On October 13, 2021, nine people from New Hampshire were arrested during a public Executive Council meeting run by Governor Chris Sununu. During the meeting, at least 32 New Hampshire State Troopers were present, with reportedly an additional 80, yes 80, waiting outside, as the crowd stood and turned their backs on Sununu in protest during the majority of the hearing. At one point, a man and a woman were asked to leave for a silently raising their hands in a praying gesture. No, that is not an exaggeration. It is documented here.
After the couple was asked to leave, they did so without any objection. Once taken outside to the waiting onslaught of excess Troopers, people from within the meeting saw them being arrested and began to rightfully ask what the cause was for their arrested. Next, AJ Todd was arrested for questioning the police. In total, seven others would be arrested, including AJ’s wife, Marylyn Todd, who was holding her sleeping infant child during the hearing. Todd was a prominent figure in the Windham election audit that took place earlier that year.
In total, the Troopers rounded up nine people, including a 70 year-old woman. According to the first woman arrested, Terese Grinnell Bastarache, the “protesters” were eventually charged with “disorderly conduct” but video evidence shows they were not given any warnings, and most were silently protesting when they were detained.
On Tuesday, June 25th, as President Trump was set to speak in the Granite State, the charges against Bastarache were dropped after she tried to subpoena the governor to testify, but the subpoena was quashed for “exceedingly late service.” The remaining charges against the others arrested would also be dropped in the days following.
The NH Journal tried to paint Bastarache, a Loudon Co nurse, as being an “anti-vax protester” (despite administering thousands of vaccines during her career) but conceded that “…the criminal complaint against her included the claim that she ‘recklessly uttered the word ‘Amen.'” NH Journal makes no other mentions of the charges other than calling the We the People group “unruly.” I guess they didn’t see the video referenced above and in other reporting of the event when it happened.
Sununu can be seen at several different points in the hearing doing something on his phone that appears to be send and receiving messages while giving subtle visual cues to someone out of view. Shortly following, there is a discussion between two Troopers and the arrests of Bastarche and Frank Staples take place. The Granite Grok has submitted open records request for any communications between the Troopers and Sununu during the meeting, but was told there are “no records responsive to your request.”
Americans need to watch the video linked above and see what a governor who weaponizes his law enforcement and tramples on citizens First Amendment Rights is capable of doing. The more than year long battle against these charges served to drag their names through the mud and accumulate tens of thousands of dollars in attorney fees to fight absurd charges by an unhinged executive official.
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