Coleman Lawyer: “I Don’t Care About Your Procedures” — Count The Forger’s Ballot

Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

Norm Coleman is not giving up on forgery as a constitutional right.

Just now in court, Coleman attorney Joe Friedberg launched into an aggressive defense in the case of Douglas Thompson, the friendly Coleman witness from two days ago who said his absentee ballot should be counted even though his girlfriend forged his signature on the application. Thus, Thompson’s ballot was rejected because of a very real signature mismatch against his own signature on the ballot itself.

Friedberg didn’t directly mention Thompson by name, but he described the exact same situation. “Now suppose I said to Mr. Trimble [another Coleman lawyer], ‘Hey, I’m busy, could you sign an application for me, and send it in for me?’ I’m gonna get the ballot, aren’t I?” said Friedberg.

After some more back and forth, we got to this interesting exchange:

Friedberg: In point of fact, even though I did something I wasn’t supposed to do with the application, my ballot should still count because my signature is genuine.

Deputy Secretary of State Jim Gelbmann: Not according to the procedures we use to determine whether the signature is genuine.

Friedberg: I don’t care about your procedures.

(Franken lawyer calls an objection, is sustained.)

Friedberg: Okay, I do care…

Latest DC
Comments
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Associate Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: