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N.Y. AG Letitia James says 2 robocallers targeting Black voters will pay $1.25 million...Conservative operatives tried to convince people not to vote by mail in 2020 election
UPI ^ | APRIL 9, 2024 / 2:03 PM | Clyde Hughes

Posted on 04/09/2024 1:11:29 PM PDT by Red Badger

April 9 (UPI) -- New York Attorney General Letitia James announced on Tuesday that two men will pay $1.25 million for robocalls targeting Black New Yorkers before the 2020 general election discouraging them from voting by mail.

Conservative operatives Jacob Wohl and Jack Burkman were found liable in March 2023 for transmitting false information to more than 5,000 Black voters in the New York area in a threatening manner meant to discourage them from voting by mail.

Some of the claims made by the men, James said, suggested that voting information would be shared with law enforcement, debt collectors and the government.

"The right to vote is the cornerstone of our democracy, and its belongs to everyone," James said in a statement. "Wohl and Burkman orchestrated a depraved and disinformation-ridden campaign to intimidate Black voters in an attempt to sway the election in favor of their preferred candidate. My office will always defend the right to vote."

In October 2022, Wohl and Burkman each pleaded guilty in Ohio to a single felony charge in connection to making some 67,000 robocalls across the country that targeted minorities and suspected Democratic voters, warning them not to vote by mail.

James' office said one of the recorded calls said: "Did you know that if you vote by mail, your personal information will be part of a public database that will be used by police departments to track down old warrants and be used by credit card companies to collect outstanding debts? The CDC is even pushing to use the records for mail-in voting to track people for mandatory vaccines."

James' office said all of that information was false and against the law.

"This groundbreaking settlement should send an emphatic message to anyone who aims to prevent Black people from exercising their right to vote," Damon Hewitt, executive director of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, said in a statement. "Voter suppression and voter intimidation are illegal, immoral and anti-democratic."


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; Front Page News; Government; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: jackburkman; jacobwohl; letitiajames; lucreziajames; newyork
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To: Red Badger

Free speech


21 posted on 04/09/2024 2:14:51 PM PDT by Fledermaus (Is it me, or all of a sudden have the buried trolls come out on FR like cicadas? It's all noise.)
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To: Red Badger

She isn’t concerned about liberal scammers.


22 posted on 04/09/2024 2:16:07 PM PDT by From The Deer Stand (Mply)
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To: joesbucks

Stupid people post stupid BS on FR.


23 posted on 04/09/2024 2:19:03 PM PDT by Fledermaus (Is it me, or all of a sudden have the buried trolls come out on FR like cicadas? It's all noise.)
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To: Red Badger

New York needs to join Oregon, Washington and California and form their own communist country. Throw Michigan and a few others in and leave the rest of us alone.


24 posted on 04/09/2024 2:20:25 PM PDT by Lucky2 (I'M MAD AS HELL AND CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE!)
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To: Quentin Quarantino

Or it becomes election interference to have a Trump bumper sticker.


25 posted on 04/09/2024 2:20:57 PM PDT by Fledermaus (Is it me, or all of a sudden have the buried trolls come out on FR like cicadas? It's all noise.)
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To: Fledermaus

An admission?


26 posted on 04/09/2024 2:40:27 PM PDT by joesbucks (For 2,000 years Christians have been warning of the Anti-Christ. Now they buy Bibles from him. )
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To: Thank You Rush

I believe they admitted to targeting predominantly black neighborhoods. What makes you think they weren’t?


27 posted on 04/09/2024 2:41:57 PM PDT by joesbucks (For 2,000 years Christians have been warning of the Anti-Christ. Now they buy Bibles from him. )
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To: Red Badger

I sense the targeting comes from merely calling urban areas.

I looked around and see nothing to disprove that theory.


28 posted on 04/09/2024 2:42:07 PM PDT by Freest Republican (This space for rent)
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To: Red Badger

Gif off yo lazy ass and vote in a person.


29 posted on 04/09/2024 2:43:07 PM PDT by Old Yeller (On judgement day, you’ll wish you were biblically correctly, not politically correct.)
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To: Nazu

Correct.


30 posted on 04/09/2024 3:22:03 PM PDT by Coronal
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To: Red Badger

These guys were idiots - and yes, they did break the law.


31 posted on 04/09/2024 3:26:36 PM PDT by Fury
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To: Fledermaus

That’s foolish. I see plenty of Trump bumper stickers and signage.


32 posted on 04/09/2024 3:32:10 PM PDT by joesbucks (For 2,000 years Christians have been warning of the Anti-Christ. Now they buy Bibles from him. )
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To: joesbucks; Fledermaus; Thank You Rush
While James may not be on our Christmas card list, she is far from the only prosecutor who has gone after them.

Making excuses for your Democrat pals, yet again, eh, joesDemocratOperative?

33 posted on 04/09/2024 5:36:40 PM PDT by kiryandil (what Ukrainian electrical grid doink?)
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To: joesbucks

“”What makes you think they weren’t?””

What makes you think I said anything like that????


34 posted on 04/10/2024 6:12:15 AM PDT by Thank You Rush
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To: Thank You Rush
What makes me think that? You questioned how they knew? I’d like to know HOW they knew the calls they made were to blacks?

What was the purpose of the question?

35 posted on 04/10/2024 7:49:15 AM PDT by joesbucks (For 2,000 years Christians have been warning of the Anti-Christ. Now they buy Bibles from him. )
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To: joesbucks

The purpose of my question? Good grief - my question was pretty straight forward. Do you not speak English? Or is it because in our world today, there HAS to be a certain connotation to the spoken word?

HOW DID THEY KNOW THEY WERE CALLING BLACKS is a pretty simple question.


36 posted on 04/10/2024 9:27:36 AM PDT by Thank You Rush
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To: Thank You Rush
Because that’s what they did. They targeted neighborhoods that were black. Did they get a random white person or even a conservative? I can’t find any evidence, but I’m sure they did. But the target was blacks in black neighborhoods. They pled guilty of that in Cleveland which was also a target area.

Frankly they were stupid. They should have focused on swing states.

37 posted on 04/10/2024 10:19:25 AM PDT by joesbucks (For 2,000 years Christians have been warning of the Anti-Christ. Now they buy Bibles from him. )
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