Oh boy, it looks like the Coleman legal team isn’t giving up on forgery.
Coleman attorney Joe Friedberg is going over rejected absentee ballot envelopes with Washington County elections official Kevin Corbid, and they came across a pair of ballots that came from a husband and wife, but all appeared to have all been signed by the same individual — apparently the husband signing his own name, and also forging his wife’s signature for her ballot.
“So based on Jake’s forging his wife’s signature on [exhibit] 210 and then witnessing his own forgery,” Friedberg said, “and comparing those signatures to the one on his voter envelope, we know based on your testimony that that’s his genuine signature accompanying his own ballot, right?”
The Franken camp objected, saying that Corbid’s opinion doesn’t matter — the document speaks for itself.
“I’m going to sustain that,” said Judge Denise Reilly, “also on the grounds that it’s really confusing.”
After a bit more back and forth, Friedberg explained that he is not trying to get the ballot counted for which he believes Jake Thompson forged his wife’s signature — he’s just trying to get Jake’s separate ballot counted, using the alleged forgery and the witness signature on his wife’s ballot for comparison with the handwriting on his own.
Reilly said that based on Friedberg’s explanation, she’s not as confused. Friedberg chuckled and replied, “I may play a recording back and see if I am, your honor.”
Friedberg previously championed the cause of a different individual whose girlfriend forged his signature on his ballot application, while he himself signed the ballot.
Note: It has been established that outside of specific legal exceptions for people who are physically unable to sign their own forms, it is a felony to have someone else forge a signature on a ballot or an application.
