- 20 Mar 2021 10:09
#15162098
Trump was right after all! The election was rigged ... by the Republicans.
That's why he was so sure that the election was a fraud.
How a Sham Candidate Helped Flip a Florida Election
That's why he was so sure that the election was a fraud.
How a Sham Candidate Helped Flip a Florida Election
MIAMI – The recruitment of Sham candidate started on May 15, 2020 at 4 am with a Facebook message. “Call me,” a Florida lawmaker-lobbyist wrote to an old friend. “I have a question for you.”
Later that day, former state senator Frank Artiles, a Republican, asked Alexis Pedro Rodríguez on the phone if he still owned a house in the suburban Miami village of Paletto Bay. Because in that case, Mr. Artilles wanted something else: to use his friend’s property and last name in the upcoming election.
State Senator Jose Xavier Rodríguez, the unaccompanied Democrat, was on the ballot. And Mr. Artilles, a cunning political operator with a dubious reputation, had a plan: to plant his friend as a candidate, and to snatch votes that could defeat Senator Rodriguez.
The plan worked, establishing one of Florida’s most uncountable electoral scandals – even by a state’s flagship standards that have long been fertile ground for political scandals. Still uncertain how widespread this scandal is, whether it touched other races and whether it was part of an organized effort by Republicans or an interest group to stop the legislative race.
Mr. Rodriguez, a machine-parts dealer who was struggling financially, agreed to help Mr. Artilles, who in turn promised him $ 50,000. He did not switch to any party affiliation from Republicans and qualified for the ballot as Alex Rodriguez. He did not disclose that he actually lived in Boca Raton, far from the district, or that the money for his candidacy came from Mr. Artiles.
In November, Senator Rodriguez, an effective legislator who crusaded for Florida to face the climate change crisis, lost to Republican challenger, Ileana Garcia, by 32 votes out of more than 215,000 votes. Alex Rodriguez received 6,382 votes and played the spoiler.
It was a devastating loss for Florida Democrats in a year of Republican successes in the state. It was also the result of criminal behavior, prosecutors say.
On Thursday, Mr. Artiles, 47, and Mr. Rodriguez, 55, turned themselves in for arrest. He was charged with three third-degree felony charges related to violation of campaign finance law, including conspiracy to commit more than legal contributions to campaigning and swearing falsely in connection with an election.
Mr. Artiles declined to comment on a comment by reporters who had taken him out of jail on Thursday after giving him a $ 5,000 bond. “It will be decided in the courts, thanks,” he said.
His lawyer, Greg Chonillo, said in a statement Friday that his client, whose house was raided by investigators on Wednesday, was an ally with the prosecution “during this investigation”.
“We will investigate the matter thoroughly and with full enthusiasm, representing our client in court against these charges”
According to the arrest documents, how Mr. Artiles devised the plan is a classic South Florida racket, complete with the sale of a rangeless rover and wards of cash kept in a home vault.
But that left the question of where the money for the scheme came from – the Republican Senate president said the party had nothing to do with it – and whether secretly black money was routed through two other state senates last year Was tied Republicans have controlled state government for more than two decades.
On Friday, Democrats called for campaign finance reform – and for Ms. Garcia’s resignation so that a new election could be held. “His victory is clearly tainted,” said Florida Democratic Party President Manny Diaz.
Prosecutors said they did not find any connection between the plan by Mr. Artilles and Mr. Rodriguez. On Friday, the state Senate President, State Senator Wilton Simpson, issued a joint statement with Ms. Garcia saying they “support the ongoing efforts of law enforcement.”
“Senator Garcia has full support of President Simpson as she continues to serve her constituents,” the statement said.
South Florida has a storied history of political and electoral shenanigans, both high-profile – frauds that were so raging in the 1997 Miami mayoral election that a judge fired the results – and low rents – of small-time brokers unlawfully absent. Caught the ballot papers. .
In 2012, former Rep. David Rivera, a Republican, was involved in the shadow campaign to try to hurt his Democratic rival Joe Garcia’s election opportunities. The recruited candidate and Mr. Rivera’s ex-girlfriend, who starred while going to jail. Mr. Rivera, who was never charged, was ordered to pay to the Federal Election Commission last month
On Thursday, Miami-Dade County State Attorney Catherine Fernandez Randley said it is not illegal to intentionally recruit a candidate to influence an election, unless the candidate is also secretly financed.
Is this an attack on our democracy? Is this a dirty political trick? ” He said. “Absolutely.”
At the center of the latest scandal is Mr Artilles (pronounced-TEE-less), who was perhaps best known after his resignation from the Senate in 2017 in the state capital, Thalassi, before his arrest this week, and then cursed and Before a group of black MPs used a racist slur. His political committee had spent money on “consultants” who were models of Hooters and Playboy with no campaign experience. He once refused to kill a college student at a bar near the Capitol.
His involvement in recruiting a sham candidate for the Senate District 37 race was made public in December last year, when The Miami Herald reported that Mr. Artillies was about to put Mr. Rodriguez in a crowd on a ballot on an election night Had to boast. Irish Pub in Seminole County. “It is me, it was me,” the Herald quoted Mr. Artiles as citing an unnamed source.
The ruckus erupted after Election Day over Mr. Rodriguez’s questionable candidacy, when the consequences for Trump separating Senator Rodriguez and Ms. Garcia, the founders of the group Latvas, were so stringent that they led a manual recount.
Local reporters in Tallahassee, Orlando and Miami found that Mr. Rodriguez had two mysterious under-radar candidates in two other Senate races, one in the Miami area and one in Seminole County, all potential plants. (Results in other races were not close.)
Politico Florida obliged three candidates for black money from two political committees that sent thousands of dollars worth of dollars to attack voters during the campaign. The sole donor reported that there was an institution that listed a UPS box in Atlanta as their mailing address. The committees revised their financial reports after Election Day, changing the source of the money to a separate donor, this time in Colorado.
Investigators with the Miami-Dad’s Public Corruption Investigation Unit began sniffing around on November 11, eight days after the election.
“It was doubtful that Rodriguez did not actively campaign,” said Detective Utimio Spero of the Miami Police Department. “Additionally, it was discovered that political committees were spending money in support of Rodriguez’s candidacy, even though Rodriguez had not actively campaigned.”
Investigators found that Mr. Artilis eventually paid $ 44,708 to Mr. Rodriguez in violation of the state’s $ 1,000 campaign contribution limit for the legislative race. The payment came in various forms, including a payment of $ 3,000 and then $ 5,000 that was safely stored by Mr. Artiles in his home and recorded in a bookkeeping on his desk, as well as $ 2,400 that Mr. Artiles made. Gave to Mr. Rodriguez’s landlord.
There was a lot of mistrust between Mr. Artiles and Mr. Rodriguez, who told investigators that they thought Mr. Artiles would not come from the money he had promised them. At one point, when Mr. Artilles was looking for a used Range Rover to buy his daughter, Mr. Rodriguez told a story about finding one in Jacksonville for $ 10,900. Mr. Artilles paid Mr. Rodriguez for the car, even though it was not present. (That money was not considered by prosecutors as payment for his candidacy to Mr. Rodriguez).
But where Mr. Artilles has received so much cash is still unknown.
“William R. Barzi, an attorney for Rodrigues, said,” Frank Artiles is not a lone wolf. “Half a million dollars were spent by political operatives working in the shadows to get ghost candidates to work in a circle in all the different Senate races. It was a deliberate, calculated and coordinated plan to steal Senate seats throughout Florida. “
“The biggest beneficiary of these actions,” Mr. Barzee said, “is the Republican Party of Florida.”
Senate President Mr. Simpson, who ran the Republican Senate campaign in 2020, has said that he has nothing to do with the effort. “I think we don’t have all the facts,” he told reporters in Thalassi on Thursday. “You are learning as you are reporting.”
“I hope this is just the tip of the iceberg,” said former State Representative Juan-Carlos Planas, known as Jessie, who was the lawyer for Senator Rodriguez. Cousin, Joe Juan E. Republicans as “JP” Planas appeared on the primary ballot.
Senator Rodriguez, 42, said the weak enforcement mechanism allows suspect candidates to be made on the ballot.
“It is a shame that it has to reach this level for any kind of result, as this is not the first time such schemes have been put together,” he said. “But this is the Wild West here in Florida.”
- By Fasces
- By FiveofSwords
- By litwin