Far-right activists must pay $1.25m for suppressing Black voters with ‘depraved’ robocall scheme

A pair of far-right operatives must pay $1.25m after they were found liable for a robocall scheme that targeted thousands of phone numbers to misinform Black voters and suppress voter turnout during the 2020 presidential election.

As part of a lawsuit settlement with civil rights groups and New York’s attorney general, conspiracy theorists Jacob Wohl and Jack Burkmam conceded to a $1m judgment that will climb to $1.25m if they fail to pay at least $105,000 by the end of the year.

The settlement announced on Tuesday follows a joint lawsuit from New York Attorney General Letitia James and the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation and individual plaintiffs alleging a voter suppression scheme that intentionally targeted Black voters with false threats surrounding mail-in voting.

Automatic calls – from the defendants’ so-called “civil rights organization” called “Project 1599” – reached roughly 5,500 New Yorkers in the summer of 2020 with false warnings that mail-in ballots send voters’ personal information to police and credit card companies and would be used to track vaccination records.

“Mail-in voting sounds great, but did you know that if you vote by mail, your personal information will be part of a public database that will be used by police departments to track down old warrants and be used by credit card companies to collect outstanding debts?” one message said.

“The CDC is even pushing to use records for mail-in voting to track people for mandatory vaccines,” the message added. “Don’t be finessed into giving your private information to the man, stay safe and beware of vote.”

New York Attorney General Letitia James said Wohl and Burkman “orchestrated a depraved and disinformation-ridden campaign to intimidate Black voters in an attempt to sway the election in favor of their preferred candidate.”

“The right to vote is the cornerstone of our democracy, and it belongs to everyone. We will not allow anyone to threaten that right,” she said in a statement.

Damon T Hewitt, president of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, which represents the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation and other plaintiffs in the case, said the settlement sends “an emphatic message to anyone who aims to prevent Black people from exercising their right to vote.”

“Voter suppression and voter intimidation are illegal, immoral, and anti-democratic,” he added. “Regardless of whether the perpetrators are government actors or private citizens, your actions will have consequences, and you will be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law.”

David Schwartz, an attorney for Wohl and Burkman, said in a statement that his clients “are pleased to put this case behind them, so they can focus on their families and careers.”

Wohl and Burkman also faced charges in several other states for similar robocall schemes targeting Black voters during 2020 elections. In 2020, they were charged with felonies in Michigan for targeting Black voters in Detroit, and in 2022, an Ohio judge ordered the men to pay $2,500 in fines and spend 500 hours registering voters.

Last year, the Federal Communications Commission fined Wohl and Burkman more than $5m.