By The Vanguard Staff
LOS ANGELES, CA – The Prosecutors Alliance of California, Courage California, and Initiate Justice urged California Attorney General Rob Bonta Tuesday to open a criminal fraud probe into the Committee to Recall George Gascón, which failed in its quest to recall the Los Angeles District Attorney.
The groups said, “The request focuses on recent revelations that surfaced in an article by RedState alleging widespread fraud and perjury by recall officers, all of which were purportedly witnessed by Deputy District Attorneys.”
“It appears recall organizers turned in desperation to fraud and perjury when their campaign of misinformation failed to garner sufficient support,” said Cristine Soto DeBerry, Prosecutors Alliance Founder & Executive Director.
DeBerry added, “If these allegations are true, recall officers pushed a campaign in the name of law and order while committing multiple felonies, and Deputy District Attorneys that supported the recall just watched. Ultimately this fraud on the voters is unsurprising, as this sham recall was funded by the same rightwing megadonors that fueled Donald Trump and his efforts to undermine our elections. The public deserves a full investigation into this alleged criminal conduct.”
The groups said, “RedState first reported revelations that an officer of the recall committee, Cassandra Vandenberg, ‘instructed campaign workers, in front of multiple Deputy District Attorneys, to forge the signatures of circulators in the attestation portion of the petition forms that are signed under penalty of perjury.’”
“If true,” DeBerry’s group added, “this conduct appears to violate state laws relating to perjury and forging, stealing, mutilating, and falsifying judicial and public records and documents. These offenses, which fall under Penal Code sections 118 and 115, respectively, are felonies that carry penalties of up to four-years in state prison and associated fines.”
They added that, according to “witnesses, whistle-blowers, and documents” reviewed by the journalist, “multiple Los Angeles Deputy District Attorneys bore witness to the alleged widespread fraud and perjury and apparently took no action to stop it.”
“The prosecutors that supported the recall did so with frequent and misleading claims that District Attorney Gascón’s data-driven policies resulted in absent consequences and accountability,” said Taina Vargas, Founder of Initiate Justice. “The fact that these Deputy DAs shrugged at a massive fraud perpetrated on the voters isn’t just ironic, it’s unethical.”
“These allegations expose a fraud on the voters of Los Angeles County, one that threatened the integrity of our democratic process,” said Irene Kao, Executive Director of Courage California. “
Kao added, “Voters should have confidence that their vote and their voice matters when they exercise their rights at the polls, not undermined by a sham $8 million recall effort. The national Republicans and Republican mega-donors behind this fraudulent effort must be held accountable.”
I will be surprised if this goes anywhere. I’ve worked on petition drives where the petition gatherers didn’t sign the attestations. The campaign handled that. I think this is a common practice in petition drives. Perhaps it doesn’t meet the letter of the law but is it a bad enough practice to bring a criminal indictment?
While I think you are probably right, this is the one area that I think is legit: The groups said, “RedState first reported revelations that an officer of the recall committee, Cassandra Vandenberg, ‘instructed campaign workers, in front of multiple Deputy District Attorneys, to forge the signatures of circulators in the attestation portion of the petition forms that are signed under penalty of perjury.’”