In a Federal Court filing released to the public on Friday in the state of New Mexico, Demetrio Trujillo, says the candidate, Solomon Peña, hired him after failing to win a seat in the state legislature in November 2022.
The document released is a plea agreement of Guilty by the Defendant Demetrio Trujillo.
In a plea agreement with federal prosecutors, he admitted to five charges, including conspiracy, election interference and using a firearm. In a statement, federal prosecutors said that in December 2022, Mr Peña paid Trujillo to shoot at the homes of three former election candidates to intimidate them.
In January Mr Peña and Trujillo carried out one of the planned shootings, the statement added. Trujillo is due to be sentenced later.
Mr Peña lost the election to the state legislature by nearly 50 percentage points, but alleges that the vote was “rigged”. Police say he approached the four Democrats he later targeted to pressure them to overturn the results.
At the time, Mr Peña’s Twitter account suggested he may have been inspired by former president Donald Trump’s false claims of election fraud.