North Carolina Republican Leslie McCrae Dowless has pleaded guilty after being caught defrauding the government while running an election fraud scheme, the Charlotte News & Observer reports. The GOP operative was ordered to reimburse the money he stole from the government.
According to the report: “McCrae Dowless pleaded guilty in federal court Monday to two crimes stemming from the investigation into the absentee ballot fraud scheme he’s accused of running in Bladen County and other parts of southeastern North Carolina. Neither of the charges dealt directly with the election fraud allegations, however. Instead, he pleaded guilty to two of the four charges he faced related to Social Security disability fraud, and prosecutors agreed to drop the other two charges.”
While the charges aren’t directly related, they stem from the fact Dowless was running his election fraud scheme while claiming to be too disabled to work.
“Dowless entered the plea minutes before jury selection was about to begin in his trial in Greenville,” the newspaper noted. “He also agreed Monday to pay back up to $14,000 to the government as restitution for the disability payments he fraudulently took, but he won’t know for two more months what other punishment he might face. Sentencing in his case was set for the week of Aug. 23.”
Vice News reporter Cameron Joseph pointed out the significance of the guilty verdict as Republicans continue to manufacture lies about voter fraud.
Republicans have spent the last months screaming about mail voting fraud. It’s rare but does exist, occasionally! The last real known case was one of the GOP’s own strategists, whose fraud swung a House race. He just pled guilty to related charges. https://t.co/Pch3v8zBIh https://t.co/hHwtktNXmE
— Cameron Joseph (@cam_joseph) June 21, 2021
