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A Donald Trump supporter was accused of voter fraud committed in the 2020 presidential election and the 2022 midterm elections, but his defense lawyer argued that his client has cast ballots in Ohio and Florida by accident.
James Saunders, a 56-year-old former attorney for the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) who lives in Shaker Heights, has cast his ballots in both Cuyahoga County and Florida’s Broward County where he has been registered to vote for over a decade. However, his lawyer Scott Roger Hurley, an assistant public defender, said in closing arguments on Wednesday that his client didn’t mean to commit the crime, Cleveland.com reported.
The voter fraud allegations come as Trump continues to pursue presidency again in 2024, launching campaigns across the country despite facing several legal challenges and being indicted twice. The former president has long claimed that fraud was committed in the 2020 election, which he lost to President Joe Biden, but no evidence was presented to back those claims and courts dismissed over 50 lawsuits alleging electoral fraud that were brought by Trump and his allies.
Meanwhile, Hurley disputed Sanuders’ case in the Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court, asking Judge Andrew Santoli to acquit his client and to “come to a just result here that acknowledges that, yes, mistakes do happen, accidents do happen.”
However, Andrew Rogalski, an assistant county prosecutor, argued that Hurley’s claim would have been more credible if Saunders, who is accused of two counts of voter fraud, did it once.
“The fact that you do that in consecutive general elections I think takes ‘accident’ to the land of imaginary doubt, and not reasonable doubt,” Rogalski said, according to Cleveland.com.
People protest in downtown Washington, D.C. as thousands of pro-Trump and far-right demonstrators arrive on the eve of the official certification of the Electoral College ballots on January 05, 2021, in Washington, D.C. A Donald Trump supporter was accused of voter fraud committed in the 2020 presidential election and the 2022 midterm elections, but his defense lawyer argued that his client has cast ballots in Ohio and Florida by accident.
Spencer Platt/Getty
Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRosa’s office submitted several names, including Sauders’, to Attorney General Dave Yost’s office for prosecution, but Saunders was the only person charged in Cuyahoga County so far.
Saunders reportedly made monthly donations to Trump’s re-election campaigns and other conservative political groups.
“We don’t know who he voted for, and we shouldn’t know who he voted for,” Rogalski said. “The act of casting a ballot, even if you leave it blank, is what’s counted as a vote in Broward County and Cuyahoga County.”
The Wednesday trial saw three witnesses testifying, including election officials from Cuyahoga County and Broward County as well as an agent from the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigations who looked into the case. Judge Santoli will make a decision in the case in a hearing on August 8.
Newsweek reached out by phone and via text to Hurley for comment.
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