Leslie McCrae Dowless, the North Carolina political operative under investigation in a 2018 ballot fraud scheme, pleaded guilty Monday to two counts of Social Security disability fraud.
Dowless was indicted in April 2020, and prosecutors said Monday that he had tried to conceal more than $130,000 in consulting fees for work on the 9th Congressional District race in 2018 while he was also receiving disability benefits, the Raleigh News & Observer reported.
The charges stemmed from an investigation into Dowless’s role in an absentee ballot scandal in that year’s race between Democrat Dan McCready and Republican Mark Harris.
Dowless did not immediately respond to a phone call seeking comment Monday. According to the News & Observer, sentencing in the disability fraud case is set for the week of Aug. 23.
Dowless still faces charges of allegedly orchestrating a scheme to illegally collect, fill in, forge and submit mail-in ballots from voters in two rural North Carolina counties during the 2018 campaign.
The State Board of Elections voted unanimously to throw out the November 2018 results between Harris and McCready after hearing voluminous evidence that Dowless had led a scheme to tamper with absentee ballots. Dowless had worked for one of Harris’s campaign vendors; he has previously denied any wrongdoing in the ballot fraud case.
Wake County District Attorney Lorrin Freeman’s decision to swiftly seek indictments against Dowless in 2019 sent a “clear signal,” she said, “that we take seriously the public’s confidence in the electoral process and that we intend to pursue this case vigorously and see that justice is done.”
Freeman did not respond to a request for comment Monday.
Amy Gardner contributed to this report.
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N.C. political operative at center of 2018 election scandal pleads guilty to disability fraud - The Washington Post
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