A former Houston police captain was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon on Tuesday after allegedly driving a man off the road and pointing a gun at him.
According to a report by The Associated Press, former officer Mark Aguirre was convinced that a local repairman was behind a large-scale imaginary election fraud.
Aguirre allegedly rammed his vehicle into the unnamed man’s truck and forced him off the road, before holding him at gunpoint until police showed up and took Aguirre into custody.
He reportedly told investigators that he believed the man was behind a large-scale ballot collection scheme and that they would find thousands of illegal ballots in the man’s truck; a search of the vehicle only revealed tools and various repair materials.
A lieutenant from the Texas Attorney General’s office added that the incident occurred after Aguirre demanded that state police step in and stop the man’s truck, which they refused to do.
“The defendant stated that (the driver) has about seven hundred and fifty thousand fraudulent postal ballots and uses Spanish children to sign the ballots because the children’s fingerprints would not appear in any database,” Aguirre’s arrest statement said.
Aguirre, who has received more than a quarter of a million dollars from a local right-wing group led by activist Steven Hotze, has claimed innocence through a lawyer.
The attorney argued that his client was conducting a lawful investigation even though Aguirre is not a member of law enforcement and has no authority to conduct investigative proceedings.
“I think it’s a political prosecution. Really,” Aguirre’s attorney Terry Yates said, according to the AP. “He was working investigating voter fraud, and an accident happened. A member of the car got out and rushed towards him and there the confrontation took place. It’s very different from what you mention in the affidavit. ‘
Election officials across the country have called death threats from supporters of President Trump
Donald Trump Top Trump Assistant Derek Lyons Leaves White House This Month Judge Rules Trump Org Must Hand Over Documents to NY AG as Part of Probe Long-time GOP Strategist Steve Schmidt Announces Registering Democrat MORE In recent days, the president has refused to accept the results of the 2020 election, claiming that the results were compromised by widespread voter fraud. However, there is no substantial evidence that fraud occurred on this scale.
The election results were finalized this week by the vote of the electoral college, confirming the president-elect Joe Biden
Joe BidenDeVos urges education department staff to ‘resist’ when Biden takes office LGBTQ groups celebrate Buttigieg pick for Transportation secretary Biden administration needs two-pronged solutions for older Americans, lawmakers say MORE‘s presidential victory.
Pro-Trump attorneys in several states have made legal attempts to reverse the state’s election results since the election, without success so far.