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Politics : The Trump Presidency -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Lane3 who wrote (235559)	5/7/2022 1:55:51 PM
From: Lane3	1 Recommendation Recommended By bentway Respond to of 356050

Investigations GOP donor described botched vote fraud probe in recording, prosecutors say By Shawn Boburg Yesterday at 6:42 p.m. EDT On Oct. 17, 2020, influential GOP donor Steven F. Hotze made an urgent request during a phone call with a top federal prosecutor in Texas, according to a court filing Friday by the Houston district attorney’s office. Hotze claimed that private investigators funded by his nonprofit group had been trailing a mysterious white van as it shuttled phony ballots around the city in an effort to rig the upcoming election. He asked if federal authorities would help stop the van and apprehend its driver, but he added that one of his hard-nosed investigators was prepared to do the job himself, according to the filing by prosecutors in Harris County that included a transcript of the exchange. “In fact, he told me last night, ‘hell … the guy’s gonna have a wreck tomorrow night. I’m going to run into him and I’m gonna make a citizen’s arrest,” Hotze told the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Texas, Ryan Patrick, a Trump appointee, who recorded the conversation. Two days after the call, the private investigator Hotze had named ran a white van driven by an air-conditioning repairman off the road in Houston and held the driver at gunpoint during a futile search for forged ballots, county prosecutors allege. Police have said the man was innocent. His truck contained repair parts. The filing Friday illuminates one of the most extreme tactics that far-right groups have employed in an effort to substantiate former president Donald Trump’s unproven allegations of widespread voting fraud in the election he lost. Groups have tried to gain access to sensitive election equipment, pushed for audits of the 2020 election by handpicked outside groups and recruited volunteers to scrutinize local election officials, sometimes leading to threats of violence. The disclosure of the call transcript came in an ongoing criminal case brought by the district attorney’s office that charges Hotze and the private investigator with assault with a deadly weapon and unlawful restraint in the alleged ramming. Prosecutors disclosed the transcript in a filing notifying the court that they intend to use it as evidence against Hotze. The filing marks the first time prosecutors have publicly revealed evidence to support the charges against Hotze, who was not at the crash scene. His nonprofit Liberty Center for God and Country paid $261,000 for the election fraud probe, a Houston police report stated.... Long article follows. washingtonpost.com