The phrase How many angels can dance on the head of a pin? normally means that a discussion is pointless and more important things need to be discussed.
To badly mix metaphors, an article just published by the Washington Post detailed the difficulties that state parties are having in recruiting people to serve as electors in the states where the fake elector schemes took place and where some of the electors were criminally charged for state crimes, mostly felonies. So right now I am wondering how many tiny violins can fit on the head of a pin because they will need to be microscopic because they will be so numerous, when contemplating the situation that the state parties are in when it comes to the fake electors scheme…..
There were a few interesting tidbits that came out in that article.
In Arizona, an insurance company is footing the bill for now, but when it hits the limits, it is every man for themselves...
In Arizona, a now-expired state party insurance policy has been paying some expenses for some electors, according to three people familiar with the arrangement who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
But if the legal expenses reach the policy’s limit, they said, the cash-strapped party will not continue paying those legal bills.
The situation is similar in Georgia.
Three ... face criminal charges in the Atlanta area, but all were the subject of the investigation and incurred legal expenses, some in the six figures. Although the state party — and a conservative legal defense fund — have helped fund the legal costs
More importantly, what else is it doing? Turning off rich donors in both money and effort so you get the triple whammy of
1. the only people who want to serve are the most RWNJ of RWNJ’s, and
2. Rich donors who would have thought it was an honor to serve as an elector are not volunteering to serve, and lastly,
3. Those same rich donors are shutting their wallets in places because they know that future donations will just be funding criminal defense lawyers amid spiraling legal bills (criminal defense work billing is VERY expensive if it goes to trial, where expenses can run over $10,000 A DAY PER DEFENDANT) and not things like party outreach and advertising.
“In Georgia, GOP chairman Josh McKoon said he struggled to recruit Republicans to consider the role, … but [they] aren’t interested in the headache — or potential legal bills”
There is was this little tidbit, that may be overlooked by people reading the article.
Rosie Tripp, a 2020 GOP elector in New Mexico…..Her actions drew the interest of state and federal prosecutors, who asked her to travel to Washington to testify before a grand jury in the spring of 2023.
Hmmm… So why would this be of interest? From the D.C. Indictment paragraph 64.
Co-Conspirator 5 drafted and sent fraudulent elector certificates for the Defendant's electors in New Mexico, which had not previously been among the targeted states, and where there was no pending litigation on the Defendant's behalf. The next day, the Defendant's Campaign filed an election challenge suit in New Mexico at 11:54 a.m., six minutes before the noon deadline for the electors' votes, as a pretext so that there was pending litigation there at the time the fraudulent electors voted.
Co-conspirator 5? From the indictment, they are described thusly.
Co-Conspirator 5, an attorney who assisted in devising and attempting to implement a plan to submit fraudulent slates of presidential electors to obstruct the certification proceeding.
That has to be Kenneth Chesbro.
Her testimony would absolutely BURY Chesbro on a conspiracy charge because they ginned everything up in New Mexico and created a crime where one wasn’t present before because of the language on the fake elector certificates. (and why no one from PA is being charged, or even asked to testify)
So Chesbro has to be singing the tune to Let’s Make a Deal right about now, because his actions were directly involved in New Mexico, a state that otherwise would not be on anyone’s radar for criminal charges to arise from the conduct there, and Smith knows he has a slam dunk criminal conspiracy charge against multiple (currently uncharged publicly) co-conspirators.
And Smith must be putting the screws to Chesbro hard for only one reason. That he must have evidence that allows him to charge people where the evidence is harder to come by, like Members of Congress where some of the communications are privileged under speech and debate.
Buckle up everybody. It is going to be an interesting summer and fall.