The Justice Department has launched an investigation into a Democratic group in Texas after a viral video showed an operative detailing the “roundabout” way it’s “paying people” to vote in the midterm elections.
A source familiar confirmed the DOJ’s probe into Texas Majority PAC on Wednesday. The investigation was first reported by Fox News.
Hidden camera footage released by conservative outlet Townhall earlier this month showed Sky MacAdams, a since-fired organizing manager for Texas Majority PAC, telling an undercover journalist about the loophole the group allegedly uses to skirt federal election law.
“We are paying people $25 to attend a one-hour Zoom class to learn why voting is important and why the Republicans are causing all of these bad things,” MacAdams said in the video.
“So it’s like a roundabout way of paying people for their votes, essentially,” he added, calling the move a bit of a “gray” area.
Federal law prohibits payments in exchange for voting or not voting for certain candidates, with violators potentially facing up to two years in prison.
“You can’t pay someone to vote for someone,” MacAdams also noted. “You can’t be like, ‘Here’s $25, go vote for me.’ You can say, ‘Attend a one-hour class and you can receive $25.’”
MacAdams added: “If I was a Republican, I would be pissed. I would be like, that’s shady as f–k.”
Eddie Vale, a spokesman for Texas Majority PAC, told Fox News that the way MacAdams described the “relational organizing program” was incorrect and insisted that everything was aboveboard.
“We hire Texans to join events where they are taught how to organize their friends and family,” Vale said. “They encourage their friends and family to turn out and vote and send them regular reminders. They are compensated for their organizing work, just like any other job.”
“Texas Majority PAC runs a relational organizing program, which for years has been a standard part of every campaign’s playbook,” Vale continued. “Participants in the program are being paid for grassroots organizing work. The way it was described by one rogue employee is factually incorrect, not how we operate, and they were immediately fired.”
Texas Majority PAC paid $500,000 to a political consulting firm, Relentless, for its Relational Organizing Program in May of this year, according to a state campaign finance report.
In response to the video, Rep. Pat Fallon (R-Texas) called on Attorney General Todd Blanche to open an investigation into Texas Majority PAC.
“Texas Majority PAC, through its documented partnership with Relentless, has openly admitted to defying the law and purchasing votes in the US Senate race,” Fallon wrote in his letter to Blanche last week. “If this is true, this criminal behavior has no place in America and our elections.
“The government has a responsibility to investigate and hold accountable those that seek to circumvent free and fair elections through bribery of voters.”
Texas Majority PAC and the DOJ did not immediately respond to The Post’s requests for comment.
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