"NC operative accused of election fraud is sentenced to prison for financial crimes"

This isn't him. It's a Galapagos Flightless Cormorant. But it's a lot cuter.

Leslie McCrae Dowless has been sentenced to 6 months in prison for “financial crimes”. (The charges for his ballot harvesting crimes in the 2018 NC election are still “ongoing”.)

I would have liked it to have been a longer sentence, as this was not his first crime, but I guess that 6 months is a lot better than giving him a pass.

From today’s The News & Observer:

“In June, Dowless pleaded guilty to charges of theft of government property and Social Security fraud and agreed to pay up to $14,000 in restitution for the fraudulent disability payments he received. As part of that plea deal, prosecutors dismissed two other charges related to his financial crimes.”

“In 2017 and 2018, Dowless cashed more than $135,000 in payments for his work on at least two campaigns while also collecting Social Security disability payments, the U.S. Attorney’s office said. One of the campaigns Dowless worked for at the time was Republican candidate Mark Harris of Charlotte, who was running for U.S. House in North Carolina’s 9th Congressional District.”

Please read the full news article here:

https://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/article253947168.html