Could Not Happen to More Deserving Rat-F%$#S

Serial con artists and right-wing provocateurs Jack Burkman and Jacob Wohl pled guilty to engaging in a massive robocalling operation to suppress the Black vote in Cleveland.

Unfortunately, they did not get jail time, just probation and fines.

We do know now why they pled guilty.

Normally, it would be difficult to prove intent, but they bragged to each other via email, and the prosecutors had iron clad evidence of their deliberate intent to violate the rights of Black voters:

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.

They are also morons.  Seriously. 

Bragging about crimes via email? 

It really remarkable just how stupid one can be and still get a seat on the right-wing gravy train.

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.

They were very busy racist boys, weren't they?

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.

Not enough.

These guys should be chilling in a PMITA prison for the next decade or so.