Republican who signed forged 2020 certification ran Russian-style troll farm that paid teens to post

[L. Coyote]

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

https://www.rawstory.com/az-lawmaker-who-signed-forged-2020-certification-ran-russian-style-troll-farm-that-paid-teens-to-post-pro-trump-propaganda/

Arizona Republican State Representative Jake Hoffman made news this week when it was revealed he signed a forged "certification" falsely stating Donald Trump, not Joe Biden, won his state's Electoral College electors.

Video that's gone viral of Hoffman shows him defending signing the forged documents in which he falsely identifies himself as a duly elected elector for Trump.

His defense: "in unprecedented times, unprecedented action does occur." He goes on to claim, "there is no case law, there is no precedent that exists as to whether or not an election that is currently being litigated in the courts has due standing."

........................

Who needs case law when you have statutes?

18 U.S. Code § 1001 - Statements or entries generally

(a) Except as otherwise provided in this section, whoever, in any matter within the jurisdiction of the executive, legislative, or judicial branch of the Government of the United States, knowingly and willfully—
(1) falsifies, conceals, or covers up by any trick, scheme, or device a material fact;
(2) makes any materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent statement or representation; or
(3) makes or uses any false writing or document knowing the same to contain any materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent statement or entry;
shall be fined under this title, imprisoned not more than 5 years or, if the offense involves international or domestic terrorism (as defined in section 2331), imprisoned not more than 8 years, or both.

18 U.S. Code § 371 - Conspiracy to commit offense or to defraud United States

If two or more persons conspire either to commit any offense against the United States, or to defraud the United States, or any agency thereof in any manner or for any purpose, and one or more of such persons do any act to effect the object of the conspiracy, each shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.

18 U.S. Code § 2384 - Seditious conspiracy

If two or more persons in any State or Territory, or in any place subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, conspire to overthrow, put down, or to destroy by force the Government of the United States, or to levy war against them, or to oppose by force the authority thereof, or by force to prevent, hinder, or delay the execution of any law of the United States, or by force to seize, take, or possess any property of the United States contrary to the authority thereof, they shall each be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than twenty years, or both.

[vanlassie]

1. Shine light on the cockroaches!

[Kaleva]

2. Here's a link to a Dec 2020 article talking about this

"ELECTION 2020|Dec 14, 2020,11:31am EST|60,045 views
Trump Campaign Assembling Alternate Electors In Key States In Far-Fetched Attempt To Overturn Election

Alison Durkee

Updated Dec 14, 2020, 03:22pm EST
TOPLINE In an unprecedented move, groups of self-styled “electors” arranged by the Trump campaign in battleground states won by President-elect Joe Biden will meet Monday to vote for President Trump and send results claiming he won the states’ presidential elections to Congress, White House advisor Stephen Miller said Monday, the latest of the president’s far-fetched attempts to challenge Biden’s victory—which, like his previous efforts, is almost entirely certain to fail."

https://www.forbes.com/sites/alisondurkee/2020/12/14/trump-campaign-assembling-alternate-electors-in-key-states-in-far-fetched-attempt-to-overturn-election/?sh=7f53e213213a

There were a few threads here at DU posted back in Dec of 2020 talking about it.

"Mon Dec 14, 2020, 03:45 PM
Fake electors try to deliver Arizona's 11 votes for Trump"

https://upload.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=14710747

[L. Coyote]

4. And now we know they actually sent them in, and therein lies the crime. Lock them up.

All of them, every single one of them. And they need to resign any public office or jobs too!

[Kaleva]

5. how can it be a crime? It's basically junk mail.

[L. Coyote]

7. Because the law says it is a crime.

And that is why it is a crime, it is false and an attempt to defraud the US.

[ShazzieB]

9. Exactly!

[Kaleva]

20. They never had access to the originals so how could they falsify them?

names of legal Electors are public record and yet they used their own names.

Each state electors must complete 6 certificates of votes and a certificate of ascertainment must be attached to each of the certificates of vote.

These certified copies are sent to the following recipients:

"One is sent by registered mail to the President of the Senate (who usually is the incumbent vice president of the United States);
Two are sent by registered mail to the Archivist of the United States;
Two are sent to the state's secretary of state; and
One is sent to the chief judge of the United States district court where those electors met."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Electoral_College#Joint_session_of_Congress

[L. Coyote]

23. They falsely claim to be the actual electors because reasons.

Thus providing the rational for Pence to turn the decision over to the states. All part of the centralized plot to overthrow our government.

Link to tweet

I suspect Stone and others got pardons explicitly on the condition they work on the coup.

[Retrograde]

37. Incompetence is no excuse

when it comes to conspiring to commit a crime. They may not have known that electors' names are public record (but hard to find in some states), or that multiple copies of the certificates existed, but they still tried to falsely represent themselves as the official electors, which is the problem.

[Kaleva]

41. Ballotpedia lists the Electors of each state. It's easy to find info.

https://ballotpedia.org/Electoral_College_members_from_Wisconsin,_2020

[fwvinson]

45. Ignorance of the law is no excuse. I had a cop tell me that a long time ago.

Last edited Mon Jan 17, 2022, 04:29 PM - Edit history (1)

[Kaleva]

6. Here's another 12/20 article stating the false electors sent documents to DC

"Attorney Ian Northon, special counsel for The Amistad Project of the conservative Thomas More Society, was with a group of Republican state lawmakers that failed to escort 16 GOP electors into the Michigan Capitol building Monday. Electors of president and vice-president are required by state law to convene in the Senate chamber at 2 p.m. on the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December following their election.

Northon said Republican electors sent alternative documents to Congress in case the state Legislature decides to replace Democratic electors. House Speaker Lee Chatfiled, R-Levering, and Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey, R-Clarklake, said they have no interest in replacing electors after facing pressure from Trump supporters during the last month."

https://www.mlive.com/public-interest/2020/12/michigan-republicans-who-cast-electoral-votes-for-trump-have-no-chance-of-changing-electoral-college-result.html

[L. Coyote]

28. Some of them even filmed themselves doing the crime, we have video and more.

Link to tweet

And state GOP officials were involved and/or promoted the crime.

Link to tweet

The operation was apparently coordinated out of the White House, thus the Michigan AG had to refer this to the DoJ.

Link to tweet

[uponit7771]

3. Some of this shit sounds OPENLY illegal

[L. Coyote]

8. That's the problem with coup attempts which fail, you don't get to pardon yourselves.

[bahboo]

10. let's face it...we're at war with these fucks...

[DeeDeeNY]

11. What am I missing?

How have they not been arrested yet???

[L. Coyote]

12. The 1700s?

Perhaps, when they dealt with insurrectionists with firing squads.

[fwvinson]

46. Pretty sure that happened in the 20th century also.

[fwvinson]

47. Pretty sure that happened in the 20th century also.

[crickets]

13. Oh, there's Turning Point USA again.

Lovely people:
TurningPoint USA afterparty attended by Matt Gaetz didn't go so well
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100216242895

[dlk]

14. Putin's fingerprints are everywhere

Divide and conquer…

[Rhiannon12866]

15. Twitter replies:

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[malaise]

43. That Slobfather rally tomorrow should be a who's who

of persons who signed fraudulent elector declarations

[PatSeg]

16. I know there are people

who have no principles whatsoever, but damn, I didn't know there were so many. How do people live like that?

[DBoon]

17. Moore on the troll farms from the WaPo

A Facebook comment argued that mail-in ballots “will lead to fraud for this election,” while an Instagram comment amplified the erroneous claim that 28 million ballots went missing in the past four elections.

The messages have been emanating in recent months from the accounts of young people in Arizona seemingly expressing their own views — standing up for President Trump in a battleground state and echoing talking points from his reelection campaign.

Far from representing a genuine social media groundswell, however, the posts are the product of a sprawling yet secretive campaign that experts say evades the guardrails put in place by social media companies to limit online disinformation of the sort used by Russia during the 2016 campaign.

...

Teenagers, some of them minors, are being paid to pump out the messages at the direction of Turning Point Action, an affiliate of Turning Point USA, the prominent conservative youth organization based in Phoenix, according to four people with independent knowledge of the effort. Their descriptions were confirmed by detailed notes from relatives of one of the teenagers who recorded conversations with him about the efforts.

The campaign draws on the spam-like behavior of bots and trolls, with the same or similar language posted repeatedly across social media. But it is carried out, at least in part, by humans paid to use their own accounts, though nowhere disclosing their relationship with Turning Point Action or the digital firm brought in to oversee the day-to-day activity. One user included a link to Turning Point USA’s website in his Twitter profile until The Washington Post began asking questions about the activity.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/turning-point-teens-disinformation-trump/2020/09/15/c84091ae-f20a-11ea-b796-2dd09962649c_story.html

[L. Coyote]

22. Thanks. How nice, teaching children to be liars and paying them to promote #FailedCoupGuy's Big Lie

When going low isn't working, they just go lower!

[RussBLib]

18. very interesting

another Russian connection

[L. Coyote]

19. Kompromot?

Or just stupid?

[Trailrider1951]

48. I'm guessing rubles aplenty

Most of these assholes have their price.

[Blue Owl]

21. How about this story on ABCNNBCBS?

An exposé on (R) bot farms, influencing 'public opinion' both on the domestic and (R)ussian fronts.

Nope, it'll never see the light of day....

[Kaleva]

40. It was extensively reported over a year ago and you commented on it

Here is a link to the thread were you posted a response:

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100214786069

Here's another thread talking about the fake electors:

"Mon Dec 14, 2020, 03:45 PM
Fake electors try to deliver Arizona's 11 votes for Trump"

https://upload.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=14710747

Your response, post #3, to the above:

" Did Gums and Junior hatch this pea-brained scheme?

I mean, seriously..."

[malaise]

24. Lock him up for election fraud

That is all

[L. Coyote]

25. Have you been wondering who this would bring down?

I've been wondering who they all are in each state, the whole list. You do not become a #FailedCoupGuy elector without also being prominent politically. The implication of this is a lot of big shot MAGAs going to jail, including an AZ US Senate candidate while some of the actual electors refused and were simple substituted by frauds:

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[malaise]

26. I expect it to do all the way to the top

I don't think they have a clue how much info has been accumulated by both DOJ and the Jan 6 Committee - lock them all up

[L. Coyote]

30. Rudy Giuliani has now been implicated, Mark Meadows implicated himself.

The Arizona group that sent the forgery, called “AZ Protect the Vote,” is a sovereign citizen group. Because their letter included the state seal, the state sought legal action, referring the case to the attorney general and writing a cease and desist letter instructing the group to stop using the insignia. Lori Osiecki, who leads the group, told the Arizona Republic in Dec. 2020 that a meeting with Rudy Giuliani helped convince her to send the forgery. ...."

Link to tweet

So, add conspiracy charges too! 18 U.S.C. § 471: "forgery is production, copying, or imitation of documents... with the intention of deceit"

This story is just starting! The fake electors are prominent people, and they will rat out the national conspirators in a heartbeat. Plus, they were promoting their crimes on social media .... LOL.

Link to tweet

[malaise]

31. These idiots must have been convinced that the Slobfather's coup would be

successful - they have thrown their lives away.

[L. Coyote]

34. All aboard the MAGA train are delusional to begin with, so selling them this idea was easy.

Last edited Sun Jan 16, 2022, 02:17 AM - Edit history (1)

Life inside the bubble makes you blind to reality, and all the others inside the bubble reinforce the false delusions.

There is a fine line between being hypnotized and brainwashed, and a fine line between being a hypnotist and a cable "news" channel.

[crickets]

35. Oh, my. There's Rudy's name. Good catch!

And -- this is just mind blowing -- they filmed themselves, held public ceremonies with flags, gave public statements, invited press with photographers... 🤦‍♀️

[L. Coyote]

36. Members of Congress should also be indicted. And Clarence Thomas' wife.

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[MissMillie]

29. "unprecedented times"

What's "unprecedented" is year after year after year the GQP controlled state legislatures do more and more to thwart free and fair elections. Their actions in 2020 were absolutely unprecedented. They still lost the White House.

AND then the pulled out every trick they could think of to over-turn it, including attacked the United States Capitol.

AND THEY STILL LOST

[malaise]

33. When will this reach the Federalist Society

They and the dirty money are at the root of this mess

[L. Coyote]

38. In other words, Koch, Murdoch, Scaife, Mercer, Prince/de Vos.

The Billionaire Society, aka BS.

Federalist Society has about $20 million annual revenue.

Link to tweet

[malaise]

39. Great post

Really good to see you back

[L. Coyote]

42. Thanks.

[L. Coyote]

44. So many conspitators, so few prisons

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