Far-right scam artists Jacob Wohl and Jack Burkman are now facing new legal action from New York state Attorney General Letitia James over a robocall campaign they launched prior to the 2020 presidential election that constituted voter suppression. The robocalls claimed that voting by mail would mean that individual voters’ information would be made available to third parties including law enforcement and debt collectors, which is false, and James is now alleging six violations of the law by Wohl and Burkman, whose robocall campaign apparently reached around 5,500 residents of New York.
Inbox: @NewYorkStateAG is suing right-wing conspiracy theorists Jacob Wohl & Jack Burkman over their alleged robocall plot to suppress Black voters in 2020.
James says 5,500 New Yorkers were targeted and she wants the duo to pay $500 for every violation and forfeit all profits. pic.twitter.com/HWLy5sEnnC
— Chris Sommerfeldt (@C_Sommerfeldt) May 6, 2021
James is accusing Wohl and Burkman of violating the New York Civil Rights Law, the New York Executive Law, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871, and the Civil Rights Act of 1957, as her office explained. James pointedly commented as follows:
‘In this country, our vote is our voice –– it is one of the most important parts of our democracy. Any attempt to discourage communities from voting is as illegal as it is un-American. Wohl and Burkman used misinformation to try to disenfranchise Black communities ahead of the election, in a clear attempt to sway the election in the favor of their preferred presidential candidate. No voter should ever be subjected to such harassment or intimidation when exercising their fundamental right to vote.’
James added that she “will continue the work to protect voters and ensure that anyone who tries to hinder that right is held accountable to the fullest extent of the law.” Separately, James noted, Wohl and Burkman are already facing criminal charges over their robocall operation from Michigan state Attorney General Dana Nessel. James’s legal action is in the form of a request “to join an existing action in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, brought by the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and the law firm of Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP, on behalf of a number of voters and the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation,” as her office summarized.
Wohl has previously distinguished himself through a stream of ludicrous and quickly debunked misconduct allegations against prominent public figures like Special Counsel Robert Mueller, Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institutes of Health, and others.
