'Open-and-shut': Law professor says Michigan fake Trump electors have no defense

ALSO READ: GOP leader tries to laugh off major Mar-a-Lago bruising — with claim that shuns evidence

'Open-and-shut': Law professor says Michigan fake Trump electors have no defense
Donald Trump (Photo by Nicholas Kamm for AFP)

The 16 fake Trump electors who tried to convene in Michigan got a big surprise this week: felony indictments brought by the state attorney general.

And it's going to be almost impossible for them to defend against the case, argued New York University law professor and former Pentagon special counsel Ryan Goodman on CNN Tuesday evening, for one key reason: the documents they are accused of forging contain a glaring lie.

"If you're going to charge 16 people there and hundreds of people, you're charging a lot of people with a lot of stuff," said anchor Erin Burnett. "It'd be kind of odd to not charge one person out of all of this. Some of the evidence in Michigan that the attorney general points to is language on the fake elector slate that was submitted to Congress. So they submit this to Congress. And in that you saw something very important. It said, 'we convened and organized in the State Capitol.'"

"So if you're an elector, you're going to convene there," said Burnett. "They said that's what they did. But they actually met at the Republican state headquarters, according to the January 6th Committee report, which I guess is not in the State Capitol, the pro-Trump attorney flagged this as slightly problematic in a memo to the Trump campaign. Now, anyone watching may say this seems like a detail. It is a detail, but a detail you think matters."

"It's a detail that matters," agreed Goodman. "It mattered to the Trump campaign lawyer, and he said this is a problem. He is mapping out the secret memo how they can do these false electors across the seven states. Michigan may have a problem because it's a legal requirement that you have to convene in the State Capitol. That's why they obviously put it in their declaration that we are convened in the State Capitol. And it is just a falsehood."

That's significant, Goodman added, because, "They can say, oh, we thought Trump won the election and that's why we did this. Did you think you were in the Capitol? You are not in the Capitol, you were in the basement of the GOP headquarters in Lansing. That's where you were when you convened. It's a false statement that they submitted to state and federal authorities that is almost an open-and-shut forgery."

Watch below or click the link here.

Ryan Goodman says Michigan fake electors case is "open-and-shut" www.youtube.com

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Republicans panicking as Trump allows far-right 'bigots' to tear the party apart: report

Far-right extremists trading in outright "bigotry" are infiltrating and raising their profiles in the Republican Party ranks, and GOP leaders are sounding the alarm — but Donald Trump is giving them a pass.

According to The Washington Post, 23-year-old Alec Beaton epitomizes the problem. He has solid GOP credentials: former precinct delegate, county Republican youth chair, and Trump 2024 campaign field operative in Michigan. He's also a self-described Holocaust "revisionist" who treats Hitler praise as entertainment.

"We don't think Hitler is, like, the worst person ever," Beaton said while circulating through a national young conservatives conference, accompanied by an acquaintance working for the host organization, Turning Point USA.

"We influence the room," Beaton boasted, identifying as a groyper. "We have the power and influence to come in here, and they respect it."

Party insiders dismiss figures like Beaton as marginal players unrepresentative of mainstream Republicanism. But anxiety is spreading through GOP ranks. Leaked offensive group chats and escalating disputes over acceptable political boundaries are exposing a deeper problem: the party's young far-right contingent is gaining traction.

The real concern centers on white-supremacist influencer Nick Fuentes, who targets disaffected young men and has expressed his worldview bluntly: "Jews are running society, women need to shut the f--- up, Blacks need to be imprisoned for the most part, and we would live in paradise." This month, the College Republicans of America appointed a longtime Fuentes devotee as their political director.

The GOP is fracturing over how aggressively to confront this radicalization. Some Republicans dismiss Fuentes and his ilk as irrelevant online noise — infiltrators sabotaging the party. Others warn the movement has real momentum and demands forceful expulsion from the GOP.

The underlying threat concerns Republicans: the online ecosystem financially rewards extremism through clicks, likes, and followers.

"The migration of our politics online has created a perverse incentive structure," said David Brog, founding president of the foundation behind the annual National Conservatism Conference. "If you voice anti-Israel and antisemitic views, you get an instant reward in the form of clicks, likes and follows. This fuels the fallacy that the activist base of the party shares these views."

"So ambitious politicians and commentators trying to position themselves to lead 'America First' are misreading these digital leaves," Brog continued, "and coming to some deeply flawed conclusions."

The California Republican Party last month distributed a memo to state GOP leaders warning that groypers were securing party positions and running for office, demanding organized resistance.

"A radical and divisive iteration of 'America First' ideology is growing within the ranks of the Right wing in American politics that is directly at odds with the core founding principles of the United States Constitution," the memo stated. "The effects of this movement on our conservative American youth cannot be ignored."

California GOP Vice Chair John Park acknowledged the urgency. "This is one of those situations where silence is consent," he said, though he cautioned against overstating the problem's scale.

Trump, however, is taking the opposite approach. Asked about former Fox News host Tucker Carlson's decision to interview Fuentes, Trump offered a non-answer that functioned as tacit approval.

"I don't know much about him," Trump said of Fuentes — a claim contradicted by their 2022 dinner meeting, an incident that sparked widespread outrage.

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Senate scrambles for DHS deal before two-week recess: 'Time for us to do our job'

WASHINGTON — Lawmakers were cautiously optimistic on Thursday as the Senate was trying to reach a deal to fund the Department of Homeland Security and end the government shutdown.

In a series of exclusive interviews with Raw Story, several senators explained how they were uncertain whether a deal could be reached as Congress was just hours away from its two-week April recess.

Sen. Katie Britt (R-AL) was asked if she was hopeful the Senate could reach an agreement to fund DHS.

"We'll see, but I certainly think it's time for us to do our job," Britt said.

The discussions were still ongoing Thursday afternoon.

"We're reviewing that right now," said Sen. Angus King (I-ME).

Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI) was hesitant to say what the caucuses were discussing and if the lawmakers were closer to reaching a deal.

"I don't want to say one way or the other," Schatz said.

Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) signaled that senators had more to work out together, but there was one area where everyone was on the same page.

"I think the good news is that there is very broad agreement that we have to fund TSA," Coons said. "Bad news is that there's not yet agreement on sort of exactly how to."

Coons also said that Democrats did not plan to budge on their demands for ICE and were still focused on agency reforms, adding that new Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said during his confirmation hearing that he would take a closer look at those suggestions.

"It's Thursday," Coons added. "Wouldn't it be great to resolve this?"

'National villain' MAGA pastor running out of time to secure GOP nomination: analysis

A MAGA-aligned pastor who prayed with Donald Trump earlier this month is no closer to securing a GOP nomination, a political analyst has suggested.

Jackson Lahmeyer, an evangelical pastor in Owasso, Oklahoma, has kept himself in the public eye by spouting claims about Martin Luther King Jr.'s political leanings and offering COVID vaccination exemption forms to those who donate to his church. The controversial figure has been backed by notable MAGA figureheads and former Trump allies such as ex-New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and ex-Trump strategist Roger Stone, but this may not be enough for Lahmeyer to secure a GOP nomination.

Lahmeyer announced his candidacy for Congress at the Tulsa County Republican Party Headquarters on March 24, and is running against a selection of GOP candidates more experienced than him.

The Tulsa Congressional seat is up for grabs as Rep. Kevin Hern, who currently holds the seat, is planning to run for the vacant Senate seat formerly held by Markwayne Mullin, who has been promoted to head of the Department of Homeland Security.

Slate writer Molly Olmstead has suggested that, despite the backing of his campaign from key Trump campaign figures, Lahmeyer has a tough battle ahead.

"Lahmeyer only has a few months to secure the Republican nomination, and he is running against state-level politicians with a history of actual governance," Olmstead wrote. "If he wins, he’ll undoubtedly be another strong voice for Christian nationalism in MAGA.

"If he doesn’t, he’ll almost certainly find another way to stay in the public eye. Lahmeyer is out to prove a truth of the MAGA era: The spirit of the right-wing media attention-seeker is unkillable."

But Lahmeyer's controversial nature may be a stumbling block for his campaign, as Olmstead warns the vaccine slips he had previously offered to donors of his church may come back to haunt him.

She wrote, "Among those who follow the jostling for power within the MAGA movement, Lahmeyer is a familiar name. He first came to national attention during the COVID pandemic, when he offered to sign religious exemption forms for the vaccine for anyone willing to donate at least $1 to his church, Sheridan Church. (This, he said, was the cost of joining the church.)

"The idea of a pastor selling vaccine exemption slips without knowing if someone had any kind of genuine religious reason for their opposition to the vaccine stirred up enough outrage to make Lahmeyer a national villain."

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