Man featured at Giuliani press conference is a convicted sex offender

Trenton political insiders watched with bemusement as Brooks took the podium. | M. Scott Mahaskey/POLITICO Man featured at Giuliani press conference is a convicted sex offender

The first person Rudy Giuliani, the attorney for President Donald Trump, called up as a witness to baseless allegations of vote counting shenanigans in Philadelphia during a press conference last week is a sex offender who for years has been a perennial candidate in New Jersey.

“It’s such a shame. This is a democracy,” Daryl Brooks, who said he was a GOP poll watcher, said at the press conference, held at Four Seasons Total Landscaping in Northeast Philadelphia. “They did not allow us to see anything. Was it corrupt or not? But give us an opportunity as poll watchers to view all the documents — all of the ballots.”

Trenton political insiders watched with bemusement as Brooks took the podium.

Brooks was incarcerated in the 1990s on charges of sexual assault, lewdness and endangering the welfare of a minor for exposing himself to two girls ages 7 and 11, according to news accounts.

Brooks has run for various offices, including U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives.

“I started watching it and all of a sudden I was like, ‘there’s New Jersey’s perennial candidate claiming to live in Philadelphia and Giuliani claiming him to be a poll watcher and Philadelphia resident," Trenton Mayor Reed Gusciora said in a phone interview.

James Gee, chief of staff to U.S. Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-N.J.), also said he immediately recognized Brooks.

“Yeah, I know Daryl. It’s so fitting that he would be there,” Gee said.

Gee said he believed Brooks was hired for Hillary Clinton‘s campaign in 2016.

“People don’t pay attention to who they hire. They’re just trying to get bodies, particularly if it’s a white organizer,” said Gee, who’s Black. “And this time apparently, I guess he was on the Republican side of the watchers.“

Brooks said in a phone interview late Monday morning that he did not know if Giuliani knew about his conviction, but said he didn’t think it was relevant.

“I’m not sure, but all he asked — he was asking about the truth. I told him the truth and the other ones told him the truth,” Brooks said.

He also said he did not work directly for Clinton’s campaign in 2016, but for a third-party, pro-Clinton group he declined to name.

Brooks continued to deny the charges he was convicted of, alleging the victims were the children of neighborhood drug dealers he had targeted in his community activism. He also alleged Trenton politicians he criticized played a role as well.

“I went to prison for three-and-a-half years. That’s what they said I was did. I was 25-years-old,” Brooks said. “I was an activist always doing the right thing. They lied on me. The cops set me up.”

The conviction has never been reversed.

This story has been updated to include Brooks’ comments.