Newly appointed Republican Secretary of State Tre Hargett has been caught using the TBI to intimidate proponents of fair and transparent elections in the state of Tennessee.

Sec. Hargett claimed to local media that he couldn’t speak about an ongoing TBI investigation, but the TBI told the media the truth. There is no investigation, and a TBI spokesperson added that Sec. Hargett’s claims were “unsubstantiated.”

Once he knew he was caught in a lie, Sec. Hargett admitted to the media that he sent the TBI to investigate an advocate for fair and transparent elections claiming the advocate made a threat against the state by referencing an incident known as the Battle of Athens.

The August 2, 1946 “battle” involved Second Amendment loving citizens of McMinn County, Tennessee rising up and taking up arms against their corrupt county government for standing in the way of open and honest elections.

Below is part of the Nashville Scene’s account that should enrage every voter in the state of Tennessee.

Newly installed Republican Secretary of State Tre Hargett sicked the TBI on a political opponent on a trumped-up charge of making a “terrorist threat.” The case is now closed, the TBI having found no justification for Hargett’s complaint. Yes, it matters who governs.

Bernie Ellis, founder of the group Gathering to Save Our Democracy, says TBI agents came to his farm yesterday to question him about whether he threatened the Secretary of State’s office in an email. Ellis said he never sent an email to that office, and the agents left after asking him a few questions.

Pith phoned Hargett’s spokesman, Blake Fontenay, for comment today. Guess what? He’d love to talk, of course, but he just can’t. The TBI won’t let him, he says, “because they’re still investigating.” Yes, it’s the old “we never comment on pending investigations” trick.

“I really am not supposed to say anything more than that at this point,” Fontenay apologized. “We’d love to respond but we were asked by the TBI specifically not to respond. There definitely is another side to this, and we wish we could talk about it, but it’s not usually advisable to get the TBI mad at you. My hands are tied at this time.”

So then we phoned the TBI, whose spokeswoman Kristin Helm said basically there is no investigation, and she doesn’t know what Fontenay is talking about.

“We had to go pay Bernie a little visit,” Helm said. “We had a public official who felt as though he was being threatened, who felt there was something floating around in cyberland that was a threat. A couple of agents went to talk to Bernie and pretty much found the threats were unsubstantiated.”

Sec. Hargett’s latest stunt continues a disgraceful pattern by state Republicans that foments distrust with our state’s election process by intimidating proponents of fair elections, openly violating state law to exclude the public from open records and open meetings of county election commissions and delaying existing laws meant to protect the constitutional right to have our votes count.

Rutherford County’s newly appointed Election Commission Chairman Tom Walker violated state law on Monday and Tuesday, both times openly stating to the media that he will not obey the law when it comes to open meetings and public records in the Rutherford County Election Commission office.

Rutherford County’s Sen. Bill Ketron (R-13) aggressively sought a delay to existing election laws that require paper ballots in the 2010 elections.

This growing pattern of distrust is a disgrace to the state of Tennessee. It is also an affront to the very liberties and freedoms many American heroes fought for and died to protect.