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Feed Up the Middle. Welcome to Up the Middle, a
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show that isn't about being middle of the road. It's
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about bringing the opposition into the room so our audience
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can hear exactly how the other side thinks. It's about
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arming our listeners with the best arguments by testing them
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against the other side in real time. Partisan extremist shows
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reached the converted. Up the middle reaches the undecided. They're persuadable.
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If you want to join the forty five plus percent
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that is the swing voters and independence, join the show
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that those people actually listen to. I'm yours the voice
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that sounds like yours, because like you, it's filled with
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common sense. Let's go up the Middle. What you're about
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to listen to is part of a two hour live
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rate recorded Sunday evenings at ten pm Eastern. You can
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listen to that show by going to www. Dot Mastiff,
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dot Media, slash u TM all right up next. Three
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Florida Republicans recently charged with various accounts of election interference
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and voter tampering. July twenty twenty six, the Florida Department
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of Law Enforcement formerly charged three local Republican election officials
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in Saint John's County, Florida, following a nearly two year
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investigation into a frauduently primary election scheme in August of
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twenty twenty four, three politicians are accused of participating in
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a coordinated effort to trick local super voters by creating
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and mass mailing tens of thousands of fake voter guides
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that unauthorized use of the official logo and branding for
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the Republican Party and the styling of the Saint John's
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County Republican Executive Committee, and did so to endorse an
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alternative slate of candidates. Three charges for Sarah Arnold, Saint
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John's County Commissioner and District two, Christian Whitehurst Saint John's
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County Commissioner District I, and Dillic rumrelt Row Dylan Rumrel,
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Saint Augustine Beach City Commissioner and former mayor. A prominent
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political campaign consultant, Brianna Jordan, was also charged alongside of them,
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as well as a few campaign associates criminal charges. Because
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the case presented local conflicts of interests, he was reassigned
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by an executive order from Governor Rondasanis to the eighth
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Judicial district. Each of the three elected officials faces the
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sameriminal misdemeanor charges. They are creating an unauthorized voter guide,
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first degree misdemeanor under Florida Statute one oh six point
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one four three six. It is illegal to represent a
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publication as an official party endorsed voter guide without explicit
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written permission from the party leadership and without including the
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legally required disclaimers stating who actually paid for the endorsement
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or advertisement. Number two criminal conspiracy, second degree misdemeanor under
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Florida statute. They are charged with conspiring together to orchestrate
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the scheme. Just talking about it is actually against the law.
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According to criminal affidavits, the officials directly participated in a
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secret envelope stuffing operation at a Saint Augustine residence to
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prepare between ten thousand and thirty thousand of the fakeners
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to be distributed ahead of the twenty twenty four Republican primary. Wow,
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I gotta do something here on TikTok to keep me going.
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So there's that additional felony. Note. While the three elected
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officials face up to a year and a half behind
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bars if convicted, their political consultant Brianna Jordan, faces the
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most severe legal jeopardy. In addition to the voter guide
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and conspiracy charges, she was hit with third degree felony
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charges for tampering with physical evidence. Prosecutors alleged that once
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she realized an official investigation was closing in, she took
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the remaining undistributed fake voter guides into her backyard and
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burned them to destroy the evidence. Mm hmmm. While the
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Florida Department of Law Enforcement in the Eighth Judicial Circuit,
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state Attorney's Office ultimately pursued misdemeanor charges against commissioners Sarah Arnold,
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Load full transcript
Christian Whitehurst, and Dylan Rumrell, legal analysts and election integrity
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advocates noted that the underlying actions of the scheme could
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have theoretically intersected with several felony level statutes. Prosecutors generally
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have broad discretion and choose charges based on what they
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can prove beyond a reasonable doubt with the available evidence,
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not all the time, sometimes they make charges anyway. However,
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looking at the nature of the secret envelope stuffing operation
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and mass deception plot, the three could have potentially faced
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the following felony charges. But didn't tampering with physical evidence
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third degree felony. This is exact charge that their political consultant,
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Brianna excuse me, Brianna Jordan, was hit with. Under Florida statute,
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it's a third degree felony to alter, destroy, or conceal
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any document or thing with the intent to impair its
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verity or availability in an investigation. Why they weren't charged.
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State affidavits explicitly note that it was Jordan who panicked
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and ordered an intern to buy a backyard grill to
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burn the remaining undistributed fake voter guides. Once local media
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broke the story, because there was no evidence that Arnold
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Whitehurst or Rumrel directly participated in or directed the physical
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destruction of the evidence, they avoided this felony count grand
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theft were organized scheme to defraud under Florida law and
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organized scheme to defraud in Bob's a systematic, ongoing course
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of conduct with intent to defraud one or more persons
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by false or fraudulent pretenses. Furthermore, the operation were poorly
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cost tens of thousands of dollars to print, stamp, and
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mail up to thirty thousand counterfeit items. Why they weren't charged.
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White collar fraud and grand theft charges typically require proving
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a distinct, measurable financial loss to a specific victim or
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the illicit personal acquisition of tangible property funds. While the
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scheme was a massive political fraud designed to trick voters,
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it did not strictly fit the statutory
definition of a
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financial fraud scheme aimed at dealing money or property from
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the victims. Number three would be identity theft and the
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criminal use of personal identification information, a third degree felony conspiracy.
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Conspirators explicitly used the official name, registered trademark, logo, and
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likeness of Saint John's County Republican Executive Committee without authorization.
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Under Florida statute, Fraudulently using the identity and the information
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of another person, which illegally includes a business or incorporated
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politicals the committee can be a felony. Why they were
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in charge, prosecutors chose to utilize a highly specific, tailored
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election integrity law instead. Florida statute explicitly criminalizes the unauthorized
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publication of political party voter guides. Exactly what they printed
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is a no note. Because the legislature created a specific
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statute explicitly governing fake voter guides. Prosecutors almost always default
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to the specific statute rather than attempting to apply broader,
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more generalized identity theft laws felony election fraud is number
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four corrupt practices. Florida has strict felony laws regarding to
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voter intimidation, ballot stuffing, and official misconduct by public officials.
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Why they weren't charged under Florida's election code. Voter tampering
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or election fraud felony generally require interference with the mechanics
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of voting, such as tampering with voting machines, illegally marking
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a ballot, forging signatures in mail in ballots. We actually
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got one of them, by the way, it's another story,
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not this one. Or destroying actual votes. Distributing this leading
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campaign literature, even when highly deceptive and malicious, is legally
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classified as a campaign finance slash disclosure violation rather than
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direct ballot tampering. So I asked AI if that was
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a formality or loophole, whereas that they just haven't furthered
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their criminal scheme into that third degree felony, It is
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less about a loophole or an uncompleted scheme, and more
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about the way American statutory law and prosecutor of strategy work.
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The case boiled down to specific legal definitions and strategic
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calculus by the Eighth Judicial Circuit State Attorney. It's not
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a loophole, it's statutory tailoring. In criminal law, there is
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a core doctrine in the legislature writes a specific law
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to punish a very specific behavior. Prosecutors are generally expected
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to use that law rather than stretching a broad, generic
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law to fit Larida has a statute explicitly written for
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exactly this scenario. Because of specific law exists for distributing
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fake party endorsements. I mean, did this happen before? Is
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that why we have this law? Uugh? Because specific law
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exists for distributing fake party endorsements using a broad felony
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like identity theft or grand fraud would be seen by
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a judge as an overreach. If prosecutors tried to charge
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them with felony identity theft for using the local GP logo,
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defense attorneys would argue that the legislature intended fake political
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mailers to be handed under the election code, not white
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collar property theft laws. The felony charges could easily be
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thrown out. In that case, the evidence blocked the felony path.
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They didn't escape felony charges because the scheme wasn't furthered enough.
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The scheme was fully completed. They successfully printed, stuffed, and
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mailed thousands of fake guides and it directly impacted the
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August twenty twenty four election. One candidate and Marie Evidence
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lost her primary to Commissioner Whitehurst by just eight hundred
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votes and blames the fake mailer. Instead, they avoided felonies
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because the chain of execution the burning of evidence destroying
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evidence as a third degree felony. However, the FDLI investigation
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and sworn affidavits from interns in campaign stayoffs staff revealed
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that their political consultant, Brionna Jordan, was the one who panicked,
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bought a backyard grill, and physically burned the leftover guides
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from local
media broke When local media broke the story,
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because the state couldn't prove the three politicians ordered or
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participated in the backyard burning, only Jordan got hit with
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a felony. The post office handoff, Jordan and her intern
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were the ones who physically took the bins to post
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offices in other counties to hide their origins a strategic
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decision by the prosecutor. Misdemeanors are much easier and faster
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proved to prove beyond a reasonable doubt than complex felonies.
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Charging them with a felony would require proving things like
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intent to commit financial fraud or conspiracy to destroy physical evidence,
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which opens the door for a skilled defense team to
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create doubt. With the misdemeanor charges, the state's cases open
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and shut. Witnesses placed Sarah Arnold, Christian Whitehurst, and Dylan
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Rumrell inside their rented campaign house directly sticking stamps and
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labels on unauthorized mailors. The state has them dead to
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rights on the literal text of the statue. Even though
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the charges are only misdemeanors, the consequences for these politicians
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isn't just a slap on the wrist. Sarah Arnold chose
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not to run for a re election as the investigation loomed.
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Christian Whitehurst and Dylan Rumrell are facing massive public pressure
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to resign immediately. Florida law gives Governor Ron DeSantis the
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executive thardy from missuspend elected of local officials from office
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when they are facing criminal charges, meaning a misdemeanor conviction
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can still completely end their political careers. There we go
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so again, and this is where I mean, I get it.
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They're guilty, They're guilty, but there's always that what if.
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And keep in mind, I spent twenty three years in
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law enforcement. My job was to find people guilty right wrong.
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My job was to investigate to find the truth. And
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I've always said in this conversation that there are plenty
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of people who went unpunished in my investigations because I
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was not there. When I say I was not there,
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I was not capable, based on the investigation, to find
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them guilty of what we were investigating. Oh, I could
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have found more circumstantial help. This lady in Kansas from
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the forty eight Hours episode that I watched last night
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with my neighbors was convicted of murder in another state
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that they couldn't prove she was in. How do you
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murder somebody in another state when the prosecution can't prove
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you were there? And the girl's the woman, the murderer's daughter,
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the alleged the accused daughter, the daughter of the accused.
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There we go. That sounds better you can hear what
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I'm saying there. The daughter of the accused said, all
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mom had to do was show us how she wasn't
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in Kansas. No, actually that's not all she had to do.
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All she had to do was sit there. It's the
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prosecution's job to show and prove beyond a reasonable doubt
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that in fact, she was no longer in Colorado and
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was in Kansas and committed those murders. Same thing with
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my obligation as a criminal investigator, and there were plenty
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of cases we could not take far enough to make
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that proof. So we didn't make the allegations. We didn't
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roll the dice, we didn't try to pin other things
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on them, like this case with these Florida public officials.
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I get it. I don't need to see felonies on
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them if there's no felonies that they committed. But I
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think the bigger lesson here is this is the party
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who's talking about election interference, that they're going to be
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the ones give election integrity. And believe me when I
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tell you, these are not the only three that I've
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got who have committed such acts. There's another one. I
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don't have them collated. They're all in like inboxes from
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Facebook or I texted myself. When I see this stuff,
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usually I open up a copy of the show notes
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in my phone on Google Docs, and you know, I
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can access this stuff wherever. But I've been sending it
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to myself just out of in the interest of time.
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Now it's not really collated as well as what I
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would like. Anyway, I'm not seeing any of the Democrats,
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the ones the Trump administration is actually accusing of election
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interference actually doing the election interference. Again we get back
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to projection. Mm hmmm. Hey a, it's Zeros. My podcast
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episodes are created from my two hour weekly radio show,
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so sometimes as is now ends abruptly at the end
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of the segment, there's a bit of a transition into
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the next one, so you'll hear the rest of the
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show in the next episode. Please join us Sunday evenings
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ten pm Eastern or up the Middle live by going
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to www dot mastuff dot media slash u t M.
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Thanks for listening. Hey A, it's Zeros. My podcast episodes
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are created from my two hour weekly radio show, so
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sometimes as is now ends abruptly at the end of
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the segment, there's a bit of a transition into the
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next one, so you'll hear the rest of the show
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in the next episode. Please join us Sunday evenings, ten
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pm Eastern up the Middle live by going to w
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w W dot Mastuff dot Media, slash U t M.
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Thanks for listening. That's all, folks.