Republican operatives to pay $1.25 million for robocalls threatening black voters, New York prosecutor says

By Doina Chiacu

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Two conservative operatives who launched a robocall campaign aimed at blocking black New Yorkers from voting by mail in the 2020 U.S. election will pay $1.25 million in settlement, prosecutor said General of the State of New York. Letitia James said Tuesday.

Jacob Wohl and Jack Burkman were found liable by a federal judge in New York in March 2023 for targeting Black voters and sending false and threatening messages intended to discourage voting.

“Wohl and Burkman orchestrated a depraved, misinformation-filled campaign to intimidate Black voters in an attempt to influence the election in favor of their preferred candidate,” James said in a statement.

During the summer of 2020, robocalls claimed that mail-in voting would track the voter for outstanding warrants, credit card debt and required vaccines, James said.

The National Coalition for Black Civic Participation, which was a plaintiff in the lawsuit, was forced to reallocate considerable resources to respond to the false allegations made on the appeal, James said.

During the 2020 presidential campaign, which he lost to Democrat Joe Biden, Republican President Donald Trump and his allies repeatedly made false claims that mail-in voting would lead to fraud. Trump, who is challenging Biden in the Nov. 5 presidential election, continued to repeat his claims.

The 2020 robocall was also distributed in Cleveland, Ohio; Minneapolis, Minn.; Chicago, the Pennsylvania cities of Pittsburgh and Philadelphia; Detroit; and Arlington, Virginia, according to the filing in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

David Schwartz, a New York lawyer with Burkman and Wohl, said his clients were pleased to have reached a settlement and had put this matter behind them so they could focus on their families and careers.

Burkman, a Washington lawyer and Republican operative, had his law license revoked in March by the District of Columbia Court of Appeals.

He and Wohl pleaded guilty in October 2022 to telecommunications fraud in Ohio after using robocalls to intimidate people from voting by mail in the 2020 presidential election. They were sentenced to two years probation, each to a $2,500 fine and 500 hours of community service.

In June 2023, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) fined Burkman and Wohl $5.1 million for making more than 1,100 illegal robocalls in August and September 2020.

Burkman is perhaps best known for making news for the 2016 murder of Democratic National Committee member Seth Rich in Washington. Rich’s killing fueled a conspiracy theory in conservative media, although Washington police said the killing was part of a robbery gone wrong.

(Reporting by Doina Chiacu in Washington, additional reporting by Sara Merken in New York; editing by David Gregorio and Jonathan Oatis)