On Tuesday, Jovan Pulitzer, the MAGA election fraud conspiracy theorist famous for coming up with the widely-mocked “bamboo ballots” fairy tale in Arizona and whom Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger mocked as a “failed treasure hunter” in response to his testimony to that’s state senate over alleged fraud there in late 2020, accused Michigan GOP co-chair Meshawn Maddock and her husband Michigan Rep Matt Maddock of running a racket. Pulitzer alleged Republican candidates for the state legislature pay the Maddocks in exchange for a recommendation to Trump for an endorsement. It’s not entirely clear that he’s alleging actual criminal bribery or racketeering as opposed to a grossly unethical but otherwise technically legal campaign fund shakedown:

#Mighigan Hey Jon Rocha why are you not sharing you BOUGHT your endorsement in MI How it works for $30k to $50k MI politicians will tell President Trump YOU are the one to endorse! They FOOL President Trump and YOU pay them to do it. All coming out soon the GIG IS UP! @MIGOP pic.twitter.com/i6mNGfOwJH

— JovanHuttonPulitzer™ (@JovanHPulitzer) November 23, 2021

Then Meshawn Maddock got into it with Pulitzer:

#Michigan citizens how do those running for Political office get their big endorsements? Is it true they are paid for? Is a Paid endorsement worth anything? @MIGOP really? @matthewmaddock @CoChairMeshawn please explain How many has this been done for? Why? Pay to pay over truth?

— JovanHuttonPulitzer™ (@JovanHPulitzer) November 23, 2021

(9) What I want to know Meshawn is why all who talk about having to "pay to get Mi GOP to get an endorsement from POTUS" always only mention YOU? Why is that? They don't even say Trump – they just say "it's a fee given to Meshawn" Why do they say that? Help me understand

— JovanHuttonPulitzer™ (@JovanHPulitzer) November 24, 2021

Now, putting aside the obvious “they always eat their own” laughs and the fact that we’re lending credence to a conspiracy theorist who came up with that bamboo ballots horseshit simply because we want to know more about what he’s saying this time, there is one point that sticks out: Of eight state-level legislative Republican candidates Trump has endorsed listed on Ballotpedia, five are from Michigan (Matt Maddock included), while the other three are in Texas. Considering there are over 7,600 state-level legislative seats in the United States and the Orange God Emperor wants full dominance over the Republican Party down to the lowliest of elected offices, that he’s only made eight endorsements for Republican candidates across two states and the majority of those are in Michigan is pretty remarkable. Maybe the Maddocks and Texas GOP chair Matt Rinaldi simply know how to kiss Trump’s ass and generate publicity better than the 48 other party chieftains.

But even that isn’t necessarily mutually exclusive with an actual racket. Some Republican state lawmakers are far more ostentatious in their displays of fanatic allegiance to the Orange Pharaoh – far more – and they haven’t been blessed with his endorsement. They may not actually need his endorsement electorally being in precision-gerrymandered seats, but who among them wouldn’t want it? Besides Matt Maddock, an incumbent, three of the other Republican candidates are gunning for open seats (Michigan has extremely high turnover due to term limits), and the fifth is primarying an incumbent. Jon Rocha, the USMC veteran and political newcomer mentioned in Pulitzer’s tweet above is primarying Congressman Peter Meijer, one of the doomed pro-impeachment Republicans in the US House. There was no way Trump wasn’t endorsing someone to challenge Meijer, and who knows what Rocha did to get it, but that’s almost a separate issue.

All of this is to say that yes, extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof and there’s no actual proof here. That said, even before you consider Pulitzer’s claims, the isolated nature of these state legislative endorsements indicates something weird is going on. The Detroit News reports these accusations are coming amid a civil war breaking out between MAGA factions in Michigan over dreams of another CyberNinjas-style “audit” there teetering, adding that Rocha is 43 days late submitting a petition to the state legislature to force them to consider such an “audit”.

Pure Michigan.