ICYMI: Kelly Ayotte’s Silence Speaks Volumes About Her Judgment

ICYMI: Kelly Ayotte’s Silence Speaks Volumes About Her Judgment

In Case You Missed It, Kelly Ayotte has “refused to comment” on whether she supports Donald Trump’s nearly $1.8 billion taxpayer-funded slush fund that would funnel money to Capitol insurrectionists who attacked law enforcement and political allies — all while kicking Granite Staters off their health care and slashing food assistance.

This is the latest episode of Trump’s blatant corruption, yet Kelly Ayotte continues to look the other way. She has repeatedly stopped short of directly criticizing Trump’s reckless actions, despite the devastation it has inflicted on working families and small businesses across the state.

Just last week, Kelly Ayotte nominated GOP phone jamming lawyer, Ovide Lamontagne, to the Ballot Law Commission. Her nomination of Lamontage, whose professional record on elections includes aggressively defending individuals accused of election tampering, speaks volumes about her judgment and her failure to stand up to Donald Trump’s own attacks on Granite Staters’ fundamental right to vote.

It’s the second time Ayotte has elevated a former NH GOP lawyer to a position with power over state legal disputes—and it comes as Trump moves to seize control of state election systems.
Gov. Kelly Ayotte has tapped a longtime Republican operative with a documented history of defending election interference to help decide New Hampshire’s election disputes—just as former Sen. John E. Sununu, the direct beneficiary of a 2002 scheme that operative defended in court, runs in the Republican primary to reclaim the Senate seat it helped him win.
Her nominee is Ovide Lamontagne, the Manchester attorney who oversaw the New Hampshire Republican State Committee’s internal investigation of the Election Day 2002 phone-jamming scheme and later represented New Hampshire Republicans in the civil lawsuit the state Democratic Party brought over the same scheme.
Ayotte’s nomination of Lamontagne to the state’s Ballot Law Commission, which was announced this week, lands as Republicans across the country target voting rights and redraw congressional maps in their favor, and as President Donald Trump’s Justice Department sues dozens of states, including New Hampshire, for their voter data. Trump has also sought to impose federal control over local elections.
Against that backdrop, Ayotte is placing on the body that adjudicates Granite State ballot disputes a man whose professional record on elections is defending the people who engaged in election tampering for the benefit of John E. Sununu, the candidate now seeking to return to that same Senate seat in 2026.
It is not the first time Ayotte has elevated a former state Republican attorney to a position with direct authority over state legal disputes. In 2025, she nominated Bryan Gould—who previously served as Ayotte’s campaign attorney and represented the New Hampshire Republican State Committee in a series of high-profile election and political matters—to the New Hampshire Supreme Court. Gould now sits on the state’s court of last resort.
The Lamontagne nomination follows the same pattern: take a lawyer with a long track record of working for the state Republican Party on some of its most contested legal fights, and install him on a body that adjudicates disputes those same partisan interests routinely bring.

Granite Post: Sununu, Ayotte silent as Trump creates $1.8 billion ‘slush fund’ for Jan. 6 rioters, allies

Gov. Kelly Ayotte’s office declined to weigh in on a federal program that may compensate people convicted of attacking Capitol Police—and that quietly bars the IRS from ever auditing the president’s past tax filings.
Top New Hampshire Republicans again find themselves in a familiar role this week, answering for President Donald Trump’s blatant corruption with silence.
Trump’s Justice Department this week created a $1.776 billion taxpayer fund to compensate people who say they were targeted by the Biden administration. The acting US attorney general—Trump’s former personal lawyer —will appoint the five-member commission that decides who gets paid.
Republican Governor of New Hampshire Kelly Ayotte, who endorsed Trump in the 2024 election, also refused to comment.
The Granite Post asked both offices five questions about the fund, including whether they support its creation, whether they believe taxpayer dollars should compensate individuals convicted of assaulting police officers, and whether they consider President Donald Trump to be corrupt. Neither office responded.

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