'A citizen's arrest': Texas GOP megadonor boasted of plan to attack AC repairman over voter fraud scheme

On Friday, the Houston Chroniclereported on newly revealed details of indicted Texas Republican powerbroker Steven Holtze's plot to "arrest" an A.C. repairman as part of a bizarre scheme to prove he was part of a voter fraud conspiracy.

"Two days before a private investigator looking into a voter fraud conspiracy theory smashed into an air conditioning repairman’s truck and pulled a gun on him, far-right activist Steven Hotze called then-U.S. Attorney Ryan Patrick and told him about the plans to have 'a wreck,' court documents show," said the report. "Hotze, who funded the investigation and now faces felony charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and unlawful restraint, asked Patrick whether he could send federal marshals to help his private investigator. The investigator, former Houston Police Department captain Mark Aguirre, faces the same charges."

The call took place on October 17, as early voting in Texas was underway.

“We’ve surveilled them for the last two nights and still my, my, Mark Aguirre, he said he wants to capture them when they bring (the ballots) out and leave tonight to deliver them but he needs a federal marshal with him,” said Hotze on the call. “In fact, [Aguirre] told me last night, hell, I’m gonna have, the guy’s gonna have a wreck tomorrow. I’m going to run into him and I’m gonna make a citizen’s arrest.”

After Hotze rammed the van and broke in with a gun, he did not find the stacks of ballots he believed were in there. He was indicted for the misadventure in April.

Former President Donald Trump won the state of Texas by over 6 points in 2020, but GOP politicians there have continued to pursue his "Big Lie" that the election was stolen. Attorney General Ken Paxton brought a bizarre lawsuit seeking to block certification of results in several states Joe Biden won, and the legislature subsequently passed a controversial bill limiting how people can vote.