2y ago

New Mexico attorney general says fake GOP electors can't be prosecuted, recommends changes

New Mexico’s top prosecutor said Friday that the state’s five Republican electors cannot be prosecuted under the current law for filing election certificates that falsely declared Donald Trump the winner of the 2020 presidential race.

However, Democratic Attorney General Raúl Torrez is making recommendations to state lawmakers that he says would enhance the security of the state’s electoral process and provide legal authority for prosecuting similar conduct in the future.

New Mexico is one of several states where Republican electors attempted to cast ballots indicating that Trump had won, a strategy at the center of criminal charges against Trump and his associates. Democratic officials launched separate investigations in some states, resulting in indictments against GOP electors.

33 comments

I dunno... I'd imagine there's something about "fraud" and "impersonating a government official" and, you know... TRYING TO OVERTURN A LEGITIMATE ELECTION!
This guy's making excuses.
- What's the law say? What's the loophole that the fake electors exploited? What's the change that the AG proposes?
  Do you know anything about what you're talking about?
  
  gee i wonder how all those other fake electors are being prosecuted then... remains a mystery
  
  Loophole was they added fine print
  In New Mexico and Pennsylvania, fake electors added a caveat saying the certificate was submitted in case they were later recognized as duly elected, qualified electors. That would only have been possible if Trump had won any of several dozen legal battles he waged against states in the weeks after the election.
- This guy’s making excuses.
  Of course he is. He's a Democrat.
seems like this is akin to the same "qualified immunity" crap that cops have. I don't give a fuck if there's not a state law written specifically addressing this particular instance of participating in a fraudulent scheme to overturn the results of a legitimate election. Every other state where this happened the fake electors are facing federal charges.
Except here, in New Mexico, where the democrat attorney general for the state decided that THEY would do a state investigation instead of throwing it up to the federal level. It is within this narrow window that he decided they can't prosecute them. Raul Torrez. This man. He's the one making the decision to not go for federal charges. He is the person responsible for letting these people off the hook.
- I'm pretty sure forging government documents is illegal everywhere, both at the state and federal level. They just don't want to prosecute, otherwise they'd "find" a law to apply to this.
Why the fuck is the legal hole still gaping three years later? Our legal system is garbage.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — New Mexico’s top prosecutor said Friday that the state’s five Republican electors cannot be prosecuted under the current law for filing election certificates that falsely declared Donald Trump the winner of the 2020 presidential race.
Republican Party of New Mexico Chairman Steve Pearce said Friday that the state faced numerous election challenges that had the possibility of going before a court.
In 2020, President Joe Biden won the vote in New Mexico by roughly 11 percentage points — the largest margin among the states where so-called fake electors have been implicated.
Three fake electors also have been charged in Georgia alongside Trump and others in a sweeping indictment accusing them of participating in a wide-ranging scheme to illegally overturn the results of the presidential election.
While saying it was disgraceful that New Mexicans were enlisted in a plot to “undermine democracy,” Torrez acknowledged that the conduct by GOP electors in New Mexico was not subject to criminal prosecution.
Michelle Lujan Grisham and the Democratic-controlled Legislature to amend state election code to give prosecutors more latitude to pursue charges in these types of cases in the future.
The original article contains 689 words, the summary contains 190 words. Saved 72%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
Complicit.
- You'd prefer he make up laws?
  
  Fraud is still illegal.
  
  Fraud is a crime. If he doesn't want to be called complicit, he can stop being complicit.
What a chickenshit.
That’s a big ole’ desert that state has. Wouldn’t it be nice for those fake electors to be given a courtesy tour, to show the state’s appreciation for their misguided efforts but no hard feelings, of the deep wilderness?

33 comments