Guilty: Cowboys for Trump' founder Couy Griffin convicted in the second January 6 trial

[duhneece]

Source: Business Insider

A federal judge found "Cowboys for Trump" leader Couy Griffin guilty of a misdemeanor charge connected to the Capitol attack, handing the Justice Department a victory in the second trial stemming from the insurrection on January 6, 2021.

Judge Trevor McFadden handed down the verdict Tuesday after federal prosecutors presented video footage showing Griffin, a New Mexico county commissioner, climbing a bike ramp and ascending a makeshift plywood ramp on his approach to the Capitol.

Griffin faces up to a year in prison on the misdemeanor charge of trespassing on restricted Capitol grounds.

McFadden acquitted Griffin on a separate disorderly conduct charge, which also carried a maximum sentence of a year in prison.

Read more: https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-cowboys-founder-couy-griffin-january-6-trial-2022-3?op=1

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There are two more legal actions that may wake this guy up.
More in comments.

[duhneece]

1. Two more legal actions against Couy, one criminal

As District 2 Otero County Commissioner Couy Griffin, 48 of Tularosa prepares for his trial in Washington, D.C., closer to home, New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas filed a criminal charge against Griffin for allegedly violating the Campaign Reporting Act.

“We live in a nation that ensures that no elected official is above the law,” Attorney General Balderas said in a press release. “Citizens have the right to expect reporting and disclosure transparency from all elected officials.”

Griffin is presumed innocent until proven guilty.

The criminal complaint states that "on or between January 15, 2020 and March 18, 2022, Couy Griffin did willfully and knowingly violate and provision of the Campaign Reporting Act... by failing to register Cowboys for Trump as a political committee with the Secretary of State, by failing to file all required finance reports and... by failing to pay statutory fines for failure to file; after receiving a lawful order to do so, a misdemeanor offense."
https://www.alamogordonews.com/story/community/2022/03/18/couy-griffin-cowboys-for-trump-charged-new-mexico-campaign-reporting-act/7099624001/
AND
Lawsuit filed to remove Couy Griffin from office
Otero County, New Mexico Commissioner Couy Griffin must be removed from office and disqualified from holding future public office under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution based on his participation in the January 6, 2021 insurrection, according to a lawsuit filed today by a group of New Mexico residents. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington and the New Mexico-based law firms of Freedman, Boyd, Hollander and Goldberg, P.A, Dodd Law Office, LLC and the Law Office of Amber Fayerberg, LLC serve as co-counsel on the case, which also seeks a court order declaring the January 6th attack on the Capitol and the events surrounding it an insurrection under the 14th Amendment.

Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, also known as the Disqualification Clause, bars any person from holding federal or state office who took an “oath…to support the Constitution of the United States” as an “officer of any State” and then “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” or gave “aid or comfort” to insurrectionists. Griffin has served as an Otero County Commissioner since January 2019. Upon taking office, he swore an oath to “support and uphold the Constitution and laws of the State of New Mexico, and the Constitution of the United States.”
https://www.citizensforethics.org/legal-action/lawsuits/lawsuit-filed-to-remove-couy-griffin-from-office/

[Achilleaze]

2. Everything the sleazeball Republican "leader" touches dies or is corrupted

Guess that's true as well for cowboys who climb into bed with treasonous Republican casino hustlers. Sad.

This Moment of Justice calls for one of my fav tunes...

[lagomorph777]

3. Ooooh, trespassing and disorderly conduct.

I think maybe this is what Liz Cheney meant when she hinted at adding charges. The charges pursued so far are shamefully inadequate.

[ancianita]

4. A federal record disqualifies alt-right Jan 6 folk from attempting further public terror management.

Doesn't matter about the level of the charges, it only takes one conviction.

[duhneece]

6. I never heard that before

Good to hear. I’ll have to research.

[ancianita]

9. If that organization organizes to intimidate, their leader isn't protesting, but threatening.

That's how I interpret guys like him, who paraded with their horses and trucks through small down New Mexico to make the local Democrats quake.

[ancianita]

12. The Constitution says prison isn't a bar to running for federal office.

It's up to the House or Senate chamber to determine whether or not an elected official is qualified to serve if a challenge is raised. So they can run for office but not necessarily be allowed to hold it. States' laws vary on their laws about running for and holding office.

https://www.factcheck.org/2008/11/felons-in-office/

[duhneece]

13. Then we circle back to lawsuit

https://www.citizensforethics.org/legal-action/lawsuits/lawsuit-filed-to-remove-couy-griffin-from-office/

[ancianita]

14. Okay, that makes sense; if state law lets him run & hold office, then a challenge can be raised.

[lagomorph777]

8. What is "public terror management"?

[ancianita]

11. My way of describing his and the alt-right's use of armed demonstrations of public intimidation.

It's a term used for states' or media's narratives but I'm applying that term to the local scene, like in Charlottesville.

(They call it protest against expanded minority (and women's) rights. We know they're scared, but their show of the threat of violence is their only public way to deal.)

[ancianita]

16. In a broad legal sense I should use "discourage," right, because they can run for and hold office.

So I was wrong.

In the broad social sense, though, most people don't want to vote for convicted felons and people who use armed threats and intimidation and call it a rally. That's what Cuoy Griffin did.

[Traildogbob]

7. And repubs

Are in the SC hearings ranting about weak on crime. Fucking sickening.

[BlueIdaho]

5. Gitty yup asshole.

Time to head to that steel bar corral of a spell.

[ificandream]

10. Yeeehah!!!

[Marthe48]

15. That was quick

Guess the wheels of justice doesn't always grind exceedingly slow

Here's to many more traitors going to the big house!

[Justice matters.]

19. Maybe because that stupid terrorist is not rich

and relatively unknown to the big majority who don't follow politics...

Easy target for prosecutors.

As for the rich grifters inciting these terrorists to profit obscenely from every opportunity they can find - running for public office included - maybe they are the new "untouchables" for the new prosecutors, who seem to be scared of losing criminal cases for preserving their own career objectives (and, of course, the salary that comes with the job)...

[Marthe48]

22. I'm waiting

Remember in Caddy Shack when Bryant Doyle Murray is watching the ball teetering on the edge of the cup? And it finally goes in, in spite or because of the tumult all around? I'm watching

[not fooled]

17. Doesn't sound like a real cowboy to me

[link:https://nationaldayofthecowboy.com/?page_id=1568|]

The National Day of the Cowboy
Code of Conduct for Cowboys & Cowgirls©

1. Live each day with honesty and courage.

2. Take pride in your work. Always do your best.

3. Stay curious. Study hard and learn all you can.

4. Do what has to be done and finish what you start.

5. Be tough, but fair.

6. When you make a promise, keep it.

7. Be clean in thought, word, deed, and dress.

8. Practice tolerance and understanding of others.

9. Be willing to stand up for what’s right.

10. Be an excellent steward of the land and its animals.

The above reads like the inverse of red don's code of conduct.

[Justice matters.]

20. The problem is with 3. and 9.

3. Doesn't mention to not study on Faux Noise and Hate Radio.

9. Relates to 3. in the sense that believing the lies of r-w stations leads them to believe the BS they hear from them is "what is right"

[reACTIONary]

23. Where is the provision for...

... being a hard drinking man?

[Warpy]

18. He's hoping to be our governor, riding into Santa Fe on a wave of this bullshit

so don't expect an epiphany any time soon. He still thinks he's got a chance. Fortunately, most of my fellow citizens here in the big city are a lot more sensible than he thinks they are. I doubt he'll win even the primary.

However, I've seen people here on DU in other threads calling him a fake cowboy. Give the devil his due, he's a real cowboy, grew up riding, roping, and branding. He was good enough at it to spend a few years in a wild west show in Paris, the one in France. He;s the real deal, there. He's just pig ignorant, maybe got kicked in the head too many times by horses and stock. There's a lot of that going around cowboys, it's a tough job.

[Kali]

21. beg to differ a little

he may have some real cowboy background, that I don't know about - but being in a wild west show does not make anyone the real deal.

[Warpy]

24. He had to be the real deal to get there

Wannabes just can't impress the crowds. There's also not a hell of a lot else as far as career paths go in that part of NM, although he did try being a preacher for a year or so. I suppose county politics gave him a more reliable paycheck, too bad he jeopardized that (and ended his marriage) by making such a jackass of himself in TFG's fan club.

[Kali]

26. I'm just saying there is a difference between a real cowboy and a show person.

real deal tends to want to stay around cattle if at all possible and if they are any good that isn't a problem.

[ffr]

25. I hear Belarus is taking immigration applicants.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/10142892285