted concerns about the procurement process. Griffin and Cowboys for Trump refused to do so and the case went to arbitration. 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. 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 can handle a lot. 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 . But my hope rests on the law, and the law is available to us all.. 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. He yearns to someday run for governor even though state GOP leaders are openly scornful and Democrats hold every statewide elected office. "I do believe our elections were stolen," he said. A federal judge found Couy Griffin, a county commissioner from New Mexico and founder of the group "Cowboys For Trump," guilty on one of two counts stemming from the Capitol riot. 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. Im a big boy. Thats something the media is not telling us right now, not showing us but its going to come out. And yet he remains determined. Alamogordo High School Alamogordo Proud Breaking Stereotypes and Winning in Welding Competition, Alamogordo was the only team to be represented with female welders. Since then, Griffin has led an itinerant life. However he is on probation from the guilty verdict related to the participant and in the capital events of January 6th thus the stakes are now significantly higher. Liz Howard, Senior Counsel at the Brennan Center for Justice, said that contractors hired to do these audits frequently have little to no experience in election administration. Couy Griffin, a New Mexico county commissioner, ardent election-fraud conspiracy theorist and founder of Cowboys for Trump, avoided more jail time on Friday for his role in the January 6, 2021, US . You know, and if we do, then its gonna be a sad day, because theres gonna be blood running out of that building."