Emails expose right-wing fraudsters’ scheme to use robo calls to suppress Black voter turnout in Cleveland

Authored by cleveland.com and submitted by WhoIsJolyonWest
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CLEVELAND, Ohio — Hours after right-wing fraud peddlers Jack Burkman and Jacob Wohl unleashed tens of thousands of robocalls on Black voters in Cleveland and other cities across the country to suppress their vote in the November 2020 election, Burkman dashed off a giddy email to his partner provocateur.

“i love these robocalls,” Burkman, then 54, wrote to then-23-year-old Wohl in the email that contained no punctuation or capital letters. “getting angry [B]lack call backs.”

“win or lose the [B]lack robo was another great jw idea,” Burkman said of the scheme that would eventually end with both men being convicted felons and facing the largest Federal Communications Commission robocall fine in the agency’s history.

The emails bolstered Cuyahoga County prosecutors’ assertion that the men specifically sought to suppress Black voter turnout in the 2020 election between Democrat Joe Biden and then-President Donald Trump.

The email is among several pieces of evidence that prosecutors here used to charge and eventually elicit guilty pleas from Burkman and Wohl for calls that went to Cleveland and East Cleveland residents. The men also face similar criminal charges in Michigan, which are pending.

The men admitted to telecommunications fraud, a fifth-degree felony, agreed to pay a $2,500 fine and were sentenced in November to two years of probation. Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court Judge John Sutula also ordered the men to spend 500 hours with a nonprofit organization registering voters in low-income neighborhoods in Washington, D.C.

The FCC in August 2021 proposed a $5.1 million fine against the men and their lobbying firm, Burkman and Associates, for calling cellphones without the owners’ consent.

Burkman and Wohl did not respond to emails seeking comment.

At their sentencing hearing, Wohl said that he wanted “to express my absolute regret and shame over all of this.” Burkman said that he echoed Wohl’s sentiments.

The robocall went out on Aug. 26, 2020. It falsely claimed that people who voted by mail risked giving their personal information to the government, which would use it to check for outstanding debts and arrest warrants or to implement a forced vaccination program.

The message was read by a person who said her name was Tamika Taylor, which authorities believe was meant to confuse recipients to thinking it was the mother of Breonna Taylor, Tamika Palmer. Louisville, Kentucky, police shot Breonna Taylor during a botched raid in March 2020 and her killing sparked protests across the country.

The reader also said she was from “Project 1599, the civil rights organization founded by Jack Burkman and Jacob Wohl.”

Investigators also determined the men were behind another call that went out on Sept. 14, 2020, supporting Kanye West’s unsuccessful presidential bid. They were not charged in relation to that call.

Authorities in several states quickly began investigating. Out of more than 67,000 calls placed, more than 8,100 went to people in Cleveland and East Cleveland, according to court records. About 3,400 people answered the call.

Investigators with the office of Ohio Attorney General discovered through subpoenas that the men used Message Communications to send out the robocall, according to a two-page investigative report. The report also said that Burkman chose not to scrub the list of people whose numbers were on the National Do Not Call Registry.

Burkman first emailed a Message employee on Aug. 22, 2020, asking if the men’s check had arrived. Wohl emailed Burkman just after noon on Aug. 25 and attached an audio file of the robocall.

“We should send it to [B]lack neighborhoods in Milwaukee, Detroit, Philadelphia, Charlotte, Richmond, Atlanta and Cleveland,” Wohl wrote.

Five hours later, Burkman narrowed the field to Cleveland, Philadelphia, Minneapolis, Chicago and New York City.

Less than an hour after that, Burkman emailed Wohl that the data and “many zip codes” were loaded and that they had two waves of 267,000 calls ready to go. All Wohl needed to do, Burkman wrote, was upload the audio file and then Burkman would “pick days and go in and hit go.”

Wohl wrote to Burkman at 10:40 a.m. the next morning that he completed the task and “updated the calls-per-minute number to the maximum.”

Burkman replied 10 minutes later, “great job.”

The calls immediately sparked backlash — much to the delight of Burkman, prompting him to send the email praising Wohl for the “[B]lack robo.”

The emails also show that the men wanted the calls to receive press coverage — and agreed to lie to reporters about their involvement.

“Robo getting quite a bit of play on twitter,” Wohl wrote about 3:30 p.m. the day the calls went out. “I think they will have to write.”

In a later email, Wohl told Burkman to deny being involved to “Will,” an apparent reference to the Daily Beast’s Will Sommer, who frequently covers the men’s exploits.

“That will make them write,” Wohl wrote.

In a story published that day, Sommer reported that Wohl wrote in an Instagram message that he was “unaware of any robocall.” Burkman hung up when Sommer began asking about the call and did not answer when he called again, the story said.

The next day, an Associated Press reporter sought comment and emailed Burkman a copy of a story reporting that Michigan’s Attorney General Dana Nessel had launched a criminal investigation into the men over the robocall.

“usually we ignore defamation,” Burkman wrote in response. “not this time.”

In a separate email, Burkman told the reporter that the robocall was “likely a leftist group trying to humiliate us” and that it was timed to “spoil the launch” of a documentary that included the men that was set to air on CNN later that week.

Burkman also told the AP reporter that the two were “filing a 300 million dollar defamation action” against Nesser the following week.

“she knows ful [sic] well that neither i nor jacob re[sic] involved,” he wrote.

In an email to another reporter, Burkman falsely speculated that the calls could have been connected to billionaire philanthropist George Soros.

Burkman also wrote that he and Wohl had “politely declined” requests from Trump’s presidential campaign to produce robocalls in the past.

“we don’t do that stuff,” Burkman wrote.

BlotchComics on February 11st, 2023 at 13:23 UTC »

How the fuck are Wohl and Burkman not in prison?

They've been caught so many times and there are never consequences.

77LS77 on February 11st, 2023 at 11:42 UTC »

When I was a kid, I wondered how nazis happened. How could so much hatred thrive? As an adult, I no longer wonder.

wopwopdoowop on February 11st, 2023 at 11:22 UTC »

The robocall went out on Aug. 26, 2020. It falsely claimed that people who voted by mail risked giving their personal information to the government, which would use it to check for outstanding debts and arrest warrants or to implement a forced vaccination program.

The message was read by a person who said her name was Tamika Taylor, which authorities believe was meant to confuse recipients to thinking it was the mother of Breonna Taylor, Tamika Palmer. Louisville, Kentucky, police shot Breonna Taylor during a botched raid in March 2020 and her killing sparked protests across the country.

These people are just awful