In the photo above, I expected the woman in blue at the far end of the table, Kelli Ward, to be subpoenaed by the Jan. 6 Committee or DOJ to discuss her role in planning and executing the fake elector plot in Arizona. After all, Ward is Chair of the Arizona Republican Party, a vocal supporter of Donald Trump, a conspiracy nutter of the highest calibre, and a loud member of the “election was stolen” crowd. Her husband Michael was also among the 11 forgers who signed the form that Trump and lawyer John Eastman believed would either: 1) take the place of the real signatures, or 2) at least create enough confusion to force Mike Pence to pause certification.
It’s not working out that way, in case they haven’t noticed. Joe Biden is President and Donald Trump is still a lying, corrupt, draft-dodging, predatory asshole who is not President.
After the Jan. 6 Committee’s Tuesday hearing, which introduced the fake elector scheme, GOP Chair Ward became “positively unglued” when Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers described the Trump-Guiliani-Eastman full-court press and his unwillingness to join in their crime-making. As head of the Party Kelli Ward is supposed to stay out of primary races, but in Bowers’ case she’s already endorsed his challenger, who of course says the 2020 election was stolen.
"State GOP Chairwoman Kelli Ward has come positively unglued over Bowers’ testimony before the House Select committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection, wherein he reminded us that there still are Republicans who haven’t lost their ever living minds. Or their integrity," Arizona Republic columnist Laurie Roberts wrote. "In the last 24 hours, Ward has demeaned Bowers, belittled him and even embraced her inner fifth grade bully and given him a nickname: 'Rusty Bowels.'"
Roberts noted that even though she is chair of the party, she had endorsed Bowers' primary opponent.
Kelli Ward not only convened the December 14, 2020, fake elector meeting at GOP headquarters in the screenshot above, she bragged about signing and sending the illegal paperwork to D.C. on the Arizona Republican Party website and her twitter feed. Thanks for providing evidence!
That’s Jim Lamon in the middle, who’s running in the GOP primary to take on Sen. Mark Kelly. That’s the state of today’s Arizona Republican Party—christian fascist pinheads. Since the story broke and all 11 forgers’ names went public, none has spoken to the media about why they signed the bogus document—or even how they knew about it. When confronted by a reporter, Rep. Jake Hoffman can’t (or won’t) even explain how he heard about the scheme! CYA much, Jake?
But it turns out Kelli Ward was not subpoenaed (so far) by the Committee or DOJ to discuss Arizona’s phony election document. Instead, the DOJ subpoenaed Nancy Cottle, listed as Chair of the bogus group, and Lorraine Pelligrino, the secretary. And another name I never heard of: Thomas Lane.
That’s Lane in the photo wearing a jacket that’s also conveniently named Lane. What’s he doing at a meeting of phony electors in Phoenix passing out papers? After all, Thomas Lane is director of election integrity for the Republican Party in Virginia (which probably means inventing more voter suppression tactics). Before that position, however, Lane served as operations director for the Trump campaign in Arizona. I guess he’s still on the job.
In the video, Lane, who according to his LinkedIn page was director of election-day operations for the Trump campaign, can be seen handing out a piece of paper to eight of the 11 electors before disappearing off screen.
We learned at Tuesday’s Jan. 6 Committee hearing that the fake elector scheme was planned and launched by Trump campaign officials, even after some of them didn’t believe the plan was legal—and they bailed. The remaining dots are being connected.
A special thanks to the Arizona Republican Party for keeping everyone informed of their crimes—posting them on twitter, crowing about them in the press, bragging about their plans on video. Perhaps now they’d like to explain why a former Trump campaign official met with nearly a dozen Arizona Republicans in order to craft a fake document. Why is he there? Who sent him? Who paid for this circus? We await Mr. Lane’s testimony.
UPDATE: I mentioned in the first sentence that I expected Kelli Ward to be subpoenaed. It just happened:
Arizona Republican Party Chair Kelli Ward and her husband, Michael Ward, were among key Republicans in at least five states who were served with subpoenas from federal agents in the Justice Department’s expanding investigation into the Jan. 6 insurrection.
She’s central to the early Stop the Steal BS, the bumfuck “forensic audit,” pushing the big lie, and now the phony elector plot. Kelli Ward’s conspiratorial bullshit about chemtrails or internment camps used to make for goofball stories because she was a bonkers legislator from remote Arizona who spoke Gohmert. Now she’s the Arizona Republican Party Chair conspiring with Trump allies to overturn democracy.