Imagining Steven Hotze As The Baby Screaming "Help Me!"

Breaking: GOP activist Steven Hotze was indicted Wednesday on two felony charges related to his alleged involvement in a repairman being held at gunpoint in 2020 during a search for fraudulent mail ballots that did not exist. https://t.co/8bKjB66Qt4

— Texas Tribune (@TexasTribune) April 20, 2022

Steve Hotze is the guy behind this insanity from several years back.

That was the year the entire Democratic slate of district judges (highest level of trial court in Texas) for the county was elected:  all black women.  I'm still surprized Hotze didn't plotz over that one.

He's also the guy who sued the city for shutting down the Texas GOP convention in the city-owned convention center.  He went to the Texas Supreme Court on that one.  He lost every step of the way.

This new story goes back to December over a year ago (I have archives, I'm not afraid to use them).  Here's the version from the Tribune article:

The charges stem from Hotze’s hiring of more than a dozen private investigators to look for voter fraud in Harris County ahead of the 2020 presidential election.

One of the investigators, former Houston police captain Mark Aguirre, was arrested in December 2020 and charged with aggravated assault. Prosecutors said Aguirre used his vehicle to run an air conditioning repairman off the road before dawn on Oct. 19, 2020.

Aguirre then detained the repairman at gunpoint and ordered an associate to search his truck, according to court filings. When a Houston police officer happened upon the scene and stopped to investigate, Aguirre said the truck contained 750,000 fraudulent mail ballots prepared by Democrats.

The truck contained only air conditioning parts and equipment. Hotze’s investigators have not produced any credible evidence to support allegations that Democrats orchestrated a wide-ranging mail ballot scheme in Harris County during that election.

Yes, "ahead of the 2020 presidential election."  Any voting by Democrats is inherently fraudulent, you know. And: "Hotze’s investigators have not produced any credible evidence to support allegations that Democrats orchestrated a wide-ranging mail ballot scheme in Harris County during that election" just proves how good the Democrats are at pulling off their fraud.  Why they aren't this effective in the rest of the state remains a mystery.

So, Aquirre's actions were insane on a very large level; like the guy who invaded Comet Pizza to find not only no kids, but no basement.  The connection to Hotze is the interesting part, and so far, he doesn't present a very good defense on the facts:

Polland said the charges against Hotze are “outrageous” and his client had no knowledge of the roadside incident until he read media reports of Aguirre’s arrest. He said Aguirre asked Hotze for funds to investigate alleged election fraud, Hotze agreed, and that was the extent of his involvement in Aguirre’s affairs.

“All I know is Hotze didn’t aid or abet this in any way,” Polland said. “The donation of funds was for a righteous activity of rooting out ballot fraud.”

Grand jury subpoenas in Aguirre’s case show that Hotze paid Aguirre $266,400. Most of that sum, $211,400, was paid to Aguirre on the day after the alleged holdup. (emphasis in original)

I don't know about you, but I'd like to get paid over $250,000 for just following random trucks around.  I'd skip the actual ramming one to pull it over and threatening the driver at gunpoint to open the back doors.  If Hotze is so free with his money as to hand it over to random people even after he knows they've been arrested for criminal assault charges, maybe he needs my e-mail address or something.  Sounds like I just need to talk nuts to him.

If that's the story.  Somehow I don't think the grand jury thought it was.  Which is not to say Hotze is guilty of the charges.  But he ain't a babe in the woods either, or a kindly old man handing out large sums to strangers because he's so charitable.  The grand jury seems to think dropping 200 large on Aguirre the day after the incident (and two months before the arrest) indicates some knowledge and approval of Aguirre’s actions. And Hotze is quite sure Democrats are only winning in Texas because of fraud (how the Republicans overcome that fraud in so much of the state is not explained).

Hotze, however, plans to continue monitoring election activity in Houston. At a “Freedom Gala” fundraiser Hotze hosted on April 2 with Attorney General Ken Paxton, Hotze said donations would be used to investigate voter fraud in Texas.

Also attending the event was Mike Lindell, the MyPillow CEO who has promoted the baseless theory that former President Donald Trump was the rightful winter [sic] [but metaphorically sound] of the 2020 presidential election.

Polland said Hotze does not plan to alter his plans because of the indictments.

The rest of us hope the indictment will alter his plans for him.