TOMORROW: Rep. Scott Taylor subpoenaed to VA-02 fraud hearing
Richmond, VA – Tomorrow, the voters of VA-02 will have their day in court.
After weeks of revelations of fraud, forgery of dead people's signatures, lies and intimidation - the actions of Scott Taylor and his staff will be aired in open court.
Details: Wednesday, September 5, 2018 at 10:00 AM, Richmond City Circuit Court, 400 N. 9th Street, Richmond, VA 23219 (Judge Gregory L. Rupe)
Congressman Taylor, has been subpoenaed and may be asked to testify on the myriad of transgressions that he and his staff committed.
Separately, a Special Prosecutor is conducting a criminal investigation into Congressman Taylor and his staff.
See below for full coverage of the Scott Taylor Forgery Scandal that has engulfed the VA-02 race...
Scott Taylor subpoenaed by Democrats to testify in Shaun Brown ballot lawsuit (Virginian-Pilot)
U.S. Rep. Scott Taylor has been subpoenaed to testify Wednesday in Richmond in a lawsuit that accuses members of his campaign staff of falsifying petition signatures to help an independent candidate get on the 2nd Congressional District ballot.
Taylor has said he knew his staff was circulating petitions for Brown to help her get on the ballot months ago but denounced the use of false signatures.
The claims of fraud have sparked a separate criminal investigation being conducted by a special prosecutor.
“I got a phone call from a mutual friend,” Terry said, “who basically said that Scott Taylor had called him, and that he was very upset. I said, ‘I’m not taking it down. If he has something to say, he can call me himself.’”
So Taylor did. Terry described his tone as “frantic.”
“It’s an intimidation factor to try and make me back down on it” Terry said, adding separately: “I felt like he was trying to intimidate.”
It didn’t stop there.
“He even told me he had somebody drive past Eileen’s old house, drive past my house, to verify that I was who I said I was,” Terry said.
But 59 – more than half of those reached – declared the signatures to be fraudulent.
Some of the fake entries contained misspelled names. Others included an outdated address next to the name. One person was in the hospital being treated for throat cancer on the day he was reported to have signed. Another said she was out of town attending a graduation ceremony.
Many of those named were elderly people, including Floyd Felten of Virginia Beach, whose name also was misspelled. Felten’s daughter, Carol Campbell, said she’s sure that her father didn’t sign.
“He’s 102,” Campbell said. “He really can’t sign his name that well.”
Scott Taylor Staffer Who Allegedly Forged Signatures Still Working for Campaign (Roll Call)
“You have my word that if anyone in my campaign did anything that was wrong, that was illegal, that was inappropriate or something like that, I would fire them in a second,” Taylor said in a Facebook Live broadcast to his supporters on Aug. 6.
Yet one of Taylor’s campaign staffers, Lauren Creekmore, who has been accused of forging the signatures of at least 10 people on petitions for Brown, indicated as recently as Wednesday evening that she is still working for Taylor.
“So proud to work for Scott Taylor,” Creekmore posted on her personal Facebook page Wednesday, linking to a Facebook Live video of Taylor campaigning in his district.
Former GOP rival plans to sue ex-Taylor staffers in forged signature case (WAVY)
A local attorney and former chairman of the 2nd Congressional District Republican Committee plans to sue two former staffers of Congressman Scott Taylor, who are accused of putting fake names on a petition list to help Taylor win reelection.
The former staffers allegedly gathered the names to get Shaun Brown, who ran as a Democrat against Taylor in 2016, on the ballot as an independent.
A special prosecutor was appointed Tuesday to investigate claims that aides to Rep. Scott W. Taylor (R-Va.) illegally forged signatures to help an independent candidate get on the ballot, hoping to give their boss an edge over his Democratic challenger in the midterm elections.
At least a half-dozen people — several with ties to state or local politics — have come forward in recent days to say their signatures or signatures belonging to their relatives appear on election petitions that they did not sign.
Quentin Kidd, a political scientist at Christopher Newport University, said the special prosecutor’s investigation could hurt Taylor…
“I don’t know how you move on from this in an easy way,” Kidd said. “If this was going to be a toss-up race, this could be the difference between a close win and close loss for Scott Taylor.”
Result of petition signature investigation not expected before Election Day (WVEC)
There’s new information on the investigation into questionable signatures on petitions to get an independent candidate on the ballot in the Second Congressional District race. The details might surprise voters.
13News Now uncovered the citizens deciding who will represent them in Congress, might not have answers as to what happened before they cast their votes.
Those answers would tell voters if anyone actually broke the law in this controversy. The special prosecutor appointed to investigate the potential violations said he does not expect to complete his investigation before Election Day.
“Not knowing before Election Day is really frustrating to voters,” 13News Now Political Analyst Quentin Kidd said.