TEXAS GOVERNOR APPOINTS ONE OF DONALD TRUMP’S ATTORNEYS AS SEC. OF STATE

 

…Texas Governor, Greg Abbott shows that he is a serious partisan Republican

 

The new Texas Secretary of State will also oversee the governor’s reelection efforts

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) appointed John Scott, one of the attorneys who represented former president Donald Trump in his lawsuit challenging Pennsylvania’s 2020 election results.  As the new Texas secretary of state , Scott will be responsible for next year’s elections.  That includes the governor’s race where Abbot is running for reelection.

Abbott in his statement about the appointment praised Scott’s decades of experience in election law and litigation. When Abbott was attorney general, Scott served as a deputy attorney general.

“John understands the importance of protecting the integrity of our elections and building the Texas brand on an international stage,” the governor said. “I am confident that John’s experience and expertise will enhance his oversight and leadership over the biggest and most thorough election audit in the country.”

He is also probably confident that Scott will help wherever possible with his reelection.

The Texas Tribune first reported on the appointment.

The governor’s statement made no mention of Scott’s role in stating Trump’s baseless claims that widespread voter fraud rigged the 2020 election for President Biden.  Dozens of courts nationwide rejected the various lawsuits, with a Trump-appointed judge in Pennsylvania roundly rejecting the campaign’s challenge.

“Calling an election unfair does not make it so. Charges require specific allegations and then proof. We have neither here,” said Judge Stephanos Bibas, even though he is a Trump appointee to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.  He wrote this last November for a panel of three judges.  

As secretary of state, Scott will be Texas’s top election administration official. The Lone Star State has been without a top election official since May, when Ruth Hughs, the former secretary of state, resigned after the Senate refused to confirm her.  Scott will serve as interim secretary of state until he is up for confirmation by the legislature, which is scheduled to not meet again until 2023.  So, Scott could still do a lot of damage before he is even confirmed.  As a “cronie” of the governor, he is expected to be confirmed by the Texas Republican Senate.

Scott briefly represented Trump last November, signing on to represent the former president’s attempts to prevent Pennsylvania’s election results from being certified.  But he filed a motion to withdraw as a counsel for Trump just a few days later after agreeing with the plaintiffs that they would be best represented by different attorneys.

Abbott and other GOP officials in the state have increasingly come under criticism for backing legislation that critics say would make voting more difficult for many of the state’s minority residents.  (The latest figures state that the state has for the first time, the same number of white residents as Hispanic and Asian residents.) The governor claims that this new voting law is necessary in response to all the unproven concerns about voter fraud in 2020. However, there was no proof of “any” voter fraud in the 2020 election.  This is also despite the baseless claims from the former president and his call for audits in Texas and elsewhere to review last year’s election results. Trump won Texas, so why would he complain about Texas voter fraud?

Rose Clouston, the Texas Democratic Party voter-protection director, criticized the appointment.

“Texans deserve a chief election official who has dedicated their career to the protection of the right to vote and not one who participated in Trump’s lawsuits undercutting our democracy,” Clouston said in a statement.

This appointment is only one of other Republican states that are expected to nominate other “ringers” of those people that would want to mess with our elections.  It will only get worse before it gets caught.  The real issue is that it may cause the American public to stop trusting the results of our elections, regardless of whether the states certify the elections.

It ain’t over by a long shot.

Copyright G. Ater 2021