Mellissa Carone, a Michigan woman who participated in the push to prove that imaginary election fraud was responsible for Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential election victory, has been disqualified from running for a state House seat in her home state because of signing an affidavit that falsely represented her campaign finance status. For Carone to have been disqualified for signing off on what amounted to a false claim about her state legislative campaign is certainly striking considering her role in spreading nonsensical claims about the 2020 presidential election. In short, she can’t be trusted, even though she claimed it was others who weren’t trustworthy.
In case your timeline is being flooded with takes about Ginni Thomas, we're here to remind you that it is not normal that Ginni Thomas was involved in Trump's efforts to overturn the election and Justice Thomas's failure to recuse from Jan. 6 cases is a threat to our democracy.
— Citizens for Ethics (@CREWcrew) April 2, 2022
In 2020, she’d been a contractor for the elections tech company Dominion Voting Systems at what was then known as the TCF Center in Detroit, where workers counted absentee ballots from city residents. Carone alleged that she observed thousands of absentee ballots getting counted multiple times, which was obviously nonsense that wasn’t supported by verifiable evidence. Carone signed an affidavit in which she laid out fraud allegations for some of the wide-ranging post-election litigation, and she also testified at a hearing in Michigan on the nonsensical fraud allegations alongside Rudy Giuliani. The deceptive affidavit Carone signed that led to her disqualification from running for a state legislative seat in Michigan claimed that all her required campaign finance filings had been made and any late fees associated with campaign finance reports were dealt with. But, Carone actually had “unpaid late filing fees of $50 and $75 and had been notified that her campaign had failed to file its end-of-year fundraising disclosure, according to state records,” as The Detroit News explains of the point when she signed the affidavit.
Jared Kushner's Jan. 6 Committee interview lasted more than six hours. A source tells NBC News that Kushner was cooperative and friendly, adding that he did the talking, as opposed to having his lawyers speak for him. @NBCNews
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) April 1, 2022
It’s unclear that even if Carone were to succeed in a challenge that she’s announced against the disqualification that she’d come anywhere near a state House seat. Her opponent in the Republican primary race for the state legislative seat she’s hoping to obtain is apparently Joseph Aragona, a current deputy supervisor in Harrison Township, Michigan — who, at first glance, seems more in touch with reality than whatever it is that Carone is doing. The Detroit News says that, according to Carone, “Macomb County staffers advised her to sign the affidavit because it likely wouldn’t be submitted to the Michigan Bureau of Elections until the end of the week, after she’d resolved her campaign finance issues.” Obviously, she’s not exactly trustworthy. Macomb County Clerk Anthony Forlini has stated that once “a candidate signs the affidavit of identity, there is no provision in the statute for a candidate to correct a false statement made under oath on that affidavit… I spoke with our legal counsel and we confirmed that our position is consistent with the way that the state of Michigan handles these matters.”
A Wisconsin judge has ordered one of the state's top Republican lawmakers, Assembly speaker Robin Vos, to be held in contempt after he failed to produce records from an investigation he had launched into the 2020 election.
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) April 1, 2022
Among other details, Carone’s campaign seemingly accidentally filed its aforementioned end-of-year report as another sort of document. Making a false statement on the affidavit Carone signed could be deemed a felony perjury offense, although election lawyer and former Michigan Democratic Party chair Mark Brewer suggested to The Detroit News that Carone could file an updated affidavit before an upcoming candidate filing deadline. Check out more at this link.
What the former President did in asking Vladimir Putin, again, for dirt on Trump’s political opponent is unAmerican and immoral. @RepJimmyGomez and I also believe it is illegal. Here is our criminal referral letter to the Department of Justice. pic.twitter.com/rlAfpyPQus
— Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) April 1, 2022
