Clements says he is not paid for his appearances but asks for donations for travel expenses at the door. He says his obsession with politics has taken a toll, contributing to his 2019 divorce and tensions with relatives. . "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 . SANTA FE A New Mexico judge ordered Otero County Commissioner Couy Griffin be removed from office, effective immediately, ruling that the attack on the Capitol was an insurrection and that Griffin's participation in it disqualified him under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment. At New Mexico State University, Clements was known for his engaging lectures, being available to students and grading papers late into the night, according to David Pecchia, a former student and retired Air Force master sergeant who was close to Clements and considered him a mentor. So..Griffin: We live in a state thats just so corrupt right now and has so much crime, and theres two of you guys out here driving around citing people for no seatbelts. 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. But David and Erin Clements pressed on, appearing before the three-member, all-Republican Otero commission with a new target: the states June 7 primary. ALAMOGORDO, N.M. (KRQE) New video shows former County Commissioner Couy Griffin getting pulled over and getting into it with police officers. I come to you as someone who had a future. Couy Griffin: You know, those would have to go through my counsel. 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. 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. Just this week, Griffins attorneys filed new motions on his behalf one demanding evidence and another claiming his charges are politically motivated. The officers call Griffin. 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. Clements said in a brief interview in Nebraska that he believes his efforts are noble. Yeah. 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. 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. Griffin has cast Democratic Gov. Since then, Griffin has led an itinerant life. Feb 27, 2023. Their additional three locations remain open. Holmes said this is baseless and runs the risk of eroding trust in democratic systems. Their son was born in 2014. Their reports on election fraud are a jumble of conspiracy theories and full of errors. In July. Today, Couy Griffin is divorced, disparaged by family and confronts a political recall drive, a state corruption investigation and federal charges. Ramie Harper, a 67-year-old former bull rider from Fruitland, took a break from making custom hats to join the caravan. I stand before you as someone who used to be an award-winning professor, an award-winning prosecutor who is unemployed, Clements said. 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. He looked back and saw his wife and children standing in the window watching him, weeping. Theyre going find out he didnt have anything to do with these types of things, he said. Why dont you go back to Africa and form your little football teams. Id see other happy families on vacation while I would bus their tables as an underage kid and say, is this it, Lord? , But, he said he realized, God was preparing me for something, to see artifice, to see lies.. You know, and if we do, then its gonna be a sad day, because theres gonna be blood running out of that building." Griffin is presumed innocent until proven guilty. 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. He appeared first in Torrance County, where he led off comments at a raucous meeting. "What I'm trying to do through this audit," he said, "is I'd like to create a blueprint for other counties to be able to follow as well. The folksy origin story might have helped his successful 2018 run for county commissioner but once in office Griffin amplified violence and bigotry. Allison Kuhn won outstanding team leader, Otero Electric Co-op Making Progress Restoring Power in Cloudcroft, Mescalero and Mountain Villages, KALH Radio Alamogordo Town News Exclusive PreTrial Interview with Attorney Johnathon C Miller, Ole Time Revival Feel Welcome to Counselor Johnathon C Miller Sets stage for Couy Griffin Trial, 2nd Life Media AlamogordoTownNews.com Event Calendar. Trump won there in 2020 with 73% of the vote. Otero Arts Puppet Show, Authors Lecture and More, Childrens Art Exhibition Opening Night Otero Arts. So whats the solution?. Clements, who was born in Seattle, grew up the child of itinerant parents who worked blue-collar jobs. He also says Cowboys for Trump is a for-profit company, not a political group. 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. If local jurisdictions fail to certify their votes, it could throw the outcome of an election into chaos, raising doubt about the results and giving ammunition to losing candidates who refuse to accept their defeats. 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. Griffin has been rebuked by some Republicans over his racial invective. The ruling comes after lawyers for Griffin's ex-wife, Kourtnie, filed an emergency motion in May to modify their custody and visitation agreement. Many of the comments predated the 2020 election and focused on the potential for foreign interference. They are wrong about voting technology, election processes, certification, and legal requirements, Skoglund said. Im a big boy. The first call to the press he made was to our reporter to the station we own. Under the first-look pact, Mortal Media will develop and produce a range of projects across film and television, in [] Stay turned to KALHRadio.org and the Alamogordo Town News and AlamogordoConservativeDaily.org for daily updates. SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) Cowboys for Trump cofounder Couy Griffin confronted a trial by jury Tuesday on charges that he failed to register a political organization without filing related public financial disclosures. 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. A jury will consider this week whether the support group . I just went to stand in what I believe is my constitutional right, to peacefully protest. Ct. Sept. 6, 2022) [hereinafter Griffin . 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. He asked me to cover the prayer vigil we were the only press to do so and his attorney was happy with the coverage as was he and moved to tears. 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.. Today, Couy Griffin is divorced, disparaged by family and confronts a political recall drive, a state corruption investigation and federal charges. Regardless of the outcome of this trial an appeal is expected. "And they're trying to spin routine election administration processes as somehow improper. He is a pastor, a Republican and the son of a former commissioner in Catron County, New Mexico. What is relevant is what our state government is doing to anyone who still believes in basic rights as a free American. Couy Griffin's Wife, Children Griffin is currently single, he was previously married to his girlfriend Kourtnie A Gates, but they were divorced in 2019. 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. "I wanted to go from just being a voice to having a vote.". The county sheriffs sole duty and responsibility is to protect our individual rights, he said. The Proud Boy. Officer: Hello, sir.Griffin: How you doing? The attorney general also received numerous citizen complaints about Griffin. The Cowboys for Trump website was not operational Feb. 13. With the pickup still running, the state cop walks back to his patrol car and notes to his partner.. 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. We've received your submission. 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. 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. "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. 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. New . Alamogordo Proud! "I asked him, Mr. President, do you know where Cloudcroft, New Mexico is?" Youre zombies, Pecchia recalled. Pacing the room at the senior center in Neligh, microphone in hand, Clements put the matter in stark terms. Some have. 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. He has made baldly racist and violent statements. He said he went to pray and exercise his right to peacefully protest, but he was arrested for his involvement. "I've had my own family say. As per edailybuzz, Couy Griffin is married to his wife, Kourtnie A Gates. Get some lunch?Griffin: Im headed to get my truck washed. By MORGAN LEE Associated Press February 28, 2023, 1:31 PM SANTA FE, N.M. -- Cowboys for Trump cofounder Couy Griffin confronted a trial by jury Tuesday on charges that he failed to register a political organization without filing related public financial disclosures. "It's not like I'm trying to overturn an election that we lost," he said. It concluded that if elections continued to be litigated and relitigated, without evidence of fraud, there is a serious threat voters will refuse to accept votes they do not like, and that the, "peaceful transfer of power, a hallmark of our democracy, could be at risk.". But the project seems confusing at first glance, given that Trump won in Otero County. Trumps election defeat has left the 47-year-old father in a lonely fight for his political life after preaching to crowds at the U.S. Capitol siege, promising to take his guns to Bidens inauguration and landing in jail for over a week. Couy Griffin, an Otero County commissioner and co-founder of Cowboys for Trump, answers a question from the prosecution Monday, Aug. 15, at the First Judicial District Court in Santa Fe. "And it's cost me everything - from a marriage, to finances, to friends.". "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. Clements is one among a tightknit circle of Trump supporters who travel the country as self-appointed election fraud evangelists. The decision was made . Colorado State slices up Lobos; UNM is a 6 seed in league tourney, After bill was vetoed last year, lawmakers try again to boost pay of NM judges, If it MUST be the NIT, UNM basketball has a plan. I got a better idea. Because I care about the truth. Anti-vaxxers quickly embraced Clements, with far-right Colorado podcaster Joe Oltmann creating an online fundraiser for him and calling him a lightning rod of truth and courage. The appeal has since brought in more than $304,000 in donations, including from donors who say they support his election integrity crusade. 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. Cell phone video captured the violence and chaos of that day. Their county attorney, R.B. 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. By MORGAN LEE February 28, 2023. 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. 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. We was on Fox & Friends the next day.. Dozens of Albuquerque Academy students volunteered to help unload and deliver the furnishings, Olivier Uyttebrouck / Journal Staff Writer. And since he is still in office, he was able to push for the audit. Weve never experienced a national coup, he told the crowd, standing before red, white and blue signs strung up alongside a bingo board.
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