Remember Jacob Wohl and Jack Burkman? The quote-conservative operatives-unquote whose bumbling robocalls to voters got them in hot water with Dana Nessel?
Jack Burkman, left, and Jacob Wohl at an August press conference (File photo)
The pair targeted voters in urban areas, i.e. Black, and misinformed them that voting by mail would "allow personal information to become part of a special database used by police to track down old warrants and by credit card companies to collect outstanding debts. The caller also deceptively claims the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will use the information to track people for mandatory vaccines," according to Neseel's office.
Well. A federal judge has issued an order in the case, as The Detroit News reports:
A federal judge on Wednesday ordered two conservative operatives facing charges in Michigan and elsewhere for organizing thousands of robocalls authorities said were designed to intimidate voters to produce a new, "curative" message correcting the misinformation.
The call must be made by 5 p.m. Thursday, according to the order by U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero of the Southern District of New York.
The new message, the judge ruled, has to state: “At the direction of a United States district court, this call is intended to inform you that a federal court has found that the message you previously received regarding mail-in voting from Project 1599, a political organization founded by Jack Burkman and Jacob Wohl, contained false information that has had the effect of intimidating voters, and thus interfering with the upcoming presidential election, in violation of federal voting-rights laws.”
(Wohl and Burkman were charged in multiple jurisdictions, because the calls went to several states.)
The pair are known for pranks like this. In the past, they've unsuccessfully tried to pin false charges on Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar, South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg, Special Counsel Robert Mueller and others, including Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren. They held a press conference with a man they said was a 24-year-old U.S. Marine, having a long-term BDSM affair with Warren. That scheme fell apart more or less instantly, when the man posing as the Marine kept cracking up while reading his statement.
Speaking of masochism, this phone stunt should be good and humiliating for Wohl and Burkman, but given their portfolion, we doubt they are capable of that emotion.
