A former Prince William County election official has filed suit against Attorney General Jason Miyares over his office’s botched Election Integrity Unit prosecution.
“As an election official, I worked every day for nearly 20 years to ensure that Virginia elections ran smoothly and according to law. None of that mattered to the defendants, who showed no interest in the truth. Instead, they treated my career and well-being as collateral damage in their effort to promote false claims of widespread election fraud. In doing so, they acted without any integrity, violating my constitutional rights. Today I am filing this lawsuit to hold them accountable,” said Michele White, the former voter registrar in Prince William County.
White had been indicted in 2022 on two felonies, for corrupt conduct and making a false statement, and a misdemeanor charge of willful neglect of duty, though it was never made entirely clear by prosecutors what she was alleged to have done.
The AG’s office never did spell out publicly or in court papers what it was alleging that White had done wrong, with only vague references in court filings that whatever it was had to do with the 2020 election.
The Associated Press reported earlier this year that Prince William County officials had said that White’s successor reported “discrepancies” in results to state officials, but that those discrepancies would not have affected the outcome of any race.
White’s attorney in the criminal case, Zachary Stafford, told the Associated Press in January, after the final charge, the misdemeanor, was dropped by prosecutors, that the allegation against White was that she had allegedly reported incorrect results in the presidential race from the county’s central absentee precinct.
The allegation about the absentee votes, Stafford said, “was subsequently disproven by a Commonwealth witness.”
A judge had moved to dismiss the two felony counts in December 2023 after prosecutors said a key witness had changed his story.
Assistant Attorney General James Herring filed a motion ahead of the December 2023 hearing in which he alleged that an elections worker “conveniently and quite surprisingly provided a different version of events” than the witness had previously recounted.
A Miyares spokeswoman, Victoria LaCivita, said in a statement after the final charge had been dropped that “(t)his case was heavily dependent upon witness testimony, and the inconsistencies in these witness statements forced us to reluctantly withdraw the charges.”
The suit filed by White, who is being represented by Selendy Gay PLLC, Protect Democracy and The Erlich Law Office PLLC, names Miyares, former Assistant Attorney General Joshua N. Lief and their investigators in the Election Integrity Unit as defendants.
The suit alleges that White was made a target of a politically motivated scheme designed to cast doubt on the election’s outcome, and that the charges against White were fabricated and strategically timed to coincide with the launch of the Election Integrity Unit, through which the AG’s office aimed to bolster unfounded claims of widespread voter fraud.
The suit outlines a troubling collaboration between Miyares, Lief and groups linked to the “Stop the Steal” movement that led to the establishment of the Election Integrity Unit, which two years into its existence has not produced any evidence of actual election fraud.
“The prosecution of Michele White was built on shocking misconduct by lawyers and law enforcement officials who ignored the facts in front of them and abused their power to target an innocent person,” said Corey Stoughton, Special Counsel at Selendy Gay PLLC. “There is no excuse for letting politics run roughshod over the truth, and that is exactly what the defendants did in this case.”
“Unjustly prosecuting a dedicated public servant like Michele White does grievous harm not only to the target, but to public confidence in our electoral system,” said Rachel Goodman, Counsel with Protect Democracy. “Election workers are heroes. As we approach the 2024 elections, those who would treat them as pawns in schemes aimed at eroding public trust are on notice: that behavior will not be tolerated.”
More information about the case is available here.
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Chris Graham
