Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty announced Wednesday that James O’Keefe, 42, and Cam Higby, 26, face felony charges of unlawful voting and identity theft in connection with a viral report they released on vulnerabilities in Minnesota’s elections system.
The charges stem from a report in which the two journalists filmed themselves at multiple Minneapolis polling places while dressed in traditional Muslim attire. In the hidden camera segment of the report, they provided names of voters and inquired about the state’s longstanding vouching process.
Minnesota law has allowed a registered voter in the same precinct to vouch for the residency of up to eight others since the early 1970s, enabling same-day registration without standard proof of residence while still requiring the prospective voter to meet other eligibility rules. In the videos, which accumulated millions of views, poll workers explained the rules and, in one exchange, stated that a registered voter serving as voucher is “the ID.”
Higby and O’Keefe left without signing the required oath or casting ballots. Higby later said in a livestream, “I didn’t actually vote. I just showed up and tested the system. But they were going to allow me to vote just with first, last and address. And actually, at one of the polling locations where they told me that I didn’t need ID for myself or the eight other people that I was vouching for, they didn’t even ask my address. All they asked for was first and last, and they couldn’t see my face.”
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The group’s earlier statement denied any impersonation: “The Justice League did not impersonate anyone. At no point did we claim to be William Pomerantz or any other voter. We stated a name and asked election workers questions about Minnesota’s vouching process.” It added that “Justice League journalists did not cast ballots. The investigation was intended to test the limits of Minnesota’s vouching law and document how election workers apply it on Election Day.”
O’Keefe had described the encounters as revealing the “sheer lunacy” of the rules and questioned official criticism after workers indicated vouching was possible for multiple unregistered people.
On Wednesday, Moriarty’s office charged them via summons for intentionally misrepresenting their identities while applying for ballots, citing the statute that bars such misrepresentation “in applying for a ballot.” Case numbers are 27-CR-26-28438 for O’Keefe and 27-CR-26-28437 for Higby.
“It is not against the law to be performative, it is not against the law to be offensive, it is not against the law to say the things they said standing outside the polling place. We can’t let people’s political bent or what they’re here to do affect our decisions in deciding whether to issue felony charges. We take that very seriously,” Moriarty announced in a statement.
“None of that played a role. The fundamental issue here is you cannot go into a polling place and misidentify yourself and use other people’s identity and say that to our election judges when you apply for a ballot, whether or not you intend to vote,” the leftist prosecutor continued. She added that they “did begin to apply” by stating false identities and that the charges are low-level felonies likely resulting in probation if convicted.
Higby responded to the charges on X by describing them as politically-motivated “lawfare,” writing that he “showed how Minnesota allows cheating in elections” and that officials “want me in PRISON for exposing election vulnerabilities in their state” while seeking to “scare all independent journalists who may challenge them.”
Neither journalist went through with casting a ballot as part of the investigation.
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[ H/T Trending Politics ]
