Prosecutors have dropped the last remaining charges against a Northern Virginia election official accused of fraud related to the 2020 election.
A judge on Monday formally dismissed a misdemeanor charge of willful neglect of duty against Michelle White, a former registrar in Prince William County, just outside the capital.
The most serious charges against White had already been dismissed. The Virginia Attorney General's Office announced that he was forced to drop the felony charges of corrupt practices and false statements after a key witness revised his testimony.
Judge drops felony charges against Virginia election workers accused of 2020 fraud
White was indicted in 2022, but Republican Attorney General Jason Miyares' office has never said publicly or in court documents exactly what it claims White did wrong. Ta. Court records only generally indicate that the allegations were related to the 2020 election results, and at the time White was indicted, county officials said the alleged vote total discrepancies were related to which race. It simply stated that it would not affect the results.
Assistant Attorney General James Herring declined to comment on the case after Monday's hearing.
White's lawyer, Zachary Stafford, said after the firing that the government's lawsuit was nothing more than a collection of complaints and that “the underlying theme is that Mr. White did a poor job.”
He said the charges ranged from a minor charge that she moved her office to another building to a more serious charge that she reported false presidential election results from the county central absentee office. Stafford said the allegations were “later disproved by federal witnesses.”
Prosecutors have dropped the last remaining charge against Michelle White, a former election official in Prince William County, Virginia.
“The evidence is clear that Mr. White did not commit any crimes during his tenure as Prince William County Registrar, and the Attorney General's Office wisely dropped the charges,” Stafford said in a written statement. Stated. “This process has been traumatic for Mr. White, and today's firing is only the first step in recovering from that trauma. Mr. White is a dedicated public servant and committed to conducting an accurate election in 2020. The evidence shows that.”
The case against White is the only criminal complaint filed so far by the Miyares Election Integrity Task Force, which was formed in 2022 and has up to 20 lawyers assigned to it.
Democrats accused of voter fraud scheme involving dozens of absentee ballots
“During the 2021 campaign, I pledged to work to increase transparency and trust in state elections. Voting should be easy and fraud should be difficult. Election Integrity Division will work to restore confidence in the democratic process in the Union,'' Miyares said at the time of the unit's formation.
In Mr. White's case, prosecutors suggested that the case collapsed because a witness from the county elections office “opportunistically” changed his testimony to hurt the government's case.
During Monday's hearing, Judge Carol Weimer asked whether the government was implying there was “wrongdoing” that caused the government's case to collapse.
Mr. Herring claimed that he considered some of the witnesses' amendments to their testimony to be “convenient,” but said he had no reason to believe that Mr. White was responsible for making those amendments.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
White's lawyers dispute that witness testimony is contradictory.
