Posted on 04/22/2016 4:30:18 PM PDT by markomalley
The founder of the conservative group Freedom Watch filed a lawsuit against the Republican National Committee and chairman Reince Priebus on Thursday, accusing the national party of “conspiring to defraud” GOP primary voters.
The lawsuit, filed by conservative activist Larry Klayman, also targets the Republican Party of Florida and Florida Secretary of State Ken Detzner, alleging that party leaders have colluded to deprive Donald Trump of his victory in the Sunshine State.
The lawsuit claims that national party leaders and Republican officials in Florida led voters to believe that the state’s 99 delegates would be bound to the winner for every ballot at a potential contested convention. “Defendants, each and every one of them, fraudulently held out to Florida voters, and the public at large, that their votes cast at the Florida Republican Presidential Primary would be counted and not nullified in nominating a presidential candidate,” the lawsuit reads.
“In fact, Defendants are conspiring to make delegates free to disregard the popular vote and support whichever candidate they desire after the first ballot of the Republican National Convention.”
Trump won the Florida primary in March and is entitled to all 99 of the state’s delegates through the first three ballots at the national convention in July. After that, the delegates are free to support whomever they choose.
Klayman alleged that the state party is seeking to reduce the delegates’ commitment to Trump from three ballots to only one.
Furthermore, he asserted that party leaders have arranged a system that allows them to bribe delegates to sway their votes.
“Unsurprisingly, Republican Party insiders, known colloquially as the 'Republican Establishment,’ have defrauded and engaged in election misconduct and thus illegally manipulated the election system to end up with a candidate that fits their own political and financial agendas,” the lawsuit states.
“As a result, the votes cast by Florida citizens and taxpayers are diluted, disenfranchised and nullified, and subsequently, Florida Republican voters are substantially deprived of their fundamental right to vote.”
RNC members are meeting this week in Florida to plan the GOP convention in July.
The meetings are closely watched as many are anticipating a contested convention, where alterations to the process could impact which candidate emerges as the nominee.
Klayman has a history of bringing lawsuits, mostly against Democrats.
He has sued Hillary Clinton for racketeering related to her use of a private email server, President Obama over his executive actions on guns and the nuclear deal with Iran, and the former head of the National Security Agency over violations of Americans’ constitutional rights.
Considering they solicit a lot of money, that type of fraud might be actionable. Klayman is smart.
EXCELLANT
Cruzers hardest hit!
Cruz was just toasTED yesterday.
When this turns into a media prairie fire, Cruz will be living ash.
It will take this and a few court appeals to drag him from the convention floor with his nails digging into the walls on the way out.
LOL!
ping to thread
yep...I jst saw it...Great!!!! That will cause GOPe nightmares.....
I was saying recently on FR, that this country club Republican Party has to be edging into RICO charges.
But the delegates ought to be people chosen for their loyalty to the candidate they are bound to. After the first three votes, if they start to think of compromise they ought be starting from the stand point of the voters that sent them there.
Just a Florida Freeper ping here.
I wonder how much OPP offers the delegates as a bribe?
Paul Ryan Schedules Party Fundraiser at Home of Anti-Trump Super-PAC Donor Billionaire family Joe and Marlene Ricketts, owners of the Chicago Cubs. They have recently given $5,000,000 to “Our Principles PAC“, an organization created exclusively to defeat Donald Trump.
Our Principles PAC is -——>organizing delegates and deploying a number of tactics with a goal of depriving Trump of as many delegates as possible in upcoming contests. OPP will focus on delegate wins, not individual state wins.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/3422146/posts
The GOP elites are definitely trying their level best to eliminate the American voter from this...If they are successful, it’ll be their LAST success EVER...They’ll cease to exist to the American people....
(1) Most of the things Klayman sues about take forever to get resolved. (2) Klayman will have to offer proof of his allegations in court. This is the first I have heard about Florida GOP leaders trying to change the rules from three ballots to one ballot, so I will wait until I can research the allegation from other sources.
They are trying to change the rules back to 1 binding ballot, but they will likely fail. As long as they abide by the rules for the convention, there is no harm. Klayman is threatening them with legal recourse to force them to uphold the rules.
What I was trying to figure out is who, except Klayman, is saying that Florida is trying to change the binding ballot number. I have not been able to find any other sources and I would like to look at a few more details.
Bind them to the candidate, for some reasonable number of votes, and let the CANDIDATE throw his delegates to another candidate if he sees he's not going to win.
I voted for a candidate, not a delegate.
This would be a fairer system. The only weakness is that it might still be a deadlock in the second phase. Maybe there could be a third phase if the candidates can't deadlock when throwing delegates, where the delegates can break it. But if so, those delegates better be people who were loyal to the candidate coming in, so I think should be chosen by the candidate and from the area they represent...what I find infuriating is this last principle being violated combined with the delegate having real deciding power, because as you said the people voted for a candidate--and that is like changing people's votes rather than just reaching a compromise in a simulated run-off.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.