Latest news with #votingfraud
Arab News
08-07-2025
- Politics
- Arab News
Russia main election monitor closes amid crackdown
MOSCOW: Russia's main independent voting observer Golos, which monitored the country's increasingly tightly-controlled elections for 25 years, announced its closure on Tuesday, two months after its co-chair was jailed. Golos — which means 'voice' in Russian — had for years meticulously recorded voting fraud across the huge country as elections under President Vladimir Putin's long rule turned into a ritual with little real choice. Putin faced no real competition at the last presidential election in 2024 and a domestic crackdown accompanying Moscow's Ukraine offensive has made voicing different views dangerous. 'Justice, alas, does not always win — it must be fought for. And there is always the risk of losing. This is how it turned out this time,' Golos said in an online statement, adding: 'Goodbye.' The group's co-chair Grigory Melkonyants, Russia's most respected independent election observer, was sentenced to five years in prison in May as part of the Kremlin's sweeping crackdown. Golos said it had 'no choice' but to end its activity after the sentencing as it put its participants 'at risk.' Melkonyants, 44, was found guilty of working with a European election monitoring association outlawed as an 'undesirable organization' in Russia — which Golos has repeatedly denied. Golos has described itself as an 'all Russian social movement in defense of voters' rights.' It had observers across Russia's regions and had for years published online reports and maps of violations during elections and had a hotline to report voting fraud. It said Tuesday it had shut down its regional offices. International observers have for years reported widespread voter intimidation, ballot stuffing and other election fraud in Russia.
Fox News
19-06-2025
- Politics
- Fox News
Two men convicted in Pennsylvania mayoral race election fraud case hit with harsher sentences than expected
A judge slapped two men who pleaded guilty in connection with a voting fraud scheme with tougher prison sentences than the government had even requested. "In the court's view, there are very few crimes in our federal code which are more serious than what you have committed," Judge Harvey Bartle III scolded former Millbourne Borough Council vice president Md Nurul Hasan, according to Votebeat. "What you have done is undermine our democratic process." Hasan pleaded guilty to charges after engaging in an election fraud scheme while he was running for mayor in 2021, but the plot to subvert the will of voters did not even work — Hasan still lost the mayoral race. "The defendants' efforts to steal the election for defendant MD NURUL HASAN were ultimately unsuccessful, as defendant HASAN still lost the general election by a vote of approximately 165 to 138," the indictment declares. According to a U.S. Attorney's Office, Eastern District of Pennsylvania press release, "Hasan … pleaded guilty in April to all 33 charges against him — one count of conspiracy, 16 counts of giving false information in registering to vote, and 16 counts of fraudulent voter registration. He was sentenced to 36 months in prison, one year of supervised release, and a $3,300 special assessment." That prison time exceeds the government's request for 18 to 24 months of imprisonment. Hasan resigned from the council earlier this year after he entered his plea, according to the Delaware County Daily Times. Former council member MD Rafikul Islam, who "pleaded guilty in April to all seven charges against him — one count of conspiracy, three counts of giving false information in registering to vote, and three counts of fraudulent voter registration," has been "sentenced to 12 months and one day in prison, one year of supervised release, $1,000 fine, and a $700 special assessment." That prison time exceeds the government's request for zero to six months of imprisonment. The federal judge with the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania was nominated by President George H.W. Bush in 1991, according to the Federal Judicial Center. Md Munsur Ali — who is currently listed online as a member of the Millbourne Borough council — has also pleaded guilty in the case. He is slated to be sentenced next week, according to the press release. "Ali, a member of the Millbourne Borough Council, pleaded guilty in April to all 25 charges against him — one count of conspiracy, 12 counts of giving false information in registering to vote, and 12 counts of fraudulent voter registration. He is scheduled to be sentenced on June 26," the release notes.
Washington Post
14-05-2025
- Business
- Washington Post
Fox News can get Smartmatic records about Philippines bribery case, court rules
NEW YORK — Fox News can get access to some internal documents at the voting-technology company Smartmatic as part of its effort to defend itself against a $2.7 billion civil defamation lawsuit over its coverage of claims of voting fraud during the 2020 presidential election, a New York appeals court ruled Tuesday.
Associated Press
14-05-2025
- Business
- Associated Press
Fox can get access to internal Smartmatic records, New York court rules
NEW YORK (AP) — Fox News can get access to some internal documents at the voting-technology company Smartmatic as part of its effort to defend itself against a $2.7 billion civil defamation lawsuit over its coverage of claims of voting fraud during the 2020 presidential election, a New York appeals court ruled Tuesday. The documents concern a U.S. corruption case about Smartmatic's dealings in the Philippines. The opinion reversed a lower-court judge's repeated denials of Fox requests to peer into the company's records about the federal inquiry, which led to criminal charges against Smartmatic co-founder Roger Piñate and two other executives. Smartmatic says the suit is a world away from the criminal case, which alleges the executives conspired to pay over $1 million in bribes to a Filipino official between 2015 and 2018 to secure business there. Piñate and at least one co-defendant have pleaded not guilty. It's unclear from court records whether the third executive has entered a plea or has an attorney who can comment on the charges. Smartmatic itself isn't charged and put the defendants on leave. Florida-based Smartmatic says its business was decimated when Fox aired false claims that the election-tech company helped rig the 2020 voting. Under pressure from Smartmatic, Fox eventually interviewed an election technology expert who refuted the allegations. The network says it simply reported on newsworthy allegations made by President Donald Trump and his allies, and that Smartmatic is vastly overstating its purported losses. A five-judge state Appellate Division panel said Fox can get some documents about how the Philippines corruption indictment affected Smartmatic's business, reasoning that the information is 'plainly relevant to its current and future lost profits.' The network said in a statement Tuesday that evidence 'shows that Smartmatic's business and reputation were badly suffering long before any claims by President Trump's lawyers on Fox News.' Smartmatic lawyer Erik Connolly said Fox's 'campaign of lies was the number-one cause of Smartmatic's injuries.' Smartmatic is suing the network and some current and former on-air hosts, including Jeanine Pirro, newly tapped as top federal prosecutor for the nation's capital. The lawsuit involves shows in which Trump lawyers Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell portrayed Smartmatic as part of a broad conspiracy to steal the 2020 vote from Trump. The Republican was then in his first term. Federal and state election officials, exhaustive reviews in battleground states and Trump's own then-attorney general found no widespread fraud that could have changed the outcome of the election, which was won by Democrat Joe Biden. Nor did they uncover any credible evidence that the vote was tainted. Dozens of judges, including some whom Trump had appointed, rejected his fraud claims.
