CTP (S3EJulSpecial5) From Fire Chief to Whistleblower: One Man's High-Stakes Fight

CTP (S3EJulSpecial5) From Fire Chief to Whistleblower: One Man's High-Stakes Fight
Exploring more of the world of fascinating Guests, Health, Human Nature, Music / Movies, Mysterious, Politics, Social Issues, and much more  
Erik Holt, former Fire Chief in Colorado, shares his startling journey from respected department leader to whistleblower after discovering election fraud during a local board election. His decision to investigate suspicious polling activities cost him his career and savings, leading to an ongoing federal court battle that tests the limits of First Amendment protections for public employees.
• Took over as Fire Chief of a struggling department in 2022 while gaining full custody of his two daughters
• Transformed the department from having a handful of volunteers to 62 members with 24-hour coverage
• Witnessed suspicious activities during a contentious board election held at the fire station
• Obtained security footage showing poll watchers using electronic devices and sharing voter information
• Discovered an apparent vote-tracking scheme where poll watchers were repeatedly leaving the polling area
• Reported evidence to district attorney and law enforcement officials
• Was fired 33 days after the new board took office on allegedly false grounds
• Filed a First Amendment retaliation lawsuit that was dismissed by a federal judge
• Currently representing himself pro se in an appeal to the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals
• Has spent $150,000 of personal savings after selling his home to fund the legal battle
To support Erik Holt's ongoing legal fight for election integrity, visit GoFundMe and search "Justice for Holt."

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to Erik Holt
• 9:19 From Fire Chief to Whistleblower
• 19:49 The Contentious Board Election
• 26:04 Discovering Suspicious Election Activity
• 34:07 Analyzing Security Footage Evidence
• 40:37 Exposing the Election Fraud Scheme
• 46:17 Retaliation and Legal Battle

Transcript

CTP S3EJulSpecial5 44m 59s before audio editing   
CTP S3EJulSpecial5 NOTES ( listen (Wed Jul 30 2025 and thereafter) at: 
https://www.buzzsprout.com/2210487/ )... 
See buzzsprout Transcript for fuller/extended Show Notes (inc. related links) and Transcript Bonus  
Transcript Bonus: No Transcript bonus this episode   
Exploring more of the world of fascinating Guests, Health, Human Nature, Music / Movies, Mysterious, Politics, Social Issues, and much more  
CTP (S3EJulSpecial5) From Fire Chief to Whistleblower: One Man's High-Stakes Fight
Exploring more of the world of fascinating Guests, Health, Human Nature, Music / Movies, Mysterious, Politics, Social Issues, and much more  
Erik Holt, former Fire Chief in Colorado, shares his startling journey from respected department leader to whistleblower after discovering election fraud during a local board election. His decision to investigate suspicious polling activities cost him his career and savings, leading to an ongoing federal court battle that tests the limits of First Amendment protections for public employees.
• Took over as Fire Chief of a struggling department in 2022 while gaining full custody of his two daughters
• Transformed the department from having a handful of volunteers to 62 members with 24-hour coverage
• Witnessed suspicious activities during a contentious board election held at the fire station
• Obtained security footage showing poll watchers using electronic devices and sharing voter information
• Discovered an apparent vote-tracking scheme where poll watchers were repeatedly leaving the polling area
• Reported evidence to district attorney and law enforcement officials
• Was fired 33 days after the new board took office on allegedly false grounds
• Filed a First Amendment retaliation lawsuit that was dismissed by a federal judge
• Currently representing himself pro se in an appeal to the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals
• Has spent $150,000 of personal savings after selling his home to fund the legal battle
To support Erik Holt's ongoing legal fight for election integrity, visit GoFundMe and search "Justice for Holt."
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(S3EJulSpecial5 Audio: 43m 34s Wed Jul 30 2025) 
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[ChristiTutionalist Politics podcast begin Show intro]

Welcome to ChristiTutionalist Politics podcast aka CTP in association with TheLibertyBeacon.com and I am your host Joseph M Lenard and that's L E N A R D   CTP is your no muss no fuss just me you And occasional guest type podcast as Graham Norton would say let's get on with the show 

[ChristiTutionalist Politics podcast - Segment 1] 


JOSEPH M LENARD (HOST):    If you could see on the behind the scenes video, I don't know if you can hear me wrestling the paper, the notes here, but I'm not going to read any of it. I'm actually just going to jump in and introduce Eric Holt and it's spelled I-R-I-K, yes? Not a C? I'm doing it again, starting it with an I, it starts with an E, E-R-I-K-H-O-L-T, yes? Yep, that's it. Okay, so let's just dive right in, welcome to the show. Where were you born and raised and all that good stuff? Where are you now?
ERIK HOLT:  Okay, well, actually throughout this whole journey, I am back where I grew up, but I grew up out in California in the foothills, kind of between Sacramento and Tahoe.
JOSEPH M LENARD (HOST):  Before it all went crazy, but you're back in the crazy now, huh?
ERIK HOLT:  Yeah, Touche. This isn't that California, it's definitely a small town, rural cattle ranchers, you know, very conservative people here.
JOSEPH M LENARD (HOST):  Oh, a more red cow than...
ERIK HOLT:  Very much so, yeah.
JOSEPH M LENARD (HOST):  Makes a big difference in being in, if you'll part and cover the kids ears, right? This is a G show, so I try to be careful, but I'm going to say shit Francisco or lost angels. You're not in the sick of any of that, that's good. So definitely far from that world. Yeah, my understanding and the reason you're here is now things in 2022, my first international book came out, so I've been busy since 2022, too, but I see also in 2022, things started up heaving in your life. So now the man in a bad way, in a good way, right? Take us back to 2022 and what was going on. Yeah, absolutely.
ERIK HOLT:  So yeah, it's two years ago, but I just started talking about it because of a court battle, but in essence, I was a fire chief of a small in comparison, you know, it wasn't a big city, but a small special district fire department. I was a fire chief. We had board elections for the board of directors.
JOSEPH M LENARD (HOST):  And after getting some BBO, a R D not B O R E D. Yeah. Yeah, my audience knows I can't pass on the stupid puns. Go on. I'm sorry. Yeah, I apologize. Go on. Yeah.
ERIK HOLT:  I took over what was a struggling and department in the midst of chaos that you before me had gotten himself into some trouble and we'll leave it at that. But I got called in to work as an interim chief because it was known in the area, which I did. It was supposed to be for two weeks that lasted about five months. I was taking vacation time from my fire department and I ran out of vacation time and just, you know, around the same time I got full custody of both my daughters. So all of a sudden I'm raising two.
JOSEPH M LENARD (HOST):  I saw that in the notes. Yes. Yes. Nice. Good. But wow, my hands are full.
ERIK HOLT:  Absolutely. Right. Yeah. Anybody with daughters out there. So yeah, I'm doing that on my own and I'm trying to do a fire service career along with, you know, that comes with 48 hour shifts. And so during this time period, it became apparent that like it would be a good situation to take this fire chief's job or, you know, at least apply and interview for it. So I did. I was given the permanent position in September of 2022. And then we kicked butt. We really kicked butt for months. I had a great board that supported my vision for rebuilding that department rebranding it. We grew it from, you know, less than half a dozen volunteer firefighters to some part time paid staff that operated 24 hours a day from station coverage and recruited a total of 62 members of the department. So by all aspects and every metric that you would evaluate a fire department, we were kicking some butt. And then March, or I'm sorry, May of 2023, the elections happened. And because of that turmoil when I had taken over, all five board directors, directors seats were open for election, which never happens. You never want a whole board to switch over at once. But nonetheless, that was the situation we were in. And I always talk about this now that I'm speaking about this situation. I didn't have allegiance to anybody. You know, I wasn't a political candidate. So my focus was on continuing the growth of the department and kicking butt and saving lives, you know. But it was a very hotly contested, very contentious election. And what kind of came up out of the was this group that they labeled themselves the five and they ran as a team. And slight, yeah. Which doesn't really happen. I think, you know, people would view that as that's not a very open and corruption-free system, right? That's why we don't do that. But nonetheless, they did. In May 2nd, 2023, the election was held at the fire station. Because it was so contentious and this opposing party had tried to pull me in in negative ways, it was decided that I had nothing to do with it. And so the only reason that I ended up at the fire station during the election was there was unfortunately a gentleman that suffered a cardiac arrest. And so he had a heart attack. We were doing CPR in the fire station where we landed helicopter medevacs. And so I was there for that. The gentleman did not make it. And so, you know, one of the overlooked but unfortunate parts of a fire chief job is you got to inform the family that a loved one was passed away. So I left from the station and I went and consoled the family and let them know that, you know, despite everything we could do, he didn't make it. And then when I returned to the fire station, the election was still going on. I'm a fire chief in the town. So they identified me as the fire department, right? So somebody came up to me and they said, hey, you know, I want to complain about what's going on in this election. And so I, you know, I hear them out and they had shown me a picture on their phone. And I said, hey, like, there's an election official to take this to. Let me take you to that person. So I did. And then, you know, kind of went about my day after that. And then shortly thereafter, that evening, it was announced that the five incumbent or non incumbents, the party of five was declared the winners of the election. And so I'll be it. That's a change in, you know, work life and there's concern from my 500 and stuff. My message was just like, you know, we're here to do fire department.
JOSEPH M LENARD (HOST):  Right. You're here to still do your day to day work. And hopefully they'll be smart enough to know that, hey, leave you to your job. Right. But didn't work out that way, did it? Yeah.
ERIK HOLT:  Yeah. A little foresight on there. But yeah, I always say this. I've been on a few podcasts now and it's like, you know, my view is that they ran for an elected seat on a fire department. Therefore their mindset was to serve the part of that was my assumption. And I think anybody would have to assume that.
JOSEPH M LENARD (HOST):  Unfortunately, that's the same thing with school board people. Yes. Their allegiance isn't to the kids. It's other agendas. And yeah, and you quickly and found out they had other agendas.
ERIK HOLT:  Yeah. Yeah. So in this, in this small town fire department, yeah, shortly after the announcement and in the day after coming days after I received another and I said, man, like there's something kind of heat, you know, I don't like that members of the community have a bad taste in their mouth. And so I called the designated election official who worked for the law from that represented the fire district and I said, hey, I've gotten a couple complaints. You know, I want you to be aware of them. And she, she said, I've gotten some too. And you know, like, I don't really know what to do. We'll talk to the attorney that represents the district. And so I talked to her and she had some concerns as well. And so, you know, in my videos that I'm posted on my TikTok and my Facebook, I want people to understand the not only what took place, but like my thought process to it. I really want to be in front about it. And from that point of talking to the attorney, I just, I speak about it. I had a feeling in the pit of my stomach. And it was, it was this internal struggle of what was my best interest. My best interest was to be the fire chief and be quiet, right?
JOSEPH M LENARD (HOST):  Yeah, you wanted to fight fires and save lives, but here people are pulling you into this. Yeah. Whether you wanted it or not.
ERIK HOLT:  And there you are. And these people that I would have to look into are my bosses, right? So it's never a good scenario.
JOSEPH M LENARD (HOST):  No, no, it's not. So and I shouldn't be laughing. I don't know if this is funny at all.
ERIK HOLT:  I think everybody would understand it though, right? Like everybody out there that that'll listen would understand that my best interest was to be quiet and not to pursue anything. So my personal best interest was to be quiet, but, you know, I was in the military. I served my country. I've been a public servant my entire life. I firmly and adamantly believe in the fundamentals of our country. And so I'm battling this for a few years.
JOSEPH M LENARD (HOST):  Yeah. Well, before you go any further on that, I see the folded flag over your shoulder. I wanted to ask you about that up on your top shelf there. Yeah, I'm glad you did actually.
ERIK HOLT:  So that is a flag that I flew on a mission in Ramadi, Iraq in 2005. And I've always had that, I brought that home with me. So, you know, a lot of people will have memorial flags, but that's my mission flag
JOSEPH M LENARD (HOST):  and something that, you know, I hope I'm glad we cleared that up because I thought it was a memorial flag. Yes.
ERIK HOLT:  No, thankfully not. So, you know, I do live my life in a way that honors those that have sacrificed. I have had very close brothers in the fire service that are no longer living in, you know, they're live serving their communities obviously in the military and during wartime. I know folks that are no longer here and give the ultimate sacrifice. So I, this is that internal struggle and it's a great point to point that flag out because
JOSEPH M LENARD (HOST):  that's what it's about. Honor, integrity, those patriotism. Don McCauley of the author show, when my book, my first international book came out in 2022, you know, you need to write an author bio while I, you know, threw a few words together. But Don McCauley, the author show, put something together for me, looked into me and looked into my work and he came up with honor, integrity, patriotism. For some, those are just words. But for Joseph, I'm honored. Those are values. He brings to everything in his everyday life. And you, to me, I think like I'm looking in a mirror. I just get that from you. I can tell the honor and the integrity is there and it's therefore I feel your discomfort of having been dragged into that. So continue on from where, before I interrupted you. If you can remember where you lost off, if you can remember now that I've interrupted you.
ERIK HOLT:  It's a great, it is a great segue because the moral decision that anybody in the future will ever feel that is put into a situation similar to mine or really anything that goes up against personal morals and beliefs comes at a cost and you have to be willing to accept that cost. So that's a great segue into this. So I knew something was up, right, in this whole situation. And I sat on it for a day or two, maybe three, but that burning feeling was creeping up further and further and further. And so one night I took my girls into bed, you know, kiss them tonight, lay them to bed, and I'm just kind of sitting there in the quiet and evaluating things. Like, I talk about this on my justice for whole videos early on was I'm consciously sitting there and I said, if I look into something, I know if I found something, I'm not capable of not doing anything. And it's against what is my best interest. And this is how I raised these two girls that I just tucked into bed. And so this isn't an easy decision.
JOSEPH M LENARD (HOST):  Amen. But here's that said in an example moment.
ERIK HOLT:  Exactly. And so I know of because I work there that there's a security system and the election was held there. And there is a contracted third party company that's local that operates that and stores it. And so the day after I sat here and I made a decision that I'm going to look into this and do what I got to do, I go to them. I go to work. Well, actually I go to Walmart, I buy a thumb drive, a media drive, and I take it to them
JOSEPH M LENARD (HOST):  and I say, hey, I can see you're heading into problematic territory here in this story because elections are not supposed to be filmed.
ERIK HOLT:  So no, no, it's totally allowed. It was actually the day before the elections. The election official came in who's from a law firm and see all of them looked at them. There was signed off on it. Yeah, they couldn't point behind voters where they could see where they were voting.
JOSEPH M LENARD (HOST):  Okay. But she could surveil the premise.
ERIK HOLT:  Yeah. Yeah. So the building security in and of itself is totally allowed. It does not violate anybody's ability to vote in, you know, in a secretive fashion. And so, you know, I went and I said, you know, I need to pay for this. These are this May 2nd between these hours on these cameras. This is what I need.
JOSEPH M LENARD (HOST):  And so you, well, this, you didn't file a FOIA because you were dealing with a private company, right? So this was, it wasn't a government agency where you would file a FOIA to get that. You got this through private avenues. Yeah.
ERIK HOLT:  Yeah. So we would have been who gets the FOIA, right? Because we're the government. So, right.
JOSEPH M LENARD (HOST):  Yeah. Right. Yeah. Turn the tables on you.
ERIK HOLT:  Yeah. And that comes up. We'll talk about that. But no, it's a third part of company. Like they're for profit business. And so, and the fire station is a publicly funded building. So there's no hiding of anything, right? So anybody could have gone and said, hey, I want the footage of this. It just so happened to be me. Because again, I knew that there just wasn't something right and I had received complaints. And my duty as a citizen is to look into it. I believe that. And so I get like a day later, they call me and I go in and I pay him and they give me my thumb drive back and I go about my way. And so I remember like having it and I talk about it on my videos is like, I wasn't in a real hurry to watch it. I kept like going around like, you know, hey, girls, you need this done. You need that. Put it off. Let me stretch out all the stuff that needs to happen in the day. But eventually they go to bed again. And I go, I don't even know what I'm looking for here. So what I did is I went on.
JOSEPH M LENARD (HOST):  You're looking and hoping whatever it is is so obvious. It'll jump off the screen at you. Yeah.
ERIK HOLT:  Yeah, in some regard, but there's 40 hours of footage because it's multiple cameras for a 12 hour day.
JOSEPH M LENARD (HOST):  Yeah. And if you're running through something fast forward, it might be easy to miss something the less of it occurs over and over and over.
ERIK HOLT:  Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. So I went on the internet and I printed out the Colorado statutes of election laws and I just read them and I'm like, okay, this gives me an idea if I see something like if it's against these rules, then I know we're like, I'm heading in the red direction, right? So I do that and I print them out and I have them next to me and I put the thumb drive into my laptop and I just start watching hour one camera one, right? And of course, like I didn't just sit there like a zombie for for you. I would watch little periods of time and then I would skip over and this and that. And then after a few hours of doing it, I was like, well, I'm not really figuring anything out, but let me go back to that time when the person showed me the camera or the picture on their phone, right? And so I was like, oh, hey, good job, dummy. So I do that.
JOSEPH M LENARD (HOST):  Yeah, that makes sense, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I got a timestamp of when something may or may not have looked 10 minutes before and 10 minutes after. So I'm quite literally. And boy, here's where I'm becoming having knowing a current IT guy that's good into AI would have been able to help you could have fed in the statutes and fed in the video and said, Hey, AI, look for violations of this, right? You didn't have that unfortunately. And I've been out of IT so long. I do mess with AI to some degree, but I'm not that good enough still of an IT person to be able to do something like that myself. Either I need help. But so you're doing all this the hard way. Yeah.
ERIK HOLT:  So yeah, I mean, literally, like I could on one of the cameras see myself drive by and I go, okay, this is when I was there. And so then I went backwards a little bit, right? And so I follow the individual that they showed me a picture of and I knew they were a poll watcher. And so I kind of started in a timeframe, I knew I could look for something and I find it and I go, Oh, okay. So here is that rule. That's a violation of that rule. Here's my first thing, right? And then a point a.
JOSEPH M LENARD (HOST):  Yeah. Line item one. And then there's more the come I take it, right? Oh, yeah.
ERIK HOLT:  So I do this kind of exercise and I, you know, again, it's 40 hours. Sometimes you got to rewatch to catch something else. So it takes me, I would say probably two days of like when I had time to do it. But as I would find something that I go, Hey, wait a minute, that's a bullet point. Like you just said, for this rule violation. And the more I started to do that on this piece of paper, the more that a bigger picture came into play. And then all of a sudden I was able, I said, okay, now I think I'm on to something.
JOSEPH M LENARD (HOST):  Hey, at this point, are you thinking, Oh my God, there's obviously conspiracy going on of some sort.
ERIK HOLT:  Oh, so this is you're getting right to that point. Isn't it?
JOSEPH M LENARD (HOST):  There's another I know I I have a bad habit of wanting to skip ahead. Yeah.
ERIK HOLT:  But it's so perfect though, because it really there is a light bulb moment. And so I looked at this paper and I said, okay, I can I can match these to this list of rules. Let me watch these time blocks that line up and on their different cameras. So I would know the time on camera one, and then I would switch to camera two and pick it up.
JOSEPH M LENARD (HOST):  And then, you know, and then all of a sudden the light, you kind of would get almost a 360 of the whole room via all the cameras. Yeah.
ERIK HOLT:  And so just to clarify for your listeners, camera one was in the fire station and it happened to overlook the poll watching table right here. And then away from it was the voting things and the screens, right? So you could see people walk in, but the entire time the camera's over the poll watchers and camera two is outside the front door facing the parking lot. So that's where everybody has to walk in. And so that's what I did is I went camera one, this timeframe poll watchers here, they do something they walk out. Something happens here. These are rules light bulb moment. And so then I could watch the entirety of it and track it. And so without being able to physically show you that, what they were doing is the first thing that queued me was the poll watchers are pretty free.
JOSEPH M LENARD (HOST):  The first thing I know. Well, I got to clear something. Now you the whole watchers are usually party people. I've been a poll watcher. I've not been a poll worker. Are you talking about an actual poll worker who sits behind their takes names, checks them off of the year to year you are talking about a poll watcher, a volunteer. Now they paid poll worker.
ERIK HOLT:  Correct. Poll watcher for the candidates that all this stems around like they picked them. They went through poll watcher training to observe and make sure it was a fair election.
JOSEPH M LENARD (HOST):  And that's supposed to be the point only observed.
ERIK HOLT:  Yeah. So the first the first one that I caught that was super obvious is the lady. She's the campaign manager of the five, but she's also a poll watcher on the stage.
JOSEPH M LENARD (HOST):  She has a lot of there's a direct conflict of interest right there. Yes. All day long.
ERIK HOLT:  She opens a laptop and you're not even allowed to have cell phones, electronic devices, recording devices, none of it. She opens a laptop and she films the election room. So she's sitting ground level where she can identify people that walk in by face, right? And she was recording it.
JOSEPH M LENARD (HOST):  And so she could have literally been running face recognition software. Well, I don't know. Right. Yeah, we don't know. Yes. That's why it's a lead.
ERIK HOLT:  You don't want that. And then they were on their cell phones. They were texting. They were taking phone calls. And so I knew those were wrong. But what I couldn't tell and it took me a long time to finally catch it was they were they were nodding to voters or or like a voter would point to him and then they were they would do an action like with their hands and then they would show each other. And so I was like, what the hell is what is that?
JOSEPH M LENARD (HOST):  You know, it's kind of like the third base coach given signals to the base. Runners, they're pretty good. Yeah, pretty good.
ERIK HOLT:  But what matters in an election? The number really matters, right? So when I had that light bulb moment, it all became clear. And I went, Oh my God. Now mind you, 2022 was not far removed from the 2020 election. Right. Election fraud is a hot topic in 2022.
JOSEPH M LENARD (HOST):  I've seen it. I've seen it firsthand as a pull watcher myself. Okay.
ERIK HOLT:  I had never, I had never and I was always skeptical, right? Although I believe me after 2020 and the, you know, the number jump at 2am and all that stuff, right? We all witnessed that happen. Whatever political spectrum you're on. But I had never been part of an election and I wasn't even part of this one. But I now saw it firsthand and the scheme, just to detail it for everybody, when it all became clear, the thing that they were doing was track counters. And I actually, if you go on my justice for a whole Facebook or TikTok, there is videos on there. And one of them is the election screenshots from the security footage. I've literally put it up on, on there, but they're track counters. And so I go, okay, well that they're tracking who they think are voting, but that doesn't control the outcome of an election.
JOSEPH M LENARD (HOST):  No, not at that point. Although if you know, it's like what happened at Cobo Hall in Detroit, like you were saying at two in the morning, when you know how many votes you are behind, you know how many votes you have to manufacture to win. Right.
ERIK HOLT:  And so, and mind you, I'm not the smartest human on the planet by any means. So even in 2023, when I'm watching this, I go, okay, is it that bad, right? If they're counting votes, yes, it's against the rules. Yes, it's against the law. But does it control the outcome of an election? And so I, before I was satisfied, I said, I need to figure that out for myself. Are they controlling an outcome or are they just counting votes? Both are illegal, but one is far more egregious than the answer.
JOSEPH M LENARD (HOST):  Well, every, any candidate should have a poll watcher and, and volunteers outside. You can question people, hey, I'm conducting a survey. I mean, you can ask, right, exit polling, right? Again, so you know, kind of know where you stand, but it's a whole other thing when you've got someone on the inside telling you the actual numbers. Right.
ERIK HOLT:  So I, what I, I, I identified that they're clicking track counters. And I thought that because one holds it and I can see it. So three of them are doing this while at the poll watcher station. But also poll watchers are not allowed to leave the polling area come back. That is one of the rules. And when I was watching the videos before I even caught on to the big scheme, I was like, they're getting up every couple of minutes, walking outside the polling location and coming back in. That's not allowed.
JOSEPH M LENARD (HOST):  That's not, you know, yeah, I, I, everyone would understand, okay, somebody goes to lunch comes back. Right. But if you're constantly doing this, that's clearly outside any accepted norm and leave any way of the intent of the law.
ERIK HOLT:  Oh, yeah. And I would say that over a hundred times in a 12 hour period, very easily that a single individual would walk out and come back in. That's a poll watcher. So it wasn't like, you know, maybe they drink a lot of water and every, or a minute break. Right. Yeah. It wasn't that the frequency was too much. And so the outside camera had audio and very late in the day, I caught a conversation. Oh boy. It confirmed everything. And so what was happening, the, the complaint I didn't elaborate on earlier was that when the individual came up to me and showed me the picture on the phone, the, the picture was the campaign manager in poll watcher talking on the phone inside the election box. So the cone dawf area, no election area, which was a like known violation of the rule. And so, but what was more troubling is that individual's comment said, I heard this lady walk out and say, well, did you pay them already? And what are they driving? And then she stood at that cone. That's when I took the picture, but she met somebody and then told them voters name or candidate names and then went in. And so me as a citizen, I heard paid them. Who are they? Because I don't know. And then they, I literally observed her telling them the people to vote for highly illegal. And so that was what I had started with.
JOSEPH M LENARD (HOST):  And that's what you are supposed to be able to help guide someone to understand about it. But you cannot. Well, as a campaign volunteer outside, you could say, Hey, yeah, I'm representing John Smith. Please vote John Smith. But
ERIK HOLT:  You can't people to vote for people.
JOSEPH M LENARD (HOST):  And oh, and that is absolutely positively. So let's, let's, yeah, let's just say shenanigans, right? Yeah. Alleged illegalities and clearly actionable information that needs to be followed up with an investigation. So let's jump ahead and what do you do with all this? Do you get someone who indeed gets involved legally with it?
ERIK HOLT:  Yeah. So I called that attorney after watching everything and I said, Hey, it's on 4k high definition. There's election fraud. And I am 100% confident in telling you that. And the attorney goes, that's very troubling. I had a feeling. Let me talk to my partner chair to law firm and I'll get back to you. But she was also in communication with the board president that had lost, right? But there's a lame duck period. So there's like 45 days with still the president. Oh, of course. Yes. Absolutely. They're talking together. I'm talking to her. And the attorney kind of is just like, you know, like this is going to be a law enforcement thing for sure or a court thing. And so the attorney makes a report to the district attorney's office and the incumbent board president then files an injunction with the court to stay the election until an investigation. independently, I had talked to the attorney and she told me she'd called the DA's office and made a report. So I independently like called the thing and again, I'm kind of an idiot, but I literally called him like, Hey, can I talk to the district attorney?
JOSEPH M LENARD (HOST):  And they're like, no, ha ha ha ha. Yeah. Yeah.
ERIK HOLT:  So they're like, what do you want? You know, and I'm like, so I can't talk to the DA. I thought that was just like, you know, and I like, no, it's a major city and a huge bureau. So I end up talking to like, you know, an operator who gets me to an investigator when I say I'm like reporting stuff. So I violently get this guy on the phone and I'm like, Hey, I'm the fire chief up here. You know, I know the station. I knew the security system. I went and got this stuff on my own. I've reviewed it. I put all the pieces together and I want to show law enforcement.
JOSEPH M LENARD (HOST):  You built their case for them. Yeah.
ERIK HOLT:  Yeah. So he goes, Hey, you know, I got contacted. I talked to the attorney. I am starting the case, but my partner who actually investigates elections stuff is on vacation. He'll be back next year. But I don't want to waste time. Can you meet with me? Yeah, meet with me first thing in the morning. Like, I need to get it to you, but I have a job to do. Right. Like I need to get back to my job. And I'm doing all this stuff like I'm working. And then when I go home, I was watching all this footage and staying up late and I just need to get back to life. So I meet with him at like 6 30 in the morning. And I just put in the thumb drive and I start playing it and I start pointing him to very specific things that I had found. And I had printed out the rules and I gave it to him. And so we did that. And just to make this a quick bit, like if anybody's ever been around law enforcement, they're just normal people that love to laugh and joke until it's work time. Right. And so we were, we were cutting it up and, you know, it's a fireman in a law enforcement guy.
JOSEPH M LENARD (HOST):  But when I put feathers of different birds, we'll say, yeah, probably inappropriate jokes
ERIK HOLT:  all of it. But we said, and when I start showing this, his body language changed. And that was a huge indicator of me because I call cops dorks because I'm a fireman, right? But he, he went from laughing and kind of joking and like, you know, I'm just here to do my job to like dead serious. Yeah, dead serious. And then he wouldn't cops don't give away when they know there's a criminal act, right? Because now they've got to do something. So I show him we meet for probably an hour. And he goes, I need, I need this. Can you give me a copy? I said, this one's for you. You take that thumb drive that chirps. And he's like, all right, we'll be in contact. And so he was very serious. And before he left, he goes, no, it's like, this is super obvious. I've not ever seen something like this. And so I felt real good of like my city.
JOSEPH M LENARD (HOST):  Not only if you're committing fraud, you know, not well enough to make sure no security cameras are right touching you, right handed. But now I do want to start to get to wrapping this up. So here we are now three years later. Where are we now?
ERIK HOLT:  So yeah, I, the board took took positions. And within 33 days of that meeting on the 33rd day, they fired me as the fire chief, this new board. And they did so by saying after illegally freezing the bank accounts of the fire district that I didn't pay bills that I didn't have the authority to do, I wasn't a signatory on the bank. I couldn't print in sign checks. That's a state man.
JOSEPH M LENARD (HOST):  They were convenient to try to. Yeah. Pay that on you.
ERIK HOLT:  Yes. Bills didn't get paid. They fired me for not paying the bills. And so clearly 33 days after never being in trouble ever in my career, having exceptional performance as the fire chief during my tenure, I was suddenly fired. So I think everybody out there would agree that's probably a retaliatory action by this board. And I followed a lawsuit. And so I 1983 protected First Amendment speech is my lawsuit.
JOSEPH M LENARD (HOST):  And of course they tried to have it dismissed and even further, I would dare say with the position you had, you would be should be protected. Although I don't know what California whistleblower laws are like, but every state has Colorado Colorado as well. Oh, okay. I'm sorry. Right. You're in California now. Yeah. That was Colorado. Right. Okay. I have some sort of whistleblower protection law. And I would think you should qualify under that also.
ERIK HOLT:  You would think so I was very confident that I'd been retaliated against and I lost my livelihood. You know, and I'm literally raising two girls on my own with no income for standing up for what is right. And so for the last two years, you know, court and federal court, it is a nightmarry. It's, you know, they, they draw out everything as long as they want to bankrupt you. Yes. Okay. Yeah. Then they file for an extension of time.
JOSEPH M LENARD (HOST):  Yeah. Especially if they're using taxpayer money, they don't give a damn. They'll waste as much of it as possible to make you have to waste yours. And indeed. So now I know you said you have Facebook and TikTok justice for halt. Hope. Do you have a go fund me or a website? Okay. You have a go fund me?
ERIK HOLT:  Yep. It's a justice for halt as well on go fund me. And that is not too enrich myself is to keep the legal fight going. So right. Exactly. I sold my home with no income and funded this $150,000 and I'm a blue collar fire chief. So I believed so much in protecting the constitution that I gave my entire life savings and everything I've ever worked for. And the federal judge dismissed my claim in summary judgment that I wasn't, I had no First Amendment protection is what what I was told. And so I have appealed it to the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, which is very expensive. Yeah.
JOSEPH M LENARD (HOST):  I could see, I could see there being some touch because you were an employee on the job. You don't have First Amendment rights, but outside of work you do. So I'm sad to say that I can see some loopholes against you here.
ERIK HOLT:  I'm very confident in my appeal because the district court got some stuff wrong. They said I was the custodian of the surveillance system. When I wasn't, I was a third party company.
JOSEPH M LENARD (HOST):  Well, that's that's good in a way because you're right. There's trial error, misrepresentations that make it appealable.
ERIK HOLT:  Yes, that's good. And the other factor was that the judge said, because of my position as fire chief, I was the one that was in charge of administering the election and in the security of it. And that is against Colorado state statute. Yeah. And a board thing, they actually hired two employees to do that. Yeah. Those grounds, I have appealed. I'm very confident that the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals judges will look at that and say, there's no way that we could make this a job duty of the fire chief. And this was never appropriate for summary judgment. So I'm still continuing to fight this. I am pro se, which is a very intimidating thing when you're not an attorney to be at the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals. But I will continue to fight. That's what the GoFundMe is for is I ran out of money to the point of, you know, understandable
JOSEPH M LENARD (HOST):  Waha'u'llw and why again, yes, law fair, the left is really good at it. And they do. They, they'll file all kinds of pleadings and whatnot and and delay, stall, delay, dodge, deflect, deny, try to drag it out, try to bankrupt you. Hopeful. Hopeful. You'll eventually give up and go away. So I'm glad you're not. So it in concluding things up again, justice for hope, fascist book, TikTok, as long as it remains around if that sale goes through or not, or if it gets shut down. But GoFundMe justice for hope is the best way for people to help you out at this time.
ERIK HOLT:  Yeah, and you know, just like you said, they're going to play law fair. And I hope that if nothing else, I can prove to people that patriots of this country will unite to support people, whether it's a dollar, a five dollars, you know, I've had a five
JOSEPH M LENARD (HOST):  million. Hey, a million people just give a dollar. You know, that you'd be in good shape if you could write. So indeed. So thank you. Yeah, thank you, Eric, with a K, not a C, Holt, justice for Holt. The good thing you left your first name out of that, we don't have to worry about to see you're the K there. Right. H.O.L.T.
None:  Not Holt.
JOSEPH M LENARD (HOST):  Holt. Yeah. Justice for Holt.
ERIK HOLT:  H.O.L.T. And please, please help me, help me build an army to not only get that footage out there, but it's on Facebook and TikTok. Yeah. I'm not hiding it.
JOSEPH M LENARD (HOST):  And it's not just about your case. This is all the election integrity and election fraud cases that have to be fought. Every single one of them have to be fought. People need to go to jail for the fraud and malfeasance and the violations of the law that you're pointing out. Because I take it today. Nobody's been arrested and charged. No, for the record. Yeah, you said no. And for the benefit of the transcript and the audio, while you said no, you were shaking your head. No, so we'll make sure that that's clear. All right. Thank you, Eric, Holt, for coming on. I appreciate your time. I wish we had more time. But if these shows get too long, it won't do you any good because nobody will listen.


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