President Donald Trump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani has frequently referenced Philadelphia's history of election fraud on behalf of Democrats, as the mainstream media has mostly discredited his 2020 fraud claims as lacking evidence.
But it was not too far back in history, just this past May, a South Philadelphia judge of elections admitted to taking bribes to stuff the ballot box for Democrat candidates, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer.
"Our election system relies on the honesty and the integrity of its election officials," U.S. Attorney William M. McSwain.said in a video statement, per the report. "If they are corrupt, the system is corrupt, which creates opportunities for election fraud and for the counting of fake votes."
Domenick J. DeMuro, 73, pleaded guilty to conspiracy, having deprived Philly voters of their civil rights by stuffing ballot boxes for judicial and other candidates in the 2014 and 2016 primary elections.
DeMuro was a former South Philly judge of elections and a Democrat operative, accepting thousands of dollars in bribes from a"political consultant," from $300 to $5,000 for each election, according to McSwain.
"DeMuro fraudulently stuffed the ballot box by literally standing in a voting booth and voting over and over, as fast as he could, while he thought the coast was clear," McSwain's statement continued. "This is utterly reprehensible conduct. The charges announced today do not erase what he did, but they do ensure that he is held to account for those actions."
The consultant, unnamed by prosecutors, was a former elected official who took fees from Democrat candidates and used part of the money to pay DeMuro, judge of elections in the 36th Division of the 39th Ward, for votes.
The scope of the scandal was few fewer votes than the Trump campaign would need to prove corruption to show "determinative" impact on Trump's presidential race. DeMuro stuffed votes on the scale of 27, 40, and 46 votes, according to the report.
"It was pretty flagrant, and it was repeated again and again," Al Schmidt, vice chairman of the Office of Philadelphia City Commissioners, which runs elections, told the Inquirer. "It was a source of frustration for me because it kept occurring again and again.
"We take election integrity seriously. That's why we've been referring these cases since I first came into office in 2012."
The FBI was conducting the investigation and special agent Michael J. Driscoll called out the "election inference" corruption this past spring.
"Domenick DeMuro put a thumb on the scale for certain candidates, in exchange for bribes," Driscoll told the Inquirer. "As public trust in the electoral process is vital, the FBI's message today is clear: election interference of any kind, by hostile foreign actors or dishonest local officials, won't be tolerated."
The FBI had vowed to continue the corruption probes in Philadelphia and was asking for whistleblowers to come forward to aid the investigation.
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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