In a fiery volley with Wyoming’s secretary of state, a retired attorney asking a state judge to remove Donald Trump from the state’s election ballot is now warning the judge that she could suffer death threats if she sides with him.
Tim Newcomb issued the warning in a Wednesday response to filings by Secretary of State Chuck Gray in which he also urges Gray to resign.
Gray responded by calling Newcomb a "madman."
Newcomb and Gray have been sparring in back-and-forth court filings following Newcomb’s Nov. 1 petition asking Albany County District Court Judge Misha Westby to prevent former President Trump and U.S. Sen. Cynthia Lummis from appearing on the state’s election ballots ever again.
Gray is fighting the petition, arguing that Newcomb lacks standing in the lawsuit and doesn’t have a lawful argument anyway.
Newcomb’s Wednesday filing is his “final response” to Gray, it says. It urges Westby to set a hearing on the issues. Newcomb also claims in his filing that if Westby sides with him, others will threaten her over it.
“In candor to the Court, death threats — if the Court agrees with the Petitioner’s Verified Complaint … against the Court, her Honor, litigants, witnesses, staff personnel and their families, will come,” says Newcomb’s filing.
It then cites a 2015 Politico news story in which the outlet reported that then-presidential candidate Donald Trump said the U.S. government should “take out” Islamic State operatives’ families.
The filing also asks Gray to resign.
“The Secretary should resign immediately, in disgrace, for his attempt at stochastic terror against Wyoming’s Judiciary, thenapologize (sic) to the Court and its staff personnel,” reads the filing.
Another Flaming Arrow
Gray responded to Newcomb’s claims in a Thursday text to Cowboy State Daily.
“Mr. Newcomb’s screed reflects the ravings of a radical Left wing mad man,” wrote Gray. “Its (sic) another example of the tactics of lunatics of the radical Left with their outrageously wrong attempts at election interference.”
See The Footnotes
Responding to a Cowboy State Daily phone call requesting clarification, Newcomb said he could not give an official comment at this phase, but he referred the outlet to the footnotes on his filing.
The footnotes lead to a Dec. 7 press release by Gray’s office, in which the secretary of state called Newomb’s effort “outrageously wrong and repugnant to our electoral process” and a “radical attempt to interfere with Wyoming’s elections.”
Gray vowed to fight the petition, and said, “The weaponization of the Fourteenth Amendment to remove political opponents from the ballot undermines the sanctity of the Constitution.”
Wikipedia, YouTube, CNN
The other footnotes lead to:
- A Monday CNN story reporting threats made against the Colorado Supreme Court Justices who ruled last week to remove Trump from the 2024 presidential ballot.
- A Wikipedia definition for “stochastic terrorism.”
- A federal statute barring conspiracy to threaten or intimidate people who are exercising their rights.
- The homepage of the Wyoming Court Security Commission.
- And a YouTube video featuring an interviewer questioning a source about reported “threats to public officials.”
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
