EXCLUSIVE: Fake news tricksters Jacob Wohl and Jack Burkman are subpoenaed in New York over their 'voter suppression' robocall campaign, as state gets ready to join Ohio and Michigan in prosecuting pro-Trump pair
Fake news tricksters Jacob Wohl and Jack Burkman have been subpoenaed by the New York Attorney General over a voter suppression robocall campaign, DailyMail.com can reveal.
The subpoenas, exclusively obtained by DailyMail.com, suggest the state is soon to join Ohio and Michigan in prosecuting the alleged fraudsters.
Wohl, 22, and Burkman, 54, set up robocalls that phoned more than 80,000 people across the county in late August, aiming to dissuade voters from mailing their ballots for the November election, according to prosecutors.
The calls targeted mainly black neighborhoods and have been labelled ‘electoral terror’ by a New York judge in a civil case already launched against the two men and their company.
The subpoenas, sent to Wohl, Burkman and their company J M Burkman & Associates LLC, ask for a wide range of documents and communications including ‘All documents concerning Project 1599’, the company Wohl and Burkman used for the alleged voter suppression scheme.
The subpoenas order the men to turn over material to the New York Attorney General’s Office by 10am on January 5, 2021.
Fake news tricksters Jacob Wohl and Jack Burkman have been subpoenaed by the New York Attorney General over a voter suppression robocall campaign, DailyMail.com can reveal
Wohl, 22, (pictured with Trump) and Burkman, 54, set up robocalls that phoned more than 80,000 people across the county in late August, aiming to dissuade voters from mailing their ballots for the November election, according to prosecutors
The subpoenas, exclusively obtained by DailyMail.com, suggest the state is soon to join Ohio and Michigan in prosecuting the alleged fraudsters
In October US District Court Judge Victor Marrero, who is presiding over the federal civil case, ordered the tricksters to record a new robocall admitting to the crime of 'electoral terror' and to send the message to the tens of thousands of people they previously allegedly phoned with their false claims.
But Wohl and Burkman’s lawyers argued that call would violate their fifth amendment rights, as it would be tantamount to admitting to the crime which they are already being prosecuted for in two other states: Ohio and Michigan.
As charges were filed in Michigan on October 1, Ohio Congresswoman Marcia Fudge noted that similar calls had been received in Cleveland, according to Clevescene.
The case was referred to local prosecutors by Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost's office.
The conservative operatives now face eight counts of telecommunications fraud and seven counts of bribery in Cuyahoga County for the same botched scheme.
A warrant for their arrest has been issued and the Ohio charges carry a possible 18 years in prison if the pair are found guilty.
The two men have long been associated with brazen and botched far-right fake news campaigns.
They rose to notoriety for inept attempts to manufacture sexual assault allegations against Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg and other top Democrats.
A transcript of the robocall published in the New York civil lawsuit showed its use of scaremongering tactics to dissuade potential voters, suggesting mailing in their ballot would lead to forced vaccinations and debt recovery.
A transcript of the robocall published in the New York civil lawsuit showed its use of scaremongering tactics to dissuade potential voters, suggesting mailing in their ballot would lead to forced vaccinations and debt recovery
The two men have long been associated with brazen and botched far-right fake news campaigns. They rose to notoriety for inept attempts to manufacture sexual assault allegations against Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg and other top Democrats
TRANSCRIPT OF ROBOCALL
Hi, this is Tamika Taylor from Project 1599, the civil rights organization founded by Jack Burkman and Jacob Wohl.
Mail-in voting sounds great, but did you know that if you vote by mail, your personal information will be part of a public database that will be used by police departments to track down old warrants and be used by credit card companies to collect outstanding debts?
The CDC is even pushing to use records for mail-in voting to track people for mandatory vaccines.
Don’t be finessed into giving your private information to the man, stay home safe and beware of vote by mail.
‘Hi, this is Tamika Taylor from Project 1599, the civil rights organization founded by Jack Burkman and Jacob Wohl,’ the transcript said.
‘Mail-in voting sounds great, but did you know that if you vote by mail, your personal information will be part of a public database that will be used by police departments to track down old warrants and be used by credit card companies to collect outstanding debts?
‘The CDC is even pushing to use records for mail-in voting to track people for mandatory vaccines. Don’t be finessed into giving your private information to the man, stay home safe and beware of vote by mail.’
Wohl and Burkman are accused of using a voice broadcasting service to place at least 67,000 calls across several Midwest states on August 26, 2020 alone.
Ohio news site Clevescene reported that up to ten percent of the calls were made in the Cleveland area.
At least 3,400 of those calls were answered by a live person or voicemail, according to a statement from Cuyahoga County.
The two tricksters deny their involvement and have previously claimed to have been framed.
In August, Wohl told The Associated Press that they suspected 'leftist pranksters' were behind the robocalls because recipients were shown a caller ID that was Burkman's mobile number.
Burkman called the situation 'a joke,' saying nobody would use their mobile number for a robocall and has threatened to sue for defamation.
But their lawyers appeared to admit the men had at least some role in the scheme in a filing on October 30.
Wohl and Burkman’s lawyers, David Schwartz and Randy Kleinman, wrote that ‘only approximately 5,812 of these calls actually made a connection to either an answering machine or live person’ out of approximately 85,309 ‘phone numbers that were fed into the robocall company's dialer’ – a success rate of less than 7%.
The subpoenas sent to Wohl and Burkman also ask for their communications with Robert Mahanian, a 36-year-old Los Angeles-based cold call entrepreneur who has been linked to the election robocalls scheme.
Mahanian was also reportedly paid around $2,000 by self-identifying white nationalist lawyer William Johnson, who used his robocall service to send out 193,623 calls in Utah before the November presidential election, claiming conservative independent presidential candidate Evan McMullin was a ‘closet homosexual’.
A recording of the call published by website Jezebel said: ‘Hello, My name is William Johnson. I am a farmer and a white nationalist. I make this call against Evan McMullin and in support of Donald Trump.
Mahanian was also reportedly paid around $2,000 by self-identifying white nationalist lawyer William Johnson , who used his robocall service to send out 193,623 calls in Utah before the November presidential election, claiming conservative independent presidential candidate Evan McMullin was a ‘closet homosexual’
‘Evan McMullin is an open borders amnesty supporter. Evan has two mommies. His mother is a lesbian, married to another woman. Evan is okay with that. Indeed Evan supports the Supreme Court ruling legalizing gay marriage.
‘Evan is over 40 years old and is not married and doesn’t even have a girlfriend. I believe Evan is a closet homosexual.
‘Don’t vote for Evan McMullin, vote for Donald Trump. He will respect all women, and be a president we can all be proud of.’
Mahanian’s company, Message Communications Inc., was previously fined $25,000 in 2014 by the Federal Communications Commission ‘for obstruction of an Enforcement Bureau investigation into the Company’s compliance with the Communications Act and our rules relating to the practice of making calls using artificial or prerecorded voice messages—“robocalling.”’
The subpoenas cover documents held by the tricksters from May 31, 2020 through November 3, 2020.
Wohl and Burkman are far-right lobbyists who have become a laughing stock in Washington DC after several failed attempts to smear top political figures including Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris, Nancy Pelosi, Ted Cruz, Robert Mueller and Dr. Anthony Fauci by paying models to make lurid false claims of sordid affairs and drug-dealing.
The pair have tried to peddle outlandish fake claims that Senator Ted Cruz uses a penis pump and took a model to a swingers party.
In October 2018 Wohl attempted his first high-profile smear, accusing former FBI chief Robert Mueller of sexual misconduct.
In October 2018 Wohl attempted his first high-profile smear, accusing former FBI chief Robert Mueller of sexual misconduct. Mueller was serving as Special Counsel at the time, conducting an investigation into Russian meddling in the Trump 2016 campaign
Mueller was serving as Special Counsel at the time, conducting an investigation into Russian meddling in the Trump 2016 campaign.
Wohl and Burkman held a botched press conference over the sexual misconduct claims in a shabby Holiday Inn, where the alleged victim failed to show up and Burkman gave a speech with his fly undone.
In another bungled smear this year, a woman accused Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, of sexually assaulting her in a hotel room in 2014 when she was 20, only to recant the story 10 days later confessing that Wohl and Burkman paid her to make it all up.
Their attempt to throw muck at Senator Kamala Harris didn’t stick either.
Sean Newaldass, 26, gave a press conference with the two lobbyists claiming he had an affair with Harris, but soon backtracked saying he was a paid actor and the only reason he made the claims was because the two lobbyists told him it was ‘performance art’ for a Spike TV show.
Wohl falsely claimed in October 2019 to have evidence of a recent ‘long-term sexual relationship’ between Elizabeth Warren and a 24-year-old bodybuilder Marine.
Critics of the two lobbyists have turned up to their bizarre press conferences held outside Burkman’s Arlington, Virginia home, disrupting them by playing a banjo, sounding an air horn and throwing donuts at the two men.