Officials challenge FBI’S vote fraud case
As trial looms, three Rensselaer County Republican leaders file motions, seek access to evidence
TROY — Three Rensselaer County officials facing federal criminal charges for voter fraud have filed pretrial motions challenging the government’s case and seeking access to more of the evidence against them as their September trial date looms.
The pretrial motions reveal more details about the lengthy FBI investigation that focused on the actions of multiple Republican officials and had already led to the guilty pleas of former Troy Councilwoman Kimberly Ashemcpherson and Jason T. Schofield, the county’s former Republican elections commissioner.
One of the motions, filed by Richard W. Crist, the county’s director of operations, contends the top count against him — conspiracy to violate constitutional rights — should be thrown out because he claims to have had no authority to hire or fire the employees who were reportedly intimidated to help gather absentee ballots in the 2021 election. His attorney also argues that count should be dismissed because there was no federal election involved in the allegations.
The charges include allegations that the trio conspired to use their official positions to violate the constitutional rights of dozens of subordinate county employees to intimidate them into requesting and filing fraudulent absentee
ballots in the 2021 election, when county Executive Steve Mclaughlin, a former state Assemblyman, was seeking reelection.
In his motion to dismiss the top count against him, Crist contends he had no authority to hire or fire employees and therefore could not have acted “under color of law” to coerce anyone to commit a crime.
“I do not engage in direct supervision of any of Rensselaer County employees and do not have any authority to hire or fire anyone and lack authority to impose employee discipline,” Crist said in a declaration attached to his motion to dismiss the top charge.
The pretrial motions filed by Crist and codefendants James R. Gordon, director of the county’s Bureau of Central Services, and Leslie A. Wallace, a longtime political consultant and “assistant for constituent relations” in Mclaughlin’s office, indicate the case is on course for trial in September and that there may be no plea bargain negotiations underway.
Federal prosecutors have recently been sending out trial subpoenas to witnesses who are expected to testify, including employees at the county’s human resources department. The pretrial motions, as well as the issuance of the subpoenas, are a strong indication that the defendants are not negotiating any type of plea agreement and are expected to stand trial.
Crist’s motion was filed as he has joined in another motion with Wallace and Gordon that seeks to compel the government to turn over more of its evidence. Federal prosecutors said they have already met their pretrial discovery obligations and will continue to do so. In addition, Gordon is seeking to quash evidence against him that came from a mobile phone seized from a person whose name has been redacted in the court filings.
Wallace is also arguing that allegedly incriminating statements that she made to two FBI agents who confronted her outside her apartment in February 2022 should also be thrown out because she had repeatedly suggested they should speak to her attorney, former Rensselaer County District Attorney Joel A. Abelove.
The motion by Wallace is scheduled to be the subject of a hearing next month at U.S. District Court in Albany.
In a response motion filed this week by the U.S. attorney’s office in Albany, assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Barnett argued that Wallace’s “version of events is not credible” and is contradicted by the statements of the two FBI agents who interviewed her.
Wallace claims that just before 10 a.m. Feb. 3, 2022, it was raining heavily when two FBI agents knocked on her car window as she was leaving her apartment to go to work and asked her to step out of the vehicle. They told her she was not in any trouble and just needed to ask her questions about the 2021 elections. Her motion says she asked them if she needed an attorney and that they should speak with Abelove.
Wallace eventually told the agents to come inside her apartment and they interviewed her over the course of four hours. At points, she contends, she cried as one of the special agents told her she was “implicated in this,” would go to prison and needed to answer their questions. One of the charges against Wallace
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