FBI Arrests James Brass in $41,600 LA Voter Signature Forgery Scheme

Q: Will the petition management company that paid thousands for fraudulent signatures face federal charges alongside the organizers?

Not based on what has been announced so far. Federal prosecutors have charged only James Brass, Courtney Price and Jateisha Herron, and the public case materials do not name the petition management company as a defendant. The reporting says Brass received about $41,600 from coordinators working with or tied to a petition management company, but it does not say the company knew the signatures were fraudulent or knowingly joined the identity-fraud scheme. That distinction matters: federal charges against the company would generally require evidence that company officials knowingly directed, approved or willfully ignored the fraud, not merely that they paid for signatures later found to be invalid. The available accounts repeatedly say it is unclear which ballot measure was involved and do not identify the company publicly. Prosecutors have also described the company mainly as the entity that paid Brass, not as a charged co-conspirator. That said, the company is not necessarily out of legal risk. If investigators find proof that managers or coordinators knew stolen voter identities were being used, or knowingly accepted false witness declarations, additional charges could still follow. For now, though, no federal charges against the petition management company have been announced.

3 articles · Updated · Fox News · Sep 10

James Brass, 47, was arrested Thursday in Victorville after prosecutors accused him of running a Los Angeles scheme that paid Skid Row homeless people to sign ballot petitions using stolen voter identities.
From February through August, Brass and co-defendants Courtney Price, 49, and Jateisha Herron, 33, allegedly pulled voter data from a database, handed it to homeless participants, and submitted petitions for local ballot initiatives.
Prosecutors said Brass and Herron also signed declarations falsely claiming they had witnessed genuine registered voters sign the petitions; Brass allegedly received $41,600 from one petition management company.
All three are charged with conspiracy to commit identity fraud in furtherance of a state felony, while Brass and Price face additional identity-fraud counts carrying up to five years per count if convicted.
The Justice Department cast the case as part of a broader warning about election fraud in California, saying the alleged conduct undermines confidence in state and federal elections.