The bill for the Arizona fraudit is finally coming due. The recount (not an actual recount!) of the 2020 presidential ballots cost about $6 million, much of it funded by Trump supporters hoping to claw back Joe Biden’s electoral votes and falsely claim that Trump won the state. Since then, taxpayers have forked over another $5 million for expenses associated with this public act of onanism, including half a million dollars in legal fees and $3.7 million to replace the voting machines damaged by letting the Cyber Ninjas rub their nasty bits all over them.
Remember the Cyber Ninjas? That was the team of “auditors” hired by Arizona Senate President Karen Fann and her colleague Kelly Townsend to “prove” Trump actually won the state by aiming UV lights at Maricopa County’s ballots to figure out which ones were Chinese knockoffs made of bamboo. The team had zero election auditing experience, but chief ninja Doug Logan had already proved his bona fides by appearing in a film about the 2020 election called “Deep Rig,” so it was perhaps unsurprising that his team compiled lists of voters with the same last name, first initial, and birth year, then breathlessly announced they’d caught J. Smith (or some such) voting more than once. Wasn’t 2021 the best?
But it’s not over yet, because Uncle Merrick just entered the chat! And he brought presents.
The Arizona Mirror reports that the FBI just dropped subpoenas on Fann and Townsend for records related to their efforts to ratfuck the 2020 presidential election in Arizona in coordination with the Trump campaign.
“President Fann received a FOIA in the form of a subpoena by the FBI as part of the Biden Administration’s political theatrics as they look into ‘January 6,'” Kim Quintero, director of communications for Arizona Senate Republicans, told the Arizona Mirror. “Nonetheless, President Fann is fully cooperating in releasing whatever emails and text messages they are requesting.”
What the hell is a “FOIA in the form of a subpoena”? And in what universe is cooperation with a grand jury subpoena voluntary?
Watchdog group American Oversight, lacking subpoena power, has been FOIA-ing the state Senate for a year to get information on this very topic. So we already know quite a bit about Fann’s coordination with the Trump campaign, including extensive contacts with Rudy Giuliani.
“We have to show some credible evidence for ‘fraud’ before the courts or anyone else can do anything,” she emailed a constituent on November 28, 2020. “I have asked the Trump legal team MANY times to please bring us their proof of fraud so we may act on it. To date they have not provided any proof.”
No actual proof. Got it!
A month later, in response to an email rebuking her for not supporting Trump, she wrote, “I have been in numerous conversations with Rudy Giuliani over the past weeks trying to get this done. I have the full support of him and a personal call from President Trump thanking us for pushing to prove any fraud.”
Yes, we are aware of the Trump campaign’s role in corralling these slates of cosplay electors. But thanks for confirming it in writing, brainiac.
In the past two weeks, the Justice Department has subpoenaed dozens of figures associated with the fake electors scheme in Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, and New Mexico. Arizona GOP chair Kelli Ward and her husband got those grand jury love notes, as well as state Senator Mark Finchem, who coordinated with Giuliani as well as Rep. Mo Brooks, whose liaison characterized him as “leading the charge on the House side to object to the Electoral College certification in Joint Session on January 6th.”
It seems pretty clear that the DOJ is centering its investigation on the scheme to substitute fraudulent electoral certificates in an effort to overturn Biden’s victory. Which may sound like taking out Al Capone for tax evasion. But, at the end of the day, they did get Al Capone so … we’ll take it!
[Arizona Mirror / American Oversight / Arizona Republic]
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