Two political operatives sentenced Monday to a year of probation for their role in a robocall campaign that spread false information to thousands of Detroit-area voters ahead of the 2020 election. Jacob Wohl and John "Jack" Burkman accused of creating the calls, which targeted primarily Black voters and claimed that voting by mail would expose individuals' personal information to law enforcement, credit agencies, and even the CDC. The calls falsely warned the agency would use the data to track voters for mandatory vaccinations, the Detroit News reports.
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel's office said the robocalls went out to nearly 12,000 people in Detroit and falsely identified Wohl, 27, and Burkman, 59, as the founders of a civil rights group that doesn't exist. Both men, residents of Virginia, pleaded no contest in August to multiple charges, including voter intimidation, conspiracy to violate election law, and using a computer to commit a crime. The most serious charges carried possible sentences of up to seven years in prison in Wayne County Third Circuit Judge Margaret VanHouten's sentencing. Wohl and Burkman have faced cases in other states.
The right-wing operatives were ordered to spend 500 hours registering low-income voters in Ohio, and a federal judge found that their robocalls to Black voters in five states violated state and federal civil rights laws. They were ordered to pay a fine of more than $1 million in New York. "The defendants' conduct used every racist dog whistle—fear of incarceration, fear of the government and fear of one's benefits being taken away—to steal the most fundamental right that we often take for granted: the right to vote," Nessel said in a news release, per the Detroit Free Press. On Monday, per the AP, defense lawyers said both men are eager to put the case behind them.
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