Irony Alert: Trump Campaign CEO, Former Breitbart Head, Accused of Voter Fraud

The Guardian has an explosive story on Steve Bannon, the former head of Breitbart and now the Trump campaign CEO, possibly committing voter fraud:

Donald Trump’s new presidential campaign chief is registered to vote in a key swing state at an empty house where he does not live, in an apparent breach of election laws.

Stephen Bannon, the chief executive of Trump’s election campaign, has an active voter registration at the house in Miami-Dade County, Florida, which is vacant and due to be demolished to make way for a new development.

“I have emptied the property,” Luis Guevara, the owner of the house, which is in the Coconut Grove section of the city, said in an interview. “Nobody lives there … we are going to make a construction there.” Neighbors said the property had been abandoned for several months

Bannon, 62, formerly rented the house for use by his ex-wife, Diane Clohesy, but did not live there himself. Clohesy, a Tea Party activist, moved out of the house earlier this year and has her own irregular voting registration arrangement. According to public records, Bannon and Clohesy divorced seven years ago.

Bannon, Clohesy and Trump’s campaign repeatedly declined to answer detailed questions about Bannon’s voting arrangements. Jason Miller, a Trump campaign spokesman, eventually said in an email: “Mr Bannon moved to another location in Florida.” Miller declined to answer further questions.

So did Bannon commit voter fraud by lying about his residency?  If he in fact maintained residency by moving to another location in Florida, and he intended to make Florida his permanent residence, then arguably no, even if he was spending much of his time in other states. The question of residency is often difficult in practice, particularly for people who live in multiple places. But if he maintained no home in Florida and spent no time living there, there’s a decent chance he is fraudulently registered. These inquiries are notoriously fact specific.

There’s been a similar claim leveled against Ann Coulter for years. 

So while we may for now give the benefit of the doubt to Bannon, until more facts are ferreted out, we can know with confidence that his inflammatory Breitbart news, which fans the flames of rampant voter fraud as part of the fraudulent fraud squad and its network of phonies, would not do the same if they were covering someone like Bannon, especially if he were a person of color.

UPDATE: Michael McDonald checked the voter file and no evidence of Bannon actually voting in Miami-Dade. So is this voter registration fraud? Mike: “I’ll take him at his word that he briefly lived in the home (its a rental) – and at the time he intended to live there.”

But if this is the explanation, why didn’t the campaign say this instead of suggesting he had set up residency somewhere else in Florida? It shows the campaign was flat-footed at best in its response. Now the question: does he really have another Florida residence?

Further update: Here’s some evidence Bannon was living in the home when he registered there. So this looks like much ado about nothing.

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