13h Heading to the courthouse to hear the verdict! Expect tightened security in the area of New York Avenue and an influx of press in the area on Tuesday. But this is also a man who beat a "Mom and Pop business" that has 5 kids out of thousands of dollars. "I've had my own family say. He is still facing federal charges. Griffin has acknowledged using the county building for promotional videos but said he never claimed they were . Ron DeSantis by about 15 points in a new Republican presidential poll, with newly announced candidate Nikki Haley and former Vice . I got a better idea. Where I need peoples support is to show up and stand shoulder to shoulder in Alamogordo for this trial. It is being investigated by State Auditor Brian Coln after complaints prompted concerns about the procurement process. For all his bombast and showmanship, Griffin's fortunes and conviction seem to be waning. The election was stolen from me, and then you just walk away? He raised this the first time the president called him. He perpetuates the former president's false claim that the 2020 elections were fraudulent. Hear their stories. I think that, if that would have been the case, then I would have been charged with that in the United States federal court where this case should be.. Clements, who was born in Seattle, grew up the child of itinerant parents who worked blue-collar jobs. ", Oliver also said that if the audit did become a blueprint that other counties followed, "that would be even more concerning than the situation we're already dealing with.". "I was raised in the shadow of a great man," he said. The January 6th attack and the events surrounding it constituted an insurrection against the government and Constitution of the United States as defined by the 14th Amendment, the suit alleges. So whats the solution?. But when it was operational, it offered options to donate to the organization by direct donation or by purchasing merchandise. Griffin has cast Democratic Gov. Cowboys for Trump cofounder Couy Griffin is confronting a trial by jury on charges that he. Griffin said David Clements knows what hes talking about and that he is the kind of expert Griffin wants to explain complicated voting systems to him, rather than the election officials in his own county. Because I want to make sure our voices are accurately captured. However, the new evidence . Weve never experienced a national coup, he told the crowd, standing before red, white and blue signs strung up alongside a bingo board. Hes dined with Trump and Mike Lindell, the chief executive of MyPillow and high-profile election fraud conspiracist. But luck may have run out for this cowboy pastor who rode to national political fame by embracing President Donald Trump with a series of horseback caravans and came crashing down with a defiant stand Jan. 6 against President Joe Bidens election. Clements, who has no formal training or background in election systems, spent months crisscrossing the back roads in his home state of New Mexico in a battered Buick, trying to persuade local leaders not to certify election results. "Cowboys for Trump" co-founder Couy Griffin speaks to reporters as he arrives at federal court in Washington on June 17, 2022. . The Cowboys for Trump website was not operational Feb. 13. A jury will consider this week whether the support group . ", But despite conversations with a Department of Agriculture official, nothing happened. He had hoped the president would address some problems with the forest near the town of Cloudcroft, which is at risk for fire. He has sent out a public plea in an attempt to win in the court of public opinion, by garnering a large showing of supporters, shoulder to shoulder to appear at the Otero County Courthouse. Holmes has grown so disheartened by the couples oft-repeated allegations that she has stopped coming to meetings unless asked for. (Those findings were comprehensively rejected by the Maricopa County Elections Department.). John Block voted against job creation. Its like hes been radicalized somehow. The officers call Griffin over and the traffic stop gets ugly. 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.". As news of the attack came, he was in his cabin in the mountains of New Mexico with his wife and three young children. , Case dismissed for teen accused of taking gun to, Elderly man who killed sister takes plea deal, 2023 state basketball tournament brackets, Whats happening around New Mexico Feb. 24 Mar. 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. He sees. Griffin went to court over the seatbelt ticket where he was ordered to pay the $81 fine. The Otero controversy is far from over. 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. Today, Couy Griffin is divorced, disparaged by family and confronts a political recall drive, a state corruption investigation and federal charges. The motion said Couy Griffin "has. A disdain for central government set in early, when conservation laws affected the family business. He said commissioners are expected to approve funding for that next week. He said he went to pray and exercise his right to peacefully protest, but he was arrested for his involvement. Today, Couy Griffin is divorced, disparaged by family and confronts a political recall drive, a state corruption investigation and federal charges. In a conversation with The Associated Press, Griffin says he learned to love the spotlight during five years as an expert rodeo hand in a Wild West show at Paris Disneyland park. SANTA FE, N.M. - A New Mexico state district court judge has disqualified county commissioner and Cowboys for Trump co- founder Couy Griffin from holding public office for engaging . The claim that the volunteer canvassers found dozens of ghost voters at one address turned out to reference the Post Office box at a nearby military base. Distraught that Bidens victory would be validated by Congress despite the insurrection, he has said that he ran outside and fell on his knees, next to the fire pit. "And I really thought that the president was going to come through on his end, and unfortunately, he never did. Colorado State slices up Lobos; UNM is a 6 To say that defense was optional would imply is was a choice. Cowboys for Trump still owes the New Mexico Secretary of State's Office $7,800 in fines. He continued per the sent email; I believe another motivation for this charge is that by forcing me to register as a c-corp or non-profit it will force me to disclose all financials to the state and by doing that they will be able to unmask any past supporters of Cowboys for Trump to only destroy them with the same vindictiveness that they have come at me with. "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. So who is the leader here today? Swanson asked. 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. Couy Dale Griffin (born 1973) is a former politician who served from 2019 to 2022 as a county commissioner for District 2 of Otero County, New Mexico, which covers Tularosa, Three Rivers, La Luz, the western parts of Alamogordo, and the Mescalero Apache Reservation.In September 2022, Griffin was removed from office under the Disqualification Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United . Updated: March 23, 2022 - 2:43 PM. U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden sentenced Griffin in June to 14 days imprisonment, but credited him for 20 days he served in jail after his arrest. Griffin's term as county commissioner is up this year, and he has said he will not run again. A New Mexico state judge on Thursday ordered convicted Capitol rioter Couy Griffin to be removed from his county commissioner seat, ruling that the Cowboys for Trump founder's involvement in the . Couy's ex-wife, Kourtnie, is a 34 years old Iraqi war veteran who was born in the year 1986. Liz Howard, Senior Counsel at the Brennan Center for Justice, said that contractors hired to do these audits frequently have little to no experience in election administration. A group of prominent constitutional attorneys filed a friend-of-the-court brief on Aug. 1 arguing that Griffin should be removed from office. Couy Griffin, the founder of the Cowboys for Trump group, appeared to turn on the former president during a QAnon event in Las Vegas. Former Otero County Commissioner and well-known rabble-rouser Couy Griffin was pulled over in Alamogordo in his Dodge Ram in early November. Why dont you go back to Africa and form your little football teams. Griffin said he is confident the judge will dismiss the lawsuit. In what he described as a mission, he traveled on horseback from San Francisco to New York, and then across Europe and the Mediterranean to Jerusalem, arriving in 2008 after more than two years on the road. Still, the audit rumbles on, and could yet have widespread implications. Asked for comment, Erin Clements sent a video of Democratic lawmakers raising concerns about election security. But the project seems confusing at first glance, given that Trump won in Otero County. And yet he remains determined. Griffin has suggested that voting machines provided by Dominion Voting Systems across New Mexico could have been hacked. I take the seatbelts very serious just because the amount of crashes weve both seen.Griffin: What is it? I am already bracing for a media frenzy during this time because there is so much on the line. FILE - Otero County, New Mexico Commissioner Couy Griffin speaks to reporters as he arrives at federal court in Washington, June 17, 2022. Clementss strategy is to target his message locally: to county commissioners and clerks, jobs that are lower profile but that wield an outsize role in administering Americas decentralized election system. Griffin is presumed innocent until proven guilty. He says his obsession with politics has taken a toll, contributing to his 2019 divorce and tensions with relatives. 1998 - 2023 Nexstar Media Inc. | All Rights Reserved. Officer: Reason why I stopped you, is I observed when you were back there and you werent wearing your seatbelt. 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. Clements is one among a tightknit circle of Trump supporters who travel the country as self-appointed election fraud evangelists. He sees. The donut shop has announced it has closed its South Valley and Northeast Heights locations. What is relevant is what our state government is doing to anyone who still believes in basic rights as a free American. KOB-TV, LLC I dont have the same confidence in him, Griffin said. Given his intelligence and accomplishments, the fact that hes decided to pursue this provably false theory is tragic and surprising, said Chris Luchini, the head of the Libertarian Party of New Mexico and a former colleague of Clements. In at least one case detailed in the affidavit, Griffin paid his ex-wife $350.00 from Cowboys for Trump LLC to cover his child support obligations. Kourtnie Griffin, an Iraqi war veteran, understands "passions for God and country" and believes her ex-husband has a right to express his views, her lawyers said. Otero County commissioners in July rejected Griffins request for taxpayer-funded legal representation in the lawsuit. I dont have the money to go up against those kind of people, Griffin said Friday. Officer: Im going to issue a citation for the seatbelt. "I wanted to go from just being a voice to having a vote.". 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. And I said, well, you're gonna know exactly where it's at whenever the forest catches on fire around there, because it's gonna burn the whole town down. Griffin participated in, encouraged, and promoted the January 6, 2021, attack on the United States Capitol, the suit alleges. Im a child of the trailer park. The effort sparked a voter intimidation inquiry by the House Oversight Committee. Banned from Washington until testimony or trial, Griffin has returned to the routines of home in a tidy double-wide trailer in Tularosa, working most days as a stone mason. Brittany Costello: Do you personally have any of those videos? ALAMOGORDO, N.M. (KRQE) New video shows former County Commissioner Couy Griffin getting pulled over and getting into it with police officers. Manage the news you want to see, read exclusive content and explore other subscriber benefits. Some extra notes, quotes, news and notes from the Lobos Friday night basketball game in Fort Collins, Colorado. The couple soon found an ally in Couy Griffin, a flamboyant former Disneyland Paris rodeo cowboy who until this week was a member of the county commission in Otero, a rural New Mexico community. 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Should Griffin be found guilty of the charge, he could be punished by a fine of up to $1,000 or by up to a year imprisonment, court records state. Couy Griffin Net Worth Couy Griffin has an estimated Net Worth of $1Million in 2022. Mr Griffin, the founder of Cowboys for Trump, said in an interview with journalist Mr Griffin that he believed both Sicknick and Ashli Babbitt are still alive. He takes things and extrapolates them to a place that comes completely out of thin air. Still, loyal constituents are easy to come by in a rural county steeped in the anti-establishment, pro-gun culture that dominates southern New Mexico. It makes me sick whenever I watch it.". NELIGH, Neb. Trump won there in 2020 with 73% of the vote. 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. Thus the State Attorney General filed the lawsuit and a trail by jury was ordered. Friday night on, Senate Bill 2 would bring the pay of state Supreme Court justices in line with. Later, he served as the vice chair for legal affairs of the states Libertarian party. The Couy Griffin Interview concerning the trial can be heard following the advertisement in the KALH Radio AlamogordoTownNews.com archives as the lead story following the weather report. Pacing the room at the senior center in Neligh, microphone in hand, Clements put the matter in stark terms. New Mexico and ABQ News, Sports, Business and more, By Olivier Uyttebrouck / Journal Staff Writer Ive had my own family say some pretty nasty things, Griffin said. Today, Couy Griffin is divorced, disparaged by family and confronts a political recall drive, a state corruption investigation and federal charges. 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. They embrace the instructions of leaders like former Trump adviser turned podcaster Stephen K. Bannon, who has urged election deniers to run for local races and sign up to be poll workers in what he calls his precinct-by-precinct takeover strategy. A recent report from congressional Democrats on election misinformation highlighted Clementss activities and concluded that the greatest current threat to democratic legitimacy now comes from lies by domestic actors who seek to convince Americans that their election systems are fraudulent, corrupt, or insecure., New Mexico Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver, who has clashed repeatedly with Clements and his wife, said the misinformation and disinformation were being seeded as core beliefs, not just with elected officials but the general public.. ", Griffin and his two fellow commissioners voted to conduct the audit despite concerns about its legality noted by County Attorney R.B. "When they come up with these conspiracy theories, it really confuses the voters, and we have a hard enough time getting our voters out to vote as it is," she said. 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. Shows how clueless you really are. This Otero County election review is part of a nationwide trend. Early in his life, he struggled with drugs, alcohol and an assault conviction, he has said. However he is on probation from the guilty verdict related to the participant and in the capital events of January 6th thus the stakes are now significantly higher. Griffin said hes been offered two plea deals, which he has turned down.