Democratic Mayor Hit with Serious Charges in Campaign Investigation
Rochester Mayor Lovely Warren was indicted Friday on charges she broke campaign finance rules and committed fraud during her reelection campaign three years ago.
Monroe County District Attorney Sandra Doorley also announced charges against Warren’s campaign treasurer, Albert Jones Jr., and the treasurer of her political action committee, Rosalind Brooks-Harris.
The indictment dramatically increases political peril for Warren, who was already facing calls to resign for the city’s handling of a police killing.
The Democrat is midway through her second term as the mayor of Rochester, New York, a city of more than 200,000 by Lake Ontario.
State Board of Elections investigators had previously concluded there was “considerable evidence” that Warren, her associates and a political action committee supporting her campaign took steps to intentionally evade campaign donation limits, according to local media reports.
Doorley said Warren and the others took steps to evade contribution limits between Nov. 6, 2013 and Nov. 7, 2017.
“The indictment alleges that it was not a mistake,” Doorley told reporters.
Warren had previously denied any attempt to evade campaign finance rules, blamed errors on sloppy bookkeeping and referred to the investigation as a “political witch hunt.”
Her lawyer didn’t immediately return phone and email messages seeking comment on Friday.
Her arraignment, on charges of scheming to defraud and violating election laws, was scheduled for Monday. If convicted, she would be removed from office.
The Western Journal has reviewed this Associated Press story and may have altered it prior to publication to ensure that it meets our editorial standards.
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