In California, the Covid-19’s influence on the 2020 elections is making a comeback.
TJ Cox used vote harvesting to steal David Valadao’s election in 2018 and sat in Congress from 2019 to 2021, representing a portion of the counties of Fresno, Kern, and Tulare.
“Tax and payment issues dogged Cox throughout his time in Congress. The former lawmaker owed $145,000 in unpaid federal income taxes in early 2020, prompting the Internal Revenue Service to place a lien on him and his wife,” according to Politico.
This did not help Cox in the following election.
Valadao battled back and defeated the Democrat in 2020, showing that perseverance pays off.
As Republican David Valadao and Democrat TJ Cox squared off in Fresno County weeks after Election Day, all eyes were on California district 21 in 2020.
Republican congressional candidate David Valadao moved ahead of Democrat Cox by more than 4,000 votes as the results began to come in and be tabulated.
But as you may recall, election officials stopped counting ballots because of “Covid-19 exposure” as soon as Valadao pulled ahead by such margins.
Congressman Cox, a one-term incumbent, announced his defeat by saying, ” Unfortunately, due to the Coronavirus, we weren’t able to engage in door-to=door personal canvassing and the election results reflected that,” attribuiting his defeat to the limitations imposed by the pandemic.
Cox considered running again in 2022 but decided to support Rudy Salas (D) instead for the congressional position.
Salas, though, cut ties with Cox this past Tuesday, declaring that ” T.J. Cox has disgraced himself.”
The scandal is an indictment for a number of offenses.
KFSN stated:
A new federal grand jury indictment charges former Central Valley Congressman T.J. Cox with 28 crimes, including campaign law violations and for wire fraud in acquiring a loan for construction at Granite Park.
A new federal grand jury indictment charges former Central Valley Congressman T.J. Cox with 28 crimes, including campaign law violations and for wire fraud in acquiring a loan for construction at Granite Park.
FIRST ON @ABC30: Former Valley Congressman T.J. Cox (@TJCoxCongress) charged in 28-count indictment.
Wire fraud, money laundering, mortgage fraud, campaign law violations, Granite Park.
It's all in there.
I'll have details at 11 a.m. pic.twitter.com/LgOVw3JwRy— Corin Hoggard (@corinhoggard) August 16, 2022
Cox is accused of paying family members and business colleagues to donate to his congressional campaign in 2017.
Cox is also charged with misappropriating funds from his companies for own purposes.
According to Politico, “The federal indictment accuses Cox of using a cluster of business entities to enrich himself while saddling business partners with losses. The document describes a scheme in which Cox siphoned off money into secret accounts and used the proceeds to pay off his own debts, cover personal costs like private school tuition and fund his political ambitions.
He allegedly fabricated a board meeting to secure loan funding and lied on a mortgage loan application.”
“Some of the diverted money went toward Cox’s successful campaign for Congress, according to the federal government. The indictment describes Cox distributing $25,000 among relatives and business associates that they could then give to his campaign.”
More on this story via The Republic Brief:
The indictment states, “The purpose of emphasizing individual donations was to keep pace with competitors that received high numbers of private donations and to show viability of the candidacy through individual donations.”
Politico reported that “The indictment further states that cox fraudulently obtained a $1.5 million construction loan to develop a recreation area in Fresno, California by falsely representing it would be guaranteed. The load later defaulted and prompted a loss of more than $1.28 million. CONTINUE READING…