The Entire Legitimacy Of The Investigation Is Compromised | Eastern North Carolina Now

   News Release:

NCGOP Details Ninth Congressional District Investigation Problems

    Raleigh, NC     This morning, the North Carolina Republican Party held a press conference laying out the problems with the Ninth Congressional District investigation in specific detail.

    "'The fact remains that a critical election hangs in the balance, and the voters of the Ninth Congressional District are entitled to have their elected representative in place by the time Congress convenes, or to know why they will not have their representative in place, and further to know with certainty what action is being taken to insure they are properly represented in the important matters before Congress,'" stated Chairman Robin Hayes. "These are the words of the three-judge panel, comprised of two Democrats and one Republican. Our position has been clear from the start and I will restate it now: Unless there is evidence that irregularities would change the outcome of the election, Mark Harris should be certified."

    The press conference covered the specific links between Democrat candidate Dan McCready, Jens Lutz, and Joshua Malcolm. Communication has been revealed between Lutz and Malcolm relating to "troubling issues" surrounding the 2018 election, and Lutz filed an affidavit on behalf of the McCready campaign. Of note, Lutz was a former business partner of McCrae Dowless.

    Malcolm also has undisclosed conflicts of interest to join his troubling history. Malcolm failed to disclose his wife donated at least $1000 to Roy Cooper's campaign and that his daughter, Alaina, worked for the NC Democrat Party and was paid at least $2454 from their federal account.

    Malcolm's troubled history began with the Pembroke ABC store, leaving it closed for more than thirty-five months and refused to give press and the public any information. He has a history of dismissing election irregularities, starting with a municipal election in 2011 and culminating with the 2016 election regarding the McCrory complaint about the NC Democrat Party-funded Bladen County Improvement Association PAC. The PAC has been accused of absentee ballot harvesting.

    "These connections between McCready, Malcolm, and Lutz reveal that the entire legitimacy of the investigation is compromised," said Executive Director Dallas Woodhouse. "This smacks of a planned political hit job for revenge, and the more-than 750,000 people in the Ninth and Dr. Mark Harris are paying for it as a result."

    According to The Charlotte Observer, this is at least the fifth investigation into electoral irregularities in the region since 2010. Documents revealed that then-Attorney General Roy Cooper failed to prosecute allegations from 2010. The allegations from the 2016 election between Cooper and McCrory - which were called "over the top," "completely false," and "meant to undermine the results of an election" by the Cooper campaign and NC Democrat Party - were forwarded by NCSBE Director Kim Strach to the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District. A year after Bobby Higdon was the confirmed by the Senate in September 2017, the DOJ issued a subpoena for millions of voter records concerning absentee ballots for a large swath of eastern NC.

    A link to the presentation and the document presented to members of the press is below. Members of the press may access the NCGOP's Facebook Live video of the briefing here.

    Contact: Jeff Hauser

       jeff.hauser@ncgop.org  •  (252) 378-4862