During this Saturday’s Colorado Republican assembly, which saw election-conspiracist candidates like Mesa County Clerk and Recorder Tina Peters and Rep. Ron Hanks (R-Cañon City) get top billing on June’s primary ballot, Rep. Patrick Neville (R-Castle Rock), seconded a motion to nominate FEC United founder Joe Oltmann for governor.
Joe Oltmann, the Douglas County podcast host and two time Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year nominee who is named as a defendant alongside Sidney Powell, Rudy Giuliani, and Michelle Malkin, among others, in the defamation suit brought by former Dominion Voting Systems executive Eric Coomer, has been sanctioned by the court for nearly $33,000 for failing to appear for a scheduled deposition and failing to answer questions during a deposition. Oltmann’s lawyers, Andrea Hall and Ingrid DeFranco, were also sanctioned as part of the court order filed on Tuesday. The sanctions are a part of the defendants’ anti-SLAPP motion, and are unrelated to any damages that could be assessed if the lawsuit moves forward.
El Paso County Coroner Dr. Leon Kelly very nearly missed the ballot for the November 2022 ballot, thanks to what he says was intentional “manipulation” of the assembly process in El Paso County.
For voters who haven’t paid attention to the ongoing drama in the El Paso County Republican Party, the fervor and turmoil of the 2021 school board elections, and the growing influence of the far-right political activist group FEC United, Saturday’s Republican Assembly, which selected the candidates to appear on the ballot for the June primary election, was probably something of a shock.
The United American Defense Force (UADF), a controversial Colorado group may be an illegal militia, prohibited by provisions in both Colorado statute and the U.S. Constitution, according to a national legal expert.
“This is not about Republican and Democrat,” Mesa County, Colorado, Clerk Tina Peters told the audience of election conspiracists. “They try to make it so it seems they’re dividing one party against the other, but it’s not that at all. It’s the globalists who have their thumb on the scales. … So it’s important for us to bring everybody into the fold to let them know what’s going on.”
Another campaign finance complaint has been leveled against the El Paso County, CO, Republican Party, this one accusing Chair Vickie Tonkins of performing a “knowingly fraudulent filing” of a $1,000 donation to conservative activist group FEC United, which promotes election conspiracies.
Nearly a dozen protesters gathered outside The Rock church in Castle Rock Sunday to protest the church’s hosting of an FEC United “emergency” town hall on Feb. 10 where election conspiracists said elected officials involved in election fraud “deserve to hang.”
The leader of a Colorado-based militia says some businesses impacted by the Marshall Fire are paying his members to provide security at their locations. John Tiegen leads the United American Defense Force (UADF), the militia division of far-right conspiracist group FEC United.
All four candidates for Douglas County sheriff are Republicans facing off in a primary next June, and while their experience in law enforcement and ties to the community are similar, the difference — to the advantage or detriment — could come from FEC United, a conservative advocacy group with its militia arm, United American Defense Force (UADF), and founder and leader of the group, Joe Oltmann.
