Did This Ultra-Liberal Candidate for Congress Accidentally Admit to a Federal Crime?

Wow! If you haven’t been following this story, you should be. Last night WETM reported that the NRCC has requested from the Martha Robertson campaign all correspondence related to her potentially felonious September 30, 2013 email claiming that “GOP ops tried to shut down her website.”

As part of that story, WETM reported that Robertson has released her response to the recent NY Board of Elections Complaint filed against her for sending a fraudulent email. As the Legal Insurrection website points out, however, in her response to the Board of Elections Robertson fails to provide any evidence that (1) her website was hacked, and, more importantly (2) that it was done by “GOP ops.”

Robertson’s inability to provide such evidence, even in response to a formal complaint against her filed with the New York Board of Elections, sure makes it more and more likely that her fundraising email was indeed a false statement. If so, she may very well have run afoul of the federal wire fraud statute as defined here -à 18 U.S. Code § 1343 – Fraud by wire, radio, or television

 NRCC Comment: “If Martha Robertson won’t offer evidence that “GOP ops tried to shut down her website” in a response to a formal complaint filed against her with the New York Board of Elections, then it is pretty clear that she doesn’t have any evidence. That means that she sent out a bogus fundraising email designed to trick her supporters into giving her money. That is certainly wrong, possibly illegal, and definitely makes her unqualified to represent the honest people of Western New York and the Southern Tier.” –  NRCC Spokesman Ian Prior

BACKGROUND

Legal Insurrection, Martha Robertson’s fundraising scandal just won’t go away in NY-23 race, Jacobson (March 14, 2014)

WETM News, NRCC Calls on Robertson Campaign to Release E-Mail Documents, Amey (March 13, 2014)