o*******t
发帖数: 1 | 1 https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/postal-worker-fabricated-
ballot-pennsylvania/2020/11/10/99269a7c-2364-11eb-8599-406466ad1b8e_story.
html
A citizen deposits a ballot into a box at the county clerk's office in Erie,
Pa., on Oct. 15. (Bonnie Jo Mount/The Washington Post)
By
Shawn Boburg and
Jacob Bogage
November 10, 2020 at 5:59 p.m. EST
A Pennsylvania postal worker whose claims have been cited by top Republicans
as potential evidence of widespread voting irregularities admitted to U.S.
Postal Service investigators that he fabricated the allegations, according
to three officials briefed on the investigation and a statement from a House
congressional committee.
Follow the latest on Election 2020
Richard Hopkins’s claim that a postmaster in Erie, Pa., instructed postal
workers to backdate ballots mailed after Election Day was cited by Sen.
Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) in a letter to the Justice Department calling for
a federal investigation. Attorney General William P. Barr subsequently
authorized federal prosecutors to open probes into credible allegations of
voting irregularities and fraud, a reversal of long-standing Justice
Department policy.
But on Monday, Hopkins, 32, told investigators from the U.S. Postal Service
’s Office of Inspector General that the allegations were not true, and he
signed an affidavit recanting his claims, according to officials who spoke
on the condition of anonymity to describe an ongoing investigation.
Democrats on the House Oversight Committee tweeted late Tuesday that the “
whistleblower completely RECANTED.”
Hopkins did not respond to messages seeking comment.
The reversal comes as Trump has refused to concede to President-elect Joe
Biden (D), citing unproven allegations about widespread voter fraud in an
attempt to swing the results in his favor. Republicans held up Hopkins’s
claims as among the most credible because he signed an affidavit swearing
that he overheard a supervisor instructing colleagues to backdate ballots
mailed after Nov. 3.
The Trump campaign provided that affidavit to Graham, who in turn asked the
Justice Department and FBI to launch an investigation.
The Trump campaign also cited reports of the allegation in a federal lawsuit
filed Monday against Pennsylvania election officials that seeks to prevent
them from certifying the states’ election results.
The Trump campaign, the Justice Department and Graham did not immediately
respond to requests for comment Tuesday.
The Erie postmaster, Rob Weisenbach, called the allegations “100% false”
in a Facebook post and said they were made “by an employee that was
recently disciplined multiple times.”
“The Erie Post Office did not back date any ballots,” Weisenbach wrote.
The Postal Service inspector general’s office informed members of Congress
in a briefing on Tuesday that Hopkins had recanted his allegations,
according to a congressional aide. The investigators first interviewed
Hopkins on Friday, the aide said.
Hopkins’s allegations, without his name, were first aired last week by
Project Veritas, an organization that uses deceptive tactics to expose what
it says is bias and corruption in the mainstream media. Hopkins agreed to
attach his name to the allegations late last week. He was instantly
celebrated by Trump supporters.
Project Veritas founder James O’Keefe on Saturday hailed Hopkins as “an
American hero” on Twitter. A GoFundMe page created under Hopkins’s name
had raised more than $136,000 by Tuesday evening, with donors praising him
as a patriot and whistleblower. The fundraising page was removed by GoFundMe
after this story was published Tuesday, a spokesman for the platform said.
“Your donations are going to help me in the case I am wrongfully terminated
from my job or I am forced into resigning due to ostrizization [sic] by my
co-workers,” the page states. “It will help me get a new start in a place
I feel safe and help me with child support until I am able to get settled
and get a job.”
Separately, on Monday Project Veritas announced it was offering a “$25,000
reward” for “first hand election fraud tips in Pennsylvania.” Late
Tuesday, O’Keefe claimed to have recordings of agents questioning Hopkins
and said that he was pressured to sign a document he did not understand.
The Postal Service said in a statement over the weekend that it had referred
Hopkins’s allegations to the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and the Office
of Inspector General.
The Postal Inspection Service declined to comment on Tuesday morning,
referring questions to the Office of Inspector General. A spokeswoman for
that office, Agapi Doulaveris, said it was still “looking into the matter”
Tuesday afternoon and declined to elaborate.
Hopkins was escorted out of his workplace on Monday afternoon and told not
to return until the investigation was completed, according to one of the
officials familiar with the probe.
A page on the social networking site LinkedIn that matches Hopkins’s name
and other biographical details says he served in the Marine Corps from 2007
to 2012. Hopkins subsequently held numerous jobs for short periods of time,
including as a nurse’s aide and as an employee at a fracking company in
Texas, according to a Facebook profile. The Facebook page says he became a
letter carrier in Erie in August 2018. | o*******t
发帖数: 1 | 2 声称有选票被篡改的邮递员，承认自己在撒谎。共和党的捐助者给了他13万美元。 | h*h
发帖数: 27852 | 3 这智商税收得真爽啊
【在 o*******t 的大作中提到】
: 声称有选票被篡改的邮递员，承认自己在撒谎。共和党的捐助者给了他13万美元。
| o*******t
发帖数: 1 | 4 好价钱，和蘑菇头送给风暴女郎的钱差不多
【在 o*******t 的大作中提到】
: 声称有选票被篡改的邮递员，承认自己在撒谎。共和党的捐助者给了他13万美元。
| n*****9
发帖数: 654 | 5 以后贴link把HTTPS的s去掉，否则连接是断的。
: 声称有选票被篡改的邮递员，承认自己在撒谎。共和党的捐助者给了他13万美元。
【在 o*******t 的大作中提到】
: 好价钱，和蘑菇头送给风暴女郎的钱差不多
| b******2
发帖数: 1 | | l**k
发帖数: 45267 | 7 美新群蛆看完是不是都沉默了
【在 o*******t 的大作中提到】
: 声称有选票被篡改的邮递员，承认自己在撒谎。共和党的捐助者给了他13万美元。
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