With the pickup still running, the state cop walks back to his patrol car and notes to his partner.. 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 . As CPAC's 2023 edition kicks off, the man who greets the myriad right-wing activists and supporters descending on Maryland . The officers call Griffin. Why? he asked. The case went to federal district court where a judge dismissed Griffin's case where he tried to have the New Mexico Campaign Reporting Act declared unconstitutional. 13:00, Joe Sommerlad. He has made baldly racist and violent statements. 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. 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. The allegations against CPAC chief Matt Schlapp. SANTA FE, N.M. - A New Mexico state district court judge has disqualified county commissioner and Cowboys for Trump co- founder Couy Griffin from holding public office for engaging . So whats the solution?. The decision was made . Its been real hard.. With calls for an independent investigation of the Capitol siege blocked by Senate Republicans, Griffin is out on bail and speaking his mind. By MORGAN LEE February 28, 2023. But despite the uproar of the last few years, he still believes he has a support base. The pastors. He sees. Couy Griffin Wife, Children Griffin is currently single, he was previously married to his girlfriend Kourtnie A Gates, but they were divorced in 2019. Ron DeSantis by about 15 points in a new Republican presidential poll, with newly announced candidate Nikki Haley and former Vice . Published: Saturday, August 13th, 2022 at 10:05PMUpdated: Sunday, August 14th, 2022 at 12:05AM. Griffin took the oath of office in December 2018 when he was sworn in as a commissioner. Griffin was convicted in federal court of entering a restricted area outside the U.S. Capitol. The officers call Griffin over and the traffic stop gets ugly. And since he is still in office, he was able to push for the audit. Authors of the brief include Laurence Tribe, a professor emeritus of constitutional law at Harvard, and Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the University of California Berkeley School of Law. Kourtnie Griffin, an Iraqi war veteran, understands "passions for God and country" and believes her ex-husband has a right to express his views, her lawyers said. The ruling comes after lawyers for Griffin's ex-wife, Kourtnie, filed an emergency motion in May to modify their custody and visitation agreement. Griffin, the only dissenter, called his vote in from Washington, where he had just been sentenced to 14 days in jail time served for his role in the Capitol attack. ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. Couy Griffin, Cowboys for Trump founder and Otero County commissioner, was arrested last year for his . The cowboy. Griffin participated in, encouraged, and promoted the January 6, 2021, attack on the United States Capitol, the suit alleges. Clements came down from the mountain filled with zeal and sitting down in his garage armed with nothing more than a laptop and a crappy microphone soon began posting about alleged election fraud on YouTube. 89.9 FM Live From The University Of New Mexico. A first-term commissioner in New Mexico's Otero County, Griffin rose to national prominence in May 2020 when Trump tweeted a video of him proclaiming that "the only good Democrat is a dead Democrat." In 2019, he founded the for-profit "Cowboys for Trump" organization and has described himself as a "peaceful patriot." 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. Pecchia said his respect for Clements evaporated one day when he saw his former teacher leading an anti-mask march through a craft market where Pecchia sold his woodworking, causing a disturbance. I take the seatbelts very serious just because the amount of crashes weve both seen.Griffin: What is it? This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area. "I was never involved in anything violent on that day, and there was never anything violently done around me," he said when asked about the incident. She said in an online press conference that she feared, "a scenario where the tabulators would instantly become, you know, questionable, and we would have to completely take them out of serviceIt's just a really scary, unfortunate and nonsensical situation. 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.. Still, loyal constituents are easy to come by in a rural county steeped in the anti-establishment, pro-gun culture that dominates southern New Mexico. 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. See State ex rel. "When they come up with these conspiracy theories, it really confuses the voters, and we have a hard enough time getting our voters out to vote as it is," she said. Copyright 2023 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. 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. 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. Asked for comment, Erin Clements sent a video of Democratic lawmakers raising concerns about election security. Clements won last year. Griffin's term as county commissioner is up this year, and he has said he will not run again. For two hours, Clements who has the rumpled look of an academic, though he lost his business school professors job last fall for refusing to wear a mask in class spoke of breached voting machines, voter roll manipulation and ballot stuffing that he falsely claims cost former president Donald Trump victory in 2020. Colorado State slices up Lobos; UNM is a 6 To say that defense was optional would imply is was a choice. Clementss allegations extend to voting machines made by multiple companies, including Dominion Voting Systems, which are used in New Mexico and have been the target of false claims by Trump supporters. He said commissioners are expected to approve funding for that next week. Griffin recalled. Donnie Reynolds, a 51-year-old sales associate at an Alamogordo hardware store, says Griffin is being targeted for ties to Trump. 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. In what he described as a mission, he traveled on horseback from San Francisco to New York, and then across Europe and the Mediterranean to Jerusalem, arriving in 2008 after more than two years on the road. They even quote me and cite my work on voting systems with modems and internet connectivity, but I disagree with every conclusion they draw from my work., I dont think he understands what hes talking about most of the time, said Greenhalgh. Do you regret anything that happened? KRQE NEWS 13 - Breaking News, Albuquerque News, New Mexico News, Weather, and Videos. Griffin shows hes not just an election denier, hes also a traffic ticket denier. 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. Griffin lost that case but still appears to have failed to follow the court order. and signed a child-support check to his ex-wife from his Cowboys for Trump account. D-101-CV-2022-00473, 2022 WL 4295619 (N.M. Dist. They are wrong about voting technology, election processes, certification, and legal requirements, Skoglund said. The folksy origin story might have helped his successful 2018 run for county commissioner but once in office Griffin amplified violence and bigotry. Distraught that Bidens victory would be validated by Congress despite the insurrection, he has said that he ran outside and fell on his knees, next to the fire pit. The first call to the press he made was to our reporter to the station we own. 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? As his zeal over election fraud heightened, other associates fell away. And if we dont fix our country, I cant go back to that world.. Clements, who was born in Seattle, grew up the child of itinerant parents who worked blue-collar jobs. KOB-TV, LLC
Since then, Griffin has led an itinerant life. And yet he remains determined. I dont want them. He grew up in Reserve, in western New Mexico, where his father ran a sawmill. The process, now underway, faces several challenges. Each played a role on Jan 6. In all, more than 400 people were charged in the insurrection, which left five dead and dozens of officers injured. I wasnt involved in anything violent, or disruptive, or disorderly. But this is also a man who beat a "Mom and Pop business" that has 5 kids out of thousands of dollars. Some extra notes, quotes, news and notes from the Lobos Friday night basketball game in, To say that defense was optional would imply is was a choice. Whenever you say, China stole the election. The former Disneyland rodeo cowboy once rode down New York's Sixth Avenue wearing the furs of bobcats and coyotes he trapped and skinned, brandishing an American flag. Hear their stories. They loved it, Harper said. It makes me sick whenever I watch it.". Its about the money, and this week in Otero County, New Mexico a jury will decide. In a conversation with The Associated Press, Griffin says he learned to love the spotlight during five years as an expert rodeo hand in a Wild West show at Paris Disneyland park. 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. 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 . The two-day trial began Tuesday with jury selection in state District Court at Alamogordo, the . Griffin went to court over the seatbelt ticket where he was ordered to pay the $81 fine. Griffin: You know the drugs right now are horrible, the property crime is horrible, and theres two of you guys riding around citing people for no seatbelts?Officer: So, wed probably be doing the drug stuff if you were wearing your seatbelt.Griffin: Oh, really? Republican primary candidates embracing Trumps stolen election rhetoric have flourished this year. Griffin has acknowledged using the county building for promotional videos but said he never claimed they were . , Case dismissed for teen accused of taking gun to, Elderly man who killed sister takes plea deal, 2023 state basketball tournament brackets, Whats happening around New Mexico Feb. 24 Mar. "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 can handle a lot. He said the only good Democrat was a dead Democrat. Today, Couy Griffin is divorced, disparaged by family and confronts a political recall drive, a state corruption investigation and federal charges. Thats hard for me to accept.. Updated: March 23, 2022 - 2:43 PM. 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. A New Mexico county commissioner who heads Cowboys for Trump was arrested Sunday in Washington, D.C., by Capitol Police after vowing to bring back his guns for Inauguration Day. 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. ", 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.". 0:00. Today, Couy Griffin is divorced, disparaged by family and confronts a political recall drive, a state corruption investigation and federal charges. Griffin had recently been booted out of office following his conviction on federal charges for trespassing outside the Capitol building during the January 6 attack. I think that, if that would have been the case, then I would have been charged with that in the United States federal court where this case should be.. Mr. Griffin has opted to be defended by a public defender for this case with home court advantage. Griffin has suggested that voting machines provided by Dominion Voting Systems across New Mexico could have been hacked. 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. 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. Couy Griffin: All of the videos that day that show Capitol police officers opening doors, fist-bumping people coming in and beating people up and assaulting people on Capitol grounds. The arbitrator, who was chosen by Griffin and Cowboys for Trump, found for the Secretary of State's Office. 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. In addition Mr. Griffin sent an email to his supporters which said, If convicted of this charge I could be sentenced to a year in state prison. The first-term state representative and former Albuquerque middle school math teacher grew up in Chihuahua and has an engineering degree. Weve never experienced a national coup, he told the crowd, standing before red, white and blue signs strung up alongside a bingo board. He sees himself as governor one day. It sounds good and people believe it because it sounds authoritative if you dont know much.. Any person with disabilities who needs help accessing the content of the FCC Public File may contact KOB via our online formor call 505-243-4411. 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. Mr Griffin appears to be setting the stage of this court case with home court advantage. The 14th Amendment bars from office anyone who once took an . "They see that I'm willing to take a stand," he said. Couy Griffin confronts DuBois over appointment, derails meeting; Couy Griffin removed from Otero County Commission, barred from holding any future office I come to you as someone who had a future. Ct. Sept. 6, 2022) [hereinafter Griffin . 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. The January 6th attack and the events surrounding it constituted an insurrection against the government and Constitution of the United States as defined by the 14th Amendment, the suit alleges. His rides with Cowboys for Trump through numerous states were a reprise of proselytizing trips he made from Ireland to Jerusalem, before social media, to hand out the Gospel of John. Shows how clueless you really are. I just went to stand in what I believe is my constitutional right, to peacefully protest. 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. 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. The Otero controversy is far from over. Otero County Clerk Robyn Holmes disagrees. The former Disneyland rodeo cowboy once rode down New York's Sixth Avenue wearing the furs of bobcats and coyotes he trapped and skinned, brandishing an American flag. Former Otero County Commissioner and well-known rabble-rouser Couy Griffin was pulled over in Alamogordo in his Dodge Ram in early November. In the search warrant documents filed with the court investigators detail that a Griffin supporter, Casey Conlee, created a Cowboys For Trump GoFundMe account to raise funds under the groups name. David and Erin Clements claimed that the states voting tabulators are insecure and miscount votes. However, the new evidence . He is a pastor, a Republican and the son of a former commissioner in Catron County, New Mexico. It was a complete change. 2-23-23 Alamogordo Town News Thursday Edition with Anthony Lucero KALHRadio.org, Creative Arts Community Action Alert Senate Action Begins Saturday. That is what our motive and our focus has to be. On Aug. 11, Clements and his wife presented the final findings of their audit in a special five-hour commissioners meeting, during which he got into a shouting match with the county attorney and told Holmes she should resign because it was disgusting how you fight the people. She left the meeting in tears. "I do believe our elections were stolen," he said. Otero County Commissioner Couy Griffin, the founder of Cowboys for Trump, takes in the view from his ranch in Tularosa, N.M., on Wednesday, May 12, 2021. That day, Democrats on the House Oversight Committee released their report into the threat of election misinformation. After years of unwavering support, Griffin suggested he. Griffin had recently been booted out of office following his conviction on federal charges for trespassing outside the Capitol building during the January 6 attack. 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. A Hubbard Broadcasting Company, said he never entered the Capitol building. ALAMOGORDO, N.M. (KRQE) New video shows former County Commissioner Couy Griffin getting pulled over and getting into it with police officers. Griffin is one of thousands of Trump loyalists in public office who are charting an uncertain future ahead of the 2022 election cycle. Published: January 6, 2022 - 1:40 PM. This guy has gone off the deep end. On January 17 last year, the Justice Department released a statement saying that Griffin was being charged with 'knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful entry' adding that he had said in a video, later removed, that, "we could have a Second Amendment rally on those same steps that we had that rally yesterday. They also alleged that unnamed bad actors massively manipulated voter registration rolls, allowing people to illicitly vote in the last presidential election. 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. A Donald Trump supporter, Griffin founded Cowboys for Trump and listed his sister Kay Griffin as its organizer. Cowboys for Trump founder Couy Griffin, who is facing charges in connection with the U.S. Capitol riot, has turned on the former president in a conference speech for abandoning January 6. 70 202 His wife divorced him. 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. 1998 - 2023 Nexstar Media Inc. | All Rights Reserved. Nichols, and awarded a nearly $50,000 contract to audit about 24,000 votes to Echomail, which was among the companies who audited the 2020 vote in Maricopa County, AZ. He was also one of three commissioners in Otero, a county of some . Any further details regarding Kourtnie have not been disclosed yet. Nichols, advised that the frivolous lawsuit would not pass muster in court and would cost the county more than $100,000. We was on Fox & Friends the next day.. Griffin, who was convicted of a federal misdemeanor in March for his involvement in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, is representing himself in the lawsuit, which has attracted the interest of nationally known constitutional scholars and attorneys. Here you have Couy Griffin as Cowboys For Trump not only hiding assets from his ex-wife and son. Clements is one among a tightknit circle of Trump supporters who travel the country as self-appointed election fraud evangelists. 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. Alamogordo Proud! Officer: Hello, sir.Griffin: How you doing? And that was one that got me, said Brown, part of a committee seeking to recall Griffin. "Due to the effects of the Mexican spotted owl, our access to timber on the federal lands was restricted," he said. 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.. The Oath Keeper. 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. McFadden also acquitted Griffin of a disorderly conduct charge. Magda Jean-Louis and Alice Crites contributed to this report. However he is on probation from the guilty verdict related to the participant and in the capital events of January 6th thus the stakes are now significantly higher. "Ive seen the same videos that you have and there were people who acted extremely foolishly and recklessly and violently, and I dont agree with any of that type of behavior," Griffin said. 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. Clements, who has no formal training or background in election systems, spent months crisscrossing the back roads in his home state of New Mexico in a battered Buick, trying to persuade local leaders not to certify election results. Still, the audit rumbles on, and could yet have widespread implications. 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. The Otero County commissioner is facing charges for his alleged role in the January insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. Today, Couy Griffin is divorced, disparaged by family and confronts a political recall drive, a state corruption investigation and federal charges. He saw the sawmill's work as "curating" the forest. Otero County commissioners in July rejected Griffins request for taxpayer-funded legal representation in the lawsuit. But she "did not take her minor child to war with her" as Couy Griffin is doing by taking their son to President Donald Trump campaign events during a pandemic, the attorneys said. I said, God save us, please, please save our country, he recalled in a speech in Michigan last year. South Carolina lawyer Alex Murdaugh has been found guilty on all four counts in connection with the 2021 murders of . I stand before you as someone who used to be an award-winning professor, an award-winning prosecutor who is unemployed, Clements said. 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. Jeff Swanson, chairman of the Otero County Democratic Party, says Griffins divisive remarks hinder county efforts to secure state infrastructure spending, and he has engaged in intimidation by recording Cowboys for Trump videos from his office with a shotgun within view. Dominion officials have denied all allegations made against the company, filing multibillion-dollar defamation lawsuits against various people who spread the claims. Thanks for contacting us. The group captivated the public imagination with its first outing, a 2019 flag-waving ride down the shore of the Potomac River to Arlington National Cemetery. John Block voted against job creation. He is awaiting trial. And I said, well, you're gonna know exactly where it's at whenever the forest catches on fire around there, because it's gonna burn the whole town down. Weve got enough evidence to have indictments, people tried for treason and have the remedy of firing squads. 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. Clements says he is not paid for his appearances but asks for donations for travel expenses at the door. In October, around the time he was fired from his university job, David and Erin Clements mailed a 261-page document to commissioners and county clerks across New Mexico alleging widespread issues with the voting systems what the congressional report called imaginary fraud.. 2023 NYP Holdings, Inc. All Rights Reserved, Trump proposes building futuristic, Jetsons-like freedom cities on federal land, Pompeo calls $31 trillion national debt indecent at CPAC, Trump recites Pledge of Allegiance in collaboration on new song with J6 Prison Choir, Bidens laughable, late-to-the-game crackdown on massive COVID fraud. In Alamogordo, Griffins rhetoric on race has steeled the determination of opponents who want him out of office. Pull him out of his pick-up, take him to the ground, and charge him with resisting arrest! For all his bombast and showmanship, Griffin's fortunes and conviction seem to be waning. He looked back and saw his wife and children standing in the window watching him, weeping.