Days before President Donald Trump deceptively called vote-by-mail “corrupt” and damaging to Republicans, his campaign hired an operative tied to a 2012 absentee ballot scheme that sent a Florida Democratic operative to jail.
The plot involving Giancarlo Sopo — who has never been charged with wrongdoing — was highlighted in a report on election fraud that Trump’s campaign blasted out Wednesday to support his wild vote-by-mail attacks. Sopo joined the Trump campaign April 1.
“The national news media routinely and condescendingly dismiss any concerns about voter fraud, including state vote-by-mail provisions,” the campaign wrote in an email highlighting the Heritage Foundation report, a document that was used by the president’s voter fraud task force, which failed to turn up proof of widespread voter fraud.
The email, in addition to exposing an uncomfortable incident in a staffer’s past, highlights the exaggerated nature of the president’s attacks on voting by mail. The absentee ballot scheme involving Sopo wasn’t technically voter fraud, it was caught by authorities, and it never would have resulted in illegally cast ballots even if it hadn’t been stopped.