The officers call Griffin. I was to the point that, You guys arent even telling half-truths anymore,' she recalled. Mr Griffin appears to be setting the stage of this court case with home court advantage. Manage the news you want to see, read exclusive content and explore other subscriber benefits. Thats something the media is not telling us right now, not showing us but its going to come out. Couy Griffin, the founder of the Cowboys for Trump group, appeared to turn on the former president during a QAnon event in Las Vegas. The arbitrator, who was chosen by Griffin and Cowboys for Trump, found for the Secretary of State's Office. Like others preaching the gospel of election fraud, Clements has attracted a large following online, where he mixes conspiracies with Christian nationalist and sometimes violent rhetoric. Today, Couy Griffin is divorced, disparaged by family and confronts a political recall drive, a state corruption investigation and federal charges. White v. Griffin, No. Mar 21, 2022, 9:53 AM Otero County Commissioner Couy Griffin speaks Friday, Jan. 31, 2020, in Santa Fe, N.M., as hundreds of advocates for gun rights rallied at the New Mexico Statehouse. The decision was made . No fewer than 86 judges rejected at least one post-election lawsuit filed by Trump or his supporters, a Washington Post review of court filings found. Couy Griffin has been barred from in-person visits with his son due to social media posts that have produced threats and for refusing to comply with the requirements of the COVID-19 mask. Last year, one report (produced jointly by the Brennan Center for Justice, the R Street think tank and nonprofit Protect Democracy) looked at five states where partisan reviews of elections are being pursued. Were in a contest of wills. However, the page included a disclaimer that [a]ll monies will be a direct donation to founder Couy Griffin and will be used as Couy sees fit to move this organization forward.. His wife divorced him. ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. Couy Griffin, Cowboys for Trump founder and Otero County commissioner, was arrested last year for his involvement in the Jan. 6 Capitol riots. My vote to remain a no isnt based on any evidence, its not based on any facts, its only based on my gut feeling and my own intuition, and thats all I need, Griffin said, his drawl tinny on the speakerphone. Griffin is presumed innocent until proven guilty. Ron DeSantis by about 15 points in a new Republican presidential poll, with newly announced candidate Nikki Haley and former Vice . A Hubbard Broadcasting Company, said he never entered the Capitol building. Couy Griffin is a white man from Tularosa, Otero County, New Mexico, United States. Because I care about the truth. Clements also asserted that the digital file containing the ballots from the 2020 elections had been deliberately wiped from the voting machines when in fact separate files are created for each election and the ballots and other records are preserved. This is yet another example of how lies about Dominion have damaged our company and diminished the publics faith in elections, Dominion spokeswoman Stephanie Walstrom said of Clements. Clements said in an interview that as an attorney he was eminently qualified to talk about the legalities surrounding voting machines, and that his wife, Erin, has two decades of expertise working with data as a civil engineer. The ruling comes after lawyers for Griffin's ex-wife, Kourtnie, filed an emergency motion in May to modify their custody and visitation agreement. The couple soon found an ally in Couy Griffin, a flamboyant former Disneyland Paris rodeo cowboy who until this week was a member of the county commission in Otero, a rural New Mexico community. The first call to the press he made was to our reporter to the station we own. Pacing the room at the senior center in Neligh, microphone in hand, Clements put the matter in stark terms. ", "To the extent that their goal is to actually have a negative impact on voter confidence," she added, "we are very concerned about the election in 2022, and obviously in 2024.". I wasnt charged with insurrection because the evidence to criminally charge me was not there according to the letter of the law, he said. For years, Otero County Commissioner Couy Griffin has been Donald Trump's most flamboyant supporter in New Mexico, creating spectacles and controversy in equal measure. Still, the audit rumbles on, and could yet have widespread implications. Yet he couldn't say why its principal place of business is listed as Santa Fe but its mailing address is in Spokane, Wash. Griffin said. Im not going to sit and argue with that.. At the June hearing in Otero, David and Erin Clements turned up to a crowded meeting room to give the commission a nearly three-hour update on their findings. The couples conclusions prompted Griffin to chastise his own clerk, Robyn Holmes, a Republican who has 30 years of experience running elections in the county. Cowboys for Trump founder Couy Griffin will face off in court Monday against three New Mexicans who argue in a lawsuit that he should be removed from his post as an Otero County commissioner for participating in an insurrection against the United States. But luck may have run out for this cowboy pastor who rode to national political fame by embracing President Donald Trump with a series of horseback caravans and came crashing down with a defiant stand Jan. 6 against President Joe Bidens election. He had a son with her, who currently lives with her. The second trial in the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot case is underway Monday, with New Mexico county commissioner, self-proclaimed cowboy and noted conspiracy theorist Couy Griffin appearing . Couy Griffin Wikipedia And Age. Hear their stories. Otero County Clerk Robyn Holmes disagrees. Griffin has acknowledged using the county building for promotional videos but said he never claimed they were . Former Otero County Commissioner and well-known rabble-rouser Couy Griffin was pulled over in Alamogordo in his Dodge Ram in early November. 3 Mar. The lawsuit against Griffin was filed in March by Marco White and Leslie Lakind, both Santa Fe County residents, along with Mark Mitchell of Los Alamos County. Alamogordo High School Alamogordo Proud Breaking Stereotypes and Winning in Welding Competition, Alamogordo was the only team to be represented with female welders. Get the Android Weather app from Google Play, Skier Shiffrin locks up overall title, still chases, Olympic ticket sales for Paris Games gets off to, 7 Cubs pitchers combine for no-hitter vs Machado,, Mikal Bridges helps Nets rally to stun Celtics, 115-105, NASCAR star Elliott has leg surgery after snowboard, New images surface of Couy Griffin at Capitol insurrection, Report: Couy Griffin denies COVID test, delaying potential release hearing, Should we bring back the dodo? The Couy Griffin Interview concerning the trial can be heard following the advertisement in the KALH Radio AlamogordoTownNews.com archives as the lead story following the weather report. But in a recent interview in Alamogordo, Griffin was determined to keep fighting for Trump, despite the audit's problems, plus the charges he faces for his role in the Capitol attack, financial difficulties and a profound disappointment in the former president himself. He is awaiting trial. Defiance of federal government and its oversight of public lands are staples of politics in Otero County, which spans an area three times the size of Delaware, from the dunes of White Sands National Park to the peaks of the Lincoln National Forest. Asked for comment, Erin Clements sent a video of Democratic lawmakers raising concerns about election security. The claim that the volunteer canvassers found dozens of ghost voters at one address turned out to reference the Post Office box at a nearby military base. "I don't think there's any more productive way to spend tax dollars than to make sure our elections aren't compromised," he told an Otero County Commission meeting in January. "Cowboys for Trump" co-founder Couy Griffin speaks to reporters as he arrives at federal court in Washington on June 17, 2022. . This story has been shared 143,593 times. However, the new evidence . Griffin and Cowboys for Trump refused to do so and the case went to arbitration. For all his bombast and showmanship, Griffin's fortunes and conviction seem to be waning. Sicknick, a Capitol police. Many of the comments predated the 2020 election and focused on the potential for foreign interference. The two-day trial began Tuesday with jury selection in state District Court at Alamogordo, the . The 14th Amendment bars from office anyone who once took an . Get some lunch?Griffin: Im headed to get my truck washed. The New Mexico attorney general investigated embattled former Otero County Commissioner and Cowboys For Trump founder Couy Griffin for using C4T funds for personal use and taking official acts as commissioner for his personal gain. Thats hard for me to accept.. And thats what we had.. With the pickup still running, the state cop walks back to his patrol car and notes to his partner.. "We would cut trees that had been blown over by the wind, we would cut trees that have been killed by forest fires," he said. Expect tightened security in the area of New York Avenue and an influx of press in the area on Tuesday. Theyre going find out he didnt have anything to do with these types of things, he said. The Cowboys for Trump website was not operational Feb. 13. Dysfunctional family. Griffin, an ardent conspiracy theorist who refused to certify the state's primary election results this summer in Otero County, told CNN he has been ordered to clean out his office and attacked. Toward the end of the meeting, Donna Swanson, a former presiding poll judge in Otero County who worked with Holmes for years, stepped up to speak. Dont forget to wear your seatbelt. Im not asking you all to storm the beaches of Normandy, to suffer a bloody death to save our republic. With Trump or without, Griffin still ascribes to unsubstantiated claims of massive 2020 election fraud. Cowboys for Trump, or C4T as it is known colloquially, was ordered by the New Mexico Secretary of State's Office to file as a political action committee and file all campaign finance reports or face fines. Weve got enough evidence to have indictments, people tried for treason and have the remedy of firing squads. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. "Just struggling every day with new regulations, new laws, new taxes," he said. Its like hes been radicalized somehow. Thats the battle. What is sure to be a media circus for Alamogordo next week, Jury selection will begin Monday at the Otero County New Mexico Courthouse in the trial of the state of New Mexico v Couy Griffin, leader of Cowboys for Trump. Griffin, who was once thanked by Trump for saying The only good Democrat is a dead Democrat and who was convicted of a misdemeanor for entering a restricted area during the Capitol riot, has long alleged the 2020 presidential election was stolen. A New Mexico judge on Tuesday disqualified Couy Griffin, a county commissioner who founded Cowboys for Trump, from serving in public office ever again because of his participation in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.. Driving the news: The judge ruled that Griffin is "barred for life" from serving as an elected official, effective immediately, under the 14th Amendment because he took part in the . White House official grilled over Biden's summit with Puti Canadian teacher with size-Z prosthetic breasts placed on paid leave, What's next for Buster Murdaugh after dad's murder conviction, life sentence, US home prices just did something they haven't done since 2012, Celeb-loved jewelry brand Dorsey drops dazzling new styles, White Lotus actor jokes about being hit on following shows success, Is this the couple behind the Worst Art Job Listing Ever?, Undertaker transforms coffin into barbecue grill, Tom Sizemore And The Dangerous Burden of Desperation, Kellyanne Conway and George Conway to divorce. and signed a child-support check to his ex-wife from his Cowboys for Trump account. New Mexico and ABQ News, Sports, Business and more, By Olivier Uyttebrouck / Journal Staff Writer And yet he remains determined. The audit later fell apart, with the firm hired to analyze the results agreeing to return part of its initial payment, stipulating they had found no evidence of fraud. And yet, Griffin said in an interview that the audit is strategic, designed to forge a path so other counties in New Mexico audit their elections, a gambit that echoes a nationwide push by Republican officials to sow doubt about election results by pushing for audits. Griffin participated in, encouraged, and promoted the January 6, 2021, attack on the United States Capitol, the suit alleges. The language, known as the disqualification clause, is part of a Civil War-era constitutional amendment intended to bar former Confederates from holding state or federal offices. Because I want to make sure our voices are accurately captured. WWG1WGA standing in Faith! A recent report from congressional Democrats on election misinformation highlighted Clementss activities and concluded that the greatest current threat to democratic legitimacy now comes from lies by domestic actors who seek to convince Americans that their election systems are fraudulent, corrupt, or insecure., New Mexico Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver, who has clashed repeatedly with Clements and his wife, said the misinformation and disinformation were being seeded as core beliefs, not just with elected officials but the general public.. And yet he remains determined. Otero Arts Puppet Show, Authors Lecture and More, Childrens Art Exhibition Opening Night Otero Arts. ", Oliver also said that if the audit did become a blueprint that other counties followed, "that would be even more concerning than the situation we're already dealing with.". He raised this the first time the president called him. The Oath Keeper. Couy Griffin has been booted from his seat as Otero County Commission chairman for violating his oath of office when he participated in the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol. He broadcast from the January 6, 2021 takeover of the US Capitol looking like the Cowboy Church pastor he used to be, in a tie and cowboy hat. Cell phone video captured the violence and chaos of that day. Couy Griffin back in court over 'Cowboys for Trump' An off-duty sheriff follows reckless driver, shoots $20,000 in mattresses donated to a local non-profit Couy Griffin, of New Mexico, was arrested today in Washington, D.C., and charged by criminal complaint with one count of knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful entry. They also alleged that unnamed bad actors massively manipulated voter registration rolls, allowing people to illicitly vote in the last presidential election. Its probably why New Mexico is a toilet. 13h Heading to the courthouse to hear the verdict! He said he began examining the alleged evidence of fraud in contested states like Georgia and Pennsylvania in the days following the election, and later had some of those who claimed to have observed it firsthand appear on his YouTube videos. Public defense attorneys say a close reading of the law shows the area wasnt off limits. A state judge on Tuesday ordered Griffin removed from office, citing his role in having aided the insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021. Officer: Im going to issue a citation for the seatbelt. And something happened. The first-term state representative and former Albuquerque middle school math teacher grew up in Chihuahua and has an engineering degree. A New Mexico state judge on Thursday ordered convicted Capitol rioter Couy Griffin to be removed from his county commissioner seat, ruling that the Cowboys for Trump founder's involvement in the . This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area. It makes me sick whenever I watch it.". Brittany Costello: A number of people are facing charges, including you. Griffin has acknowledged using the county building for promotional videos but said he never claimed they were affiliated with Otero County. But this is also a man who beat a "Mom and Pop business" that has 5 kids out of thousands of dollars. Griffin has claimed he did not knowingly trespass. Alice Fordham joined the news team in 2022 after a career as an international correspondent, reporting for NPR from the Middle East and later Latin America and Europe. 89.9 FM Live From The University Of New Mexico. (Those findings were comprehensively rejected by the Maricopa County Elections Department.). Weve never experienced a national coup, he told the crowd, standing before red, white and blue signs strung up alongside a bingo board. As news of the attack came, he was in his cabin in the mountains of New Mexico with his wife and three young children. It is being investigated by State Auditor Brian Coln after complaints prompted concerns about the procurement process. D-101-CV-2022-00473, 2022 WL 4295619 (N.M. Dist. Mr Griffin, a county official in Otero County, New Mexico, added that the aftermath of the election had added to difficulties with relatives and his divorced wife. This Otero County election review is part of a nationwide trend. This decision marks the first time since 1869 that a court has disqualified a public official under Section 3, and . He grew up in Reserve, in western New Mexico, where his father ran a sawmill. Updated: March 23, 2022 - 2:43 PM. He perpetuates the former president's false claim that the 2020 elections were fraudulent. I know they do. "When they shut our sawmill down, it just leaves all of that useless material, if you will, in our forests which creates more fire hazards.". Couy Griffin and his horse grift America. Sledgehammers! a woman at the back of the room yelled out. The motion said Couy Griffin "has. Cowboys for Trump still owes the New Mexico Secretary of State's Office $7,800 in fines. "I wanted to go from just being a voice to having a vote.". He said commissioners are expected to approve funding for that next week. In the seatbelt citation, the officer would note Griffin got mouthy.. Couy Griffin was wanted on an arrest warrant after storming the barricades of the Capitol Jan. 6, said authorities. Shows how clueless you really are. The 249-page lawsuit alleges that Griffin can be removed as an Otero County commissioner for violating his oath of office because the 14th Amendment states that no officeholder sworn to uphold the Constitution shall have engaged in insurrection against the same, according to the suit. Yeah. Hes also been suspended from Facebook and banished from Native American lands in his district as he contests charges of breaking into the Capitol grounds and disrupting Congress that could carry a one-year sentence. I wasnt involved in anything violent, or disruptive, or disorderly. New Mexicos secretary of state has also rejected the allegations. Its all falsehoods and speculation. Griffin lost that case but still appears to have failed to follow the court order. Given his intelligence and accomplishments, the fact that hes decided to pursue this provably false theory is tragic and surprising, said Chris Luchini, the head of the Libertarian Party of New Mexico and a former colleague of Clements. He said the only good Democrat was a dead Democrat. Magda Jean-Louis and Alice Crites contributed to this report. And I pray to see you on February 28th at the Otero County Courthouse in Alamogordo N.M.Much love in Christ,Couy, According to case documents Griffin launched a GoFundMe account for Cowboys For Trump but used the funds for personal expenses, including court-ordered child support, used public funds to advance C4T and has taken official acts for personal gain.. He takes things and extrapolates them to a place that comes completely out of thin air. He looked back and saw his wife and children standing in the window watching him, weeping. Hed like to reinvent the sheriffs role as a brake on the governors power. "And it forced us to go out of business and it's been something that I've never forgotten because it was so unfair and unjust.". I got a better idea. "On the afternoon of January 17, 2021, the U.S. Capitol Police notified the FBI that they had detained Couy Griffin of New Mexico, who was the subject of an arrest warrant for his role in the . It sounds good and people believe it because it sounds authoritative if you dont know much.. Couy Griffin: As far as regret goes, I dont have any regret from that day. Just this week, Griffins attorneys filed new motions on his behalf one demanding evidence and another claiming his charges are politically motivated. Griffin said David Clements knows what hes talking about and that he is the kind of expert Griffin wants to explain complicated voting systems to him, rather than the election officials in his own county. Couy Griffin (via CREW legal filing) Leading First Amendment experts have weighed in on a lawsuit against a New Mexico man convicted in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, saying that he cannot use the First Amendment as a defense to the constitutional prohibition against insurrectionists holding public office. David and Erin Clements claimed that the states voting tabulators are insecure and miscount votes. Subscribe now to access decluttered news, chosen by you. Ct. Sept. 6, 2022) [hereinafter Griffin . Mr Griffin participated in a phone interview with Anthony Lucero on Alamogordo Town News radio edition on KALHRADIO.org 95.1 FM he explained the upcoming trail from his standpoint per a link at the end of this story. Emptying the Notebook: Can the Lobos get a defensive stop when it counts? Gun safe storage bill inches closer to governor's desk Republicans express concern over high-profile measure Republicans express concern over high-profile measure during Fridays two-hour debate. US District Judge Trevor McFadden heard one day of testimony without a jury on Monday before handing down a verdict in the misdemeanor case against Otero County Commissioner Couy Griffin, a. The couple soon found an ally in Couy Griffin, a flamboyant former Disneyland Paris rodeo cowboy who until this week was a member of the county commission in Otero, a rural New Mexico community of 69,000 along the Texan border. David Clements urged commissioners not to perform their statutory duty to certify the results, arguing that doing so would place them in legal jeopardy because of the problems they alleged with the machines. By March, volunteers organized by David and Erin Clements calling themselves the New Mexico Audit Force were going door to door in Otero County asking citizens about how they voted in 2020. Now, Griffin is spearheading a legally dubious audit of the 2020 election in Otero County. He is still facing federal charges. Ive had my own family say some pretty nasty things, Griffin said. On September 6, 2022, Otero County Commissioner Couy Griffin was ordered removed from office by a New Mexico judge, as a result of his participation in the January 6th insurrection and attack on the Capitol. At the meeting at the Nebraska senior center in early August, Clements appealed to his audience to get on social media and to keep showing up at county commission meetings, again and again, until local leaders are worn down and give in. Everette Brown, a Marine veteran and information technology specialist at Holloman Air Force Base who is Black, said that comment shows politics have changed Griffin, whom he once respected. I dont have the money to go up against those kind of people, Griffin said Friday. Why dont you go back to Africa and form your little football teams. Former President Donald Trump leads Florida Gov. Here are 13 more things about Couy: He means no malice on anybody, said George Seeds, outside the New Heart Cowboy Church in Alamogordo where Griffin once served as pastor. Yeah.Officer: So if you want to waste our time here.. After the officer hands him the ticket, Griffin still gets in a parting shot. I totally take exception to the idea that Robyn Holmes our Republican clerk doesnt know what shes doing. Despite his Cowboys for Trump shirt, he said all but one of the fellow cowboys drifted away after January 6 last year. Nichols, advised that the frivolous lawsuit would not pass muster in court and would cost the county more than $100,000. Youre in the middle of elections that are fraudulent right now if what theyre telling us is true., If what theyre telling us is true, Holmes said, shouting, IF!. Clementss strategy is to target his message locally: to county commissioners and clerks, jobs that are lower profile but that wield an outsize role in administering Americas decentralized election system. Yet two independent election security experts who have examined the Clements work Susan Greenhalgh, senior adviser on election security for the nonprofit Free Speech For People, and Kevin Skoglund, president and chief technologist for the nonpartisan Citizens for Better Elections said the fraud charges are baseless and misleading. So who is the leader here today? Swanson asked. The political operative. Holmes has grown so disheartened by the couples oft-repeated allegations that she has stopped coming to meetings unless asked for. De-extinction is a, Roundhouse Roundup: Paramilitary rules, youth parole, Rio Bravo Park cleanup will take longer than expected, Gun safety bill passes Senate, faces one more hurdle, Restaurants still struggling to recover from COVID, Roswell PD: Woman steals, drives wrong-way to get, More from KRQE NEWS 13 - Breaking News, Albuquerque News, New Mexico News, Weather, and Videos, State basketball tournament: Girls first round recap, BCSO: Kids were living in dirty home containing drugs, Local casino hosts National Fiery Foods & BBQ Show, UNM police arrest man for giving false ID, fleeing, Man connected to political shootings to stay behind, Whats happening around New Mexico Mar. They are wrong about voting technology, election processes, certification, and legal requirements, Skoglund said. The need for the audit in New Mexico was more in the likes of Bernalillo County, and Sandoval County and Doa Ana County," referring to areas where President Joe Biden won the 2020 vote. All they need to do to change the system, he assured them, is to win over a handful of commission votes. The pastors. Clements, who was born in Seattle, grew up the child of itinerant parents who worked blue-collar jobs. The pickup was emblazoned with his Cowboys For Trump logo. I am already bracing for a media frenzy during this time because there is so much on the line. Couy Griffin, a New Mexico county commissioner, ardent election-fraud conspiracy theorist and founder of Cowboys for Trump, avoided more jail time on Friday for his role in the January 6, 2021, US . FILE - Otero County, New Mexico Commissioner Couy Griffin speaks to reporters as he arrives at federal court in Washington, June 17, 2022. Under the first-look pact, Mortal Media will develop and produce a range of projects across film and television, in [] Contact Senator Griggs and Burton for Yes. But much of that I believe will depend on how much support we can build during this time and nothing can replace individual Americans showing up physically and standing alongside one another.. "Due to the effects of the Mexican spotted owl, our access to timber on the federal lands was restricted," he said. As per edailybuzz, Couy Griffin is married to his wife, Kourtnie A Gates. TULAROSA, N.M. He rodeoed in a Buffalo Bill-style Wild West show, carried his message on horseback from the Holy Land to Times Square and was invited to the White House to meet the president. Otero County Commission Chairman and Cowboys for Trump co-founder Couy Griffin rides his horse on 5th avenue on May 1, 2020 in New York City. "I've had my own family say. "And he kind of laughed and said no. This guy has gone off the deep end. More immediately, Griffin is eyeing an open 2022 sheriffs race in another New Mexico county where he grew up. My mom worked at Kmart and Lowes, my dad bagged groceries, he said. Guitarist Ottmar Liebert bringing his unique blend of music Ottmar Liebert and his band Luna Negra will perform with the New Mexico Philharmonic at Popejoy Hall on Saturday, March 11. New . FILE - Otero County, New Mexico Commissioner Couy Griffin speaks to reporters as he arrives at federal court in Washington, June 17, 2022. He was also one of three commissioners in Otero, a county of some . They want to destroy our country, Griffin said in a video monologue. Cowboys for Trump co-founder Couy Griffin confronted a trial by jury on Tuesday on charges that he failed to register a political organisation without filing related public financial disclosures. I take the seatbelts very serious.Griffin: Oh yeah, Im sure.Officer: Yeah, just because all the crashes Ive seen.Griffin: Its too bad you dont take more of the drugs and the other crime going on a little bit more serious instead of out here citing people for no seatbelts. This is a nonpartisan issue, Griffin said in an interview. The folksy origin story might have helped his successful 2018 run for county commissioner but once in office Griffin amplified violence and bigotry. And he is disillusioned with Trump himself, citing an issue that brings him back to his earliest grievances: forest management. Clements ended on a mournful note just before the audience began trickling out into the quiet evening, the sun setting over fields of thirsty corn.
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