GOP official, who says Trump election was stolen, is caught in election fraud

A Georgia Republican Party official who echoed claims by former President Donald Trump that the 2020 election was fraudulent was himself recently found guilty of illegally voting nine times over several years.

Brian Pritchard, the Georgia GOP’s first vice chairman, must pay a $5,000 and “be publicly reprimanded for his conduct” by the State Election Board after a judge ruled he voted while on probation for forgery and other felonies, according to reports.

Investigations consistently have found no evidence of mass fraud in 2020.

Trump is charged alongside 18 other people in Georgia — including former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows — with violating the state’s anti-racketeering law by scheming to illegally overturn his 2020 election loss.

The indictment, handed up in August, accuses Trump or his allies of suggesting Georgia’s Republican secretary of state could “find” enough votes for him to win the battleground state; of harassing an election worker who faced false claims of fraud; an, attempting to persuade Georgia lawmakers to ignore the will of voters and appoint a new slate of Electoral College electors favorable to Trump.

In the months since, several of the defendants, including lawyers Sidney Powell and Kenneth Chesebro, have pleaded guilty.

A trial date for Trump and the others has not yet been set, and the case in recent weeks has been consumed by revelations of a personal relationship between Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, whose office brought the case, and an outside prosecutor she hired.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Matt Arco may be reached at marco@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter at @MatthewArco.

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