Mellissa Carone
If the 2020 election still seems complicated and surreal, it's only because it is. It's not your meds -- really.
For starters, there's Mellissa Carone, the infamous 33-year-old Grosse Pointe Woods mom who testified last week at the behest of Rudy Giuliani at a hearing in Lansing on alleged voter fraud. Carone started spewing unfounded allegations of fraud, and came off as a bit unhinged, according to critics.
Two days later, Deadline Detroit reported she had gotten into trouble in 2018 with Southgate Police after she sent her then-boyfriend's ex-wife graphic videos of the two of them having sex. She was accused of harassing the ex-wife and eventually pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor.
She remains in the limelight, at least for now.
The DailyMail.com reports that Carone's affidavit about voter fraud allegations is included in Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton's case challenging the election outcome in the U.S. Supreme Court. It also reports, as an aside, that she used to strip in 2010 at a Lincoln Park club called the Bada Bing -- a "Sopranos"-inspired joint.
What's more, the website Law & Crime reports that the city of Detroit has filed a response to the Texas case attacking Carone's “fantastical” affidavit, calling it “particularly inaccurate and troubling.” Paxton is challenging election results in Michigan, Georgia, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Though 17 other attorneys general support the suit, no legal experts give it much credence. Sen. Mitt Romney describes it as "simply madness."
Detroit's attorney David Fink wrote in the brief that Carone’s performances in the affidavit and in public showed a “startling ignorance.” Her affidavit first surfaced in a Wayne County case challenging Michigan's election results. That case was dismissed.
Fink writes:
“She was a contract worker, hired by a third party to assist with occasional malfunctions of the tabulating machines. She has no known training in election law or procedures, and her affidavit and public statements have displayed a startling ignorance of how votes are counted. Ms. Carone believes that she saw evidence that ballots were counted more than once at the TCF Center. Her main allegation—that hundreds or thousands of ballots were counted twice or more—cannot possibly be true.”
“She says she saw on a computer that 50 of the same ballots had been counted 8 times, and that she saw numerous similar instances ‘countless times’ throughout the day. If what she said were true, at the very least, 350 extra votes would show up for at least one absent voter counting board. That did not occur.”
The publication said that Detroit claimed Carone’s “speculation” about fraud was proven false; her claims reflected a “misunderstanding” of how things work.
Carone also garnered attention after Giuliani, who was by her side during her testimony in Lansing, tested postive for Covid and checked into Georgetown University Hospital Center last Sunday.
She subsequently told The Washington Post she had no plans to quarantine or do anything differently.
