Conservative Power Brokers Are Spreading Lies Because They Can

Conservative power brokers range from deranged preachers and doctors to corrupt wealthy businessmen.

The one thing they have in common is refuting reality and replacing it with the Big Lie and other crazy conspiracies.

For instance, a conservative power broker, Dr. Steven Hotze, unsuccessfully sued to stop the extension of early voting in Texas for this year's election.

Hotze also sued officials in Harris County to limit in-person and absentee voting, making allegations without evidence that Democrats were engaged in "ballot harvesting" by gathering votes from individuals who are homeless or elderly.

This week Hotze has been charged with unlawful restraint and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon over an October incident involving a contractor he hired.

Hotze was indicted over allegations against a former police officer, Mark Aguirre, who worked for him.

It turns out that Aguirre had been retained to pursue a voter fraud investigation on behalf of his nonprofit organization, Liberty Center for God and Country.

Aguirre was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon after a man accused him of running him off the road and holding him hostage at gunpoint in an effort to prove what authorities have called a bogus voter fraud scheme.

According to court records Aguirre claimed that an air conditioning repairman's truck was filled with fraudulent ballots. 

The police report said that Aguirre and some friends had set up a "command post" at a Marriotte hotel in suburban Houston that conducted a 24-hour surveillance on the repairman for four days.

Aguirre went so far as to contact the Texas Attorney General's office to see if he could conduct a traffic stop for his investigation and "make a citizen's arrest," according to the affidavit.

He was told "not to do it," at which point he decided to run the man's truck off the road, pointed a gun at him, forced him to the ground and put a knee on his back.

When the police responded to the incident, they searched the truck and found only air conditioning parts and tools. After a lengthy investigation the police found no evidence of illegal ballots.

For the record, Aguirre was paid $266,400 by Liberty Center for God and Country.

The whole sordid affair - from a non-profit paying someone to do dirty work, to the Big Lie pushed from a so-called doctor is just one example of how a conservative power broker spreads lies because they can.

The Harris County District Attorney indicted Hotze this week for his scheme. A trial date has not been announced yet.