New Mexico's Attorney General Declines to Prosecute Trump Fake Electors – The Messenger
New Mexico’s Democratic Attorney General Raul Torrez said Friday that he will not be prosecuting a group of voters in the state who posed as fake electors in a failed plot to overturn presidential voter results for Donald Trump.
Torrez called it “disgraceful that New Mexicans were enlisted in a plot to undermine democracy and thwart the peaceful and orderly transfer of power.”
But he said that their “misconduct is not subject to criminal prosecution under current state law."
Under existing law, "this "conditional language prevents the filing of criminal charges against the fake electors and others associated with New Mexico's false certificate for two reasons," Torrez explained.
The State Attorney General’s Office began investigating the electors this year after federal authorities failed to issue a determination over whether they acted illegally, according to a statement.
The investigation discovered that Trump’s team and his 2020 campaign provided a fake certificate and instructions for completing and submitting it. But the document would only be valid in the state if the electors were later found to be legitimate.
Torrez’s office issued a 29-page report on its investigation and requested that Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) ask the State Legislature to amend its election code to allow prosecutors “greater latitude to prosecute these types of cases in the future.”
“Given the extraordinary threat that this type of misconduct poses to our democracy, it is essential that the New Mexico legislature amend the election code to provide clear legal authority for prosecuting similar misconduct in the future and enhance the security of the electoral process,” the report stated.
Torrez specifically recommended deeming acting as a fake elector a crime, and expanding the state crime of falsifying election documents to include additional documents and erase an “unnecessary” mental state requirement.