Last Updated on November 12, 2022
A tense situation exploded in New Mexico at the Otero County Commission meeting Thursday when Couy Griffin faced off with the woman appointed by Democrat Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham to replace him after he was forced from office by three Democrat activists.
“Evening, morning, commissioners. Couy Griffin – duly elected and legitimate county commissioner of District 2. As well as founder of Cowboys For Trump, and I’d like to just start out by saying, looking up here at you, Stephanie, in this seat, is a total disgrace,” Griffin said.
“That face-off between Griffin and Stephanie DuBois, who’s been in the seat since October – just a month after a judge ruled Griffin could no longer hold office because of his involvement in the January 6 Capitol event,” local KRQE reported.
The circumstances of what happened to cause Griffin to be forced out should be important to the American people because if what happened to him stands, every ‘America First’ officeholder in America is in the crosshairs of a radical anti-American activist.
Griffin survived as a duly elected Commissioner from a recall effort in 2021, when leftists targeted him after being arrested for participating in the rally for President Donald J. Trump on Jan. 6th, 2021, and he survived being made to stand trial for walking into an unlawful zone of the Lawn at the US Capitol, being charged with a misdemeanor trespass, which is under appeal.
Griffin stood trial and faced the consequences of that day only to months later be removed from office as a New Mexico Commissioner due to a Quo Warranto lawsuit brought against him by Democrats, who claimed he had participated in an ‘”insurrection,” and who don’t even live in the county where Griffin was elected- so they had no damages.
The Quo Warrento grievance was that Griffin participated in an ‘insurection’ and was not fit for office. The trial details are shocking to see happening in an American courtroom, as the judge shamed Griffin for doing his job as instructed and evaluated the legality of certifying the 2020 vote.
The judge claimed that Griffin doing that caused damage to the whole state, therefore allowing the case to move ahead.
Mathew appeared to have made up his mind about the charges. He was hostile while demanding information on how Griffin knew to call a motion to squash, claiming that a friend of Griffin’s who helped him find information on how to make a motion to squash was practicing law without a license and was being referred for disciplinary action by the court.
After Mathew denied the motion, Griffin made his comments saying:”Your Honor, in regards to the matter that’s before us today, as you know in a civil lawsuit, the Plaintiffs must have an injury. And in this case, the Plaintiffs, two reside in Santa Fe County, and one lives in Los Alamos County. So my position as a County Commissioner in Otero County has no influence or injury to the Plaintiffs that are ascribed in this lawsuit today. That in itself should be grounds for removal because there is no injury to the Plaintiffs.
As well as I have already been through the federal system. I have already been through a criminal trial.
And in that trial, I was acquitted of anything that was disorderly or disruptive on January 6. The only charge that I was convicted of was a misdemeanor trespass charge.
Through this lawsuit today, I feel like I’m reliving this all over again. My actions on January 6 were well inside the bounds of the Constitution, and everything that I did on that day I felt I had full right as a free American to do. The misdemeanor trespass charge, I right now have under appeal in the federal system because the area in which I crossed was no posted. There was no signs. There was no indicators that
was even off-limits, let alone an unauthorized zone.”
Your Honor, for the record, I would just like to point to the fact that, as the Plaintiffs point to
an insurrection, there has not been one individual to date charged with insurrection. This lawsuit
is about removing a duly-elected County Commissioner from office through the civil courts. You’re — by allowing this case to move forward, you are going to set very dangerous precedence moving forward.”
Read more about the lawsuit here: Aug152022final (1) Aug162022final (1)
Griffin went on and pointed out that he only had a few months left in his term and did not plan on running for re-election:
“If am removed from office and Governor Michelle Grisham gets to hand-select who she wants to sit in my place and represent the people of Otero County, it would be a great sign of disrespect for the people Otero County and it would subvert the will of the people of Otero County, and it wouldn’t be good. It
wouldn’t be productive. It would be hurtful. It would be very hurtful to the people there.
I’ve got four months left or five months or however long. And believe me, they can’t come quick enough. I’m not running for reelection. I don’t know if I’ve physically got the stamina to go four more years. I don’t know if I can handle another four. This last four has been hard, but the political battles have been hard. It’s been an honor. And it’s an honor to speak before you today, and I thank you for giving me the time to be able to speak.”
In the end the judge removed Griffin from office.
“A New Mexico judge ordered Otero County Commissioner Couy Griffin be removed from office, effective immediately, ruling that the attack on the Capitol was an insurrection and that Griffin’s participation in it disqualified him under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment. This decision marks the first time since 1869 that a court has disqualified a public official under Section 3, and the first time that any court has ruled the events of January 6, 2021 an insurrection.
Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, also known as the Disqualification Clause, bars any person from holding federal or state office who took an “oath…to support the Constitution of the United States” as an “officer of any State” and then “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” or gave “aid or comfort” to insurrectionists. Griffin, as an Otero County Commissioner since January 2019, took an oath to “support and uphold the Constitution and laws of the State of New Mexico, and the Constitution of the United States,” Citizens for Ethics reported.
“I feel like I was railroaded,” Griffin told National File about the way he was treated in court. “I made it through a recall effort, and they still removed me with this lawsuit, even after I had already stood trial for what happened on January 6th. I feel like I was tried twice for the same things.”
Griffen made the legal documents of that trial available to National File, and the contents are shocking, showing an out-of-control judge and a purely political hit job on Griffin, who was removed from his office to make way for a more liberal agenda.
One community member who voted for him and supported Griffin through his trials told National File she was suspicious of the way he was removed right before a vote on the use of Dominion machines for the 2022 midterm election. Griffin would have been a vote against the machines, so removing him appeared suspicious she said.
“I think the trial was ridiculous and we have a group of activists who are very upset about what happened to Couy and the way he was treated. We elected him, and now our representation has been stolen from us. The whole country needs to pay attention to this lawsuit,” Marsha Sterman told National File, adding:
“Since he was removed from office what has happened in this county is newsworthy. There is so much going on as a result of him being removed that needs to be told.”
Some people believe that Griffin’s case could be used to keep President Donald J. Trump from office as well.
Griffin is appealing the judge’s ruling barring him from office.
