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Former prosecutor thinks New Mexico governor should go to prison

(AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

I’ve said that New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham should be removed from office. In the state, some are talking impeachment. I’m not going to lie, that would make me pretty happy.

After all, this is a governor who just took a steaming dump on the Constitution, and then pretends she’s the righteous one. It’s downright sickening. She needs to be held to account for her actions.

Impeachment is most definitely one way to do just that.

However, it’s apparently not the only option. I’m not a lawyer, but a former prosecutor offered up his suggestion that Grisham could be prosecuted under the same charge former President Donald Trump is dealing with.

Former prosecutor Andy McCarthy wrote a column this week suggesting New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham should face federal charges under the same statute the Justice Department is using to charge former President Donald Trump over her move to suspend constitutional gun rights in her state

In a National Review column Monday, McCarthy, a Fox News contributor and former assistant United States attorney for the Southern District of New York, explained that Section 241 of the federal penal code, which is being used by Special Counsel Jack Smith to charge Trump, could be used for Grisham.

“If two or more persons conspire to injure, oppress, threaten, or intimidate any person in any State, Territory, Commonwealth, Possession, or District in the free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege secured to him by the Constitution or laws of the United States, or because of his having so exercised the same[,] … [t]hey shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both,” the statute says.

McCarthy writes, “Obviously, Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham (D., N.M.) and her subordinates have conspired to injure, oppress, threaten, and intimidate Americans in New Mexico in the free exercise and enjoyment of their Second Amendment rights.

“Indeed, her acknowledgment that she expects to be challenged in court underscores both her criminal intent and the fact that the rights she has decided to ‘suspend’ are well established in constitutional law.”

I’ll admit, when I first heard about the possibility of prosecuting her, I thought it was an insane suggestion without a hope in hell of being viable.

But, well, I think McCarthy has a valid point here. I think there’s a better case of prosecuting her successfully than Trump, personally.

After all, Grisham most definitely didn’t do this on her own. She had to at least discuss it with staff, which meets the requirements of the law.

Now, will anyone actually prosecute her for this? I just don’t see it.

Impeachment will be a stretch, and I still think that’s the most viable option. That said, again, I’m not a lawyer. Maybe there’s someone who will look at this and decide to take the governor down a peg or twelve. After all, this was probably the worst political blunder we’ve seen in a while.

Grisham has shot herself in the foot and we’re all pointing at laughing at her.

Yet the potential for real harm existed. People could have died because they were barred from carrying lawfully by a governor who went well beyond her actual authority. She simply can’t be allowed to shrug and say that it was worth a shot.

That simply cannot be allowed.

If we’re going to have a law like that, then I’m not going to cry if someone uses it on her. The people of New Mexico deserve better. While they voted for Grisham, it’s unlikely they voted for her in order for her to do this kind of crap.

Especially when violent crime in Albuquerque was already in decline.

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