NEW YORK CITY — A pair of right-wing political operatives and conspiracy theorists just added another million-dollar bill to their growing legal woes.
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Jacob Wohl and Jack Burkman agreed to pay an up-to $1.25 million settlement for robocalls targeting Black New York voters in the 2020 election in an attempt to prevent them from voting by mail, the New York Attorney General Letitia James announced Tuesday.
The FCC already slapped the right-wing duo with an over $5 million fine last year in connection to those calls and ones made in Ohio and Michigan.
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“The right to vote is the cornerstone of our democracy, and it belongs to everyone. We will not allow anyone to threaten that right,” said James. “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. Now they will pay up to $1.25 million to my office, the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation, and the individuals who were harmed by their scheme.”
James first filed suit against Wohl and Burkman in May 2021 following an investigation into their “sham” organization, named Project 1599, her office said.
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The calls made during the summer of 2020 began by identifying the fake group as a “civil rights organization founded by Jack Burkman and Jacob Wohl,” the Attorney General’s office said.
“Mail-in voting sounds great,” one of the robocalls stated, “but 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 records for mail-in voting to track people for mandatory vaccines,” the call continued. “Don’t be finessed into giving your private information to the man, stay safe and beware of vote-by-mail.”
The settlement states that the pair targeted at least 5,494 phone numbers in New York, out of the over 85,000 numbers dialed nationwide.
Wohl and Burkman, who have been behind a spectacular series of outlandish right-wing conspiracy theories, referred to the call as the “black robo”and used terms like “‘HIJACK’ the election” in reference to their scheme, the settlement states.
A federal judge in New York found the pair liable in March 2023 for targeting Black voters and sending them false and threatening messages designed to prevent them from voting, finding the two in violation of Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act and the Ku Klux Klan Act
According to Tuesday’s settlement, Wohl and Burkman must pay up according to a strict payment schedule, with $20,000 due in 20 days.
At least $105,000 in total must be paid to James’ office, the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation and the eight individual plaintiffs by the end of the year. If they fail to do so, $250,000 will be added to the settlement, James’ office said, for a total of $1.25 million.
“These men engaged in a conspiracy to suppress Black votes in the 2020 general election,” said Melanie Campbell, President/CEO of NCBCP. “They used intimidation and scare tactics, attempting to spread harmful disinformation about voting in an effort to silence Black voices. Their conduct cannot and will not be tolerated. This settlement serves as a marker for those who seek to engage in such efforts. There will be consequences for their actions. They will pay for the harm they cause to our democracy.”
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