Republican operative Paul Erickson sentenced to federal prison

[RandySF]

A Sioux Falls man who used his connections in the conservative movement to help his Russian girlfriend gain political access was sentenced Monday to serve seven years in federal prison.

Paul Erickson was not charged with any wrongdoing involving his efforts to help Maria Butina make inroads with political contacts. Instead, he was accused of defrauding investors in various schemes over the last 20 years.

Butina, a young woman who portrayed herself as a gun rights activist, was deported last fall after serving time for failing to register as a foreign agent. Her role in his downfall did not come up Monday.

Erickson came under the scrutiny of federal investigators who were monitoring Butina. That scrutiny lead to an investigation of his various business enterprises, which existed to defraud investors. For example, Erickson had defrauded conservative investors starting in the late 1990s out of a company called Compass Care, which promised to build Christian-based nursing homes. He also had a venture in the Bakken Oil Fields in North Dakota that he used to defraud investors, according to his indictment. It was the Bakken incident that lead Erickson to plead guilty.




https://www.argusleader.com/story/news/2020/07/06/former-political-operative-paul-erickson-maria-butina-sentencing/5383306002/

[mucifer]

1. trump will pardon

[efhmc]

3. Wny? DJT does not care enough about this person.

Plus he harmed conservative investors.

[mucifer]

4. he was helping putin

[rockfordfile]

7. I agree

[muriel_volestrangler]

8. For the record, Trump did pardon him

See https://www.democraticunderground.com/100214983121

[efhmc]

9. So what did I miss? Why jai for him?

[muriel_volestrangler]

10. He's a Republican operative. His world is involved in election fixing. As such, useful to Trump

and it's useful for Trump to indicate such people will get pardons.

He was associated with Maria Butina, the Russian spy. Her boyfriend was Patrick Byrne, the Overstock guy. He is involved in the Arizona and Michigan election scams.

According to charging documents, Peters and her associate Belinda Knisley contacted a guy named Gerry Wood about doing some computer work for the county. They did a complete background check and issued him a badge, but then they took it back and didn't employ him after all. Instead, they deactivated security cameras, gave Wood's badge to someone else, passed the imposter off as a new employee recently transferred from the DMV, and allowed him to both copy data from the voting machines and attend a "trusted build" where Dominion Voting Systems updated the equipment.

The New York Times ran a piece on Peters this weekend, revealing that the imposter was a former surfer being paid by Patrick Byrne, the Overstock Dot Com weirdo who used to bump bits with Russian agent Maria Butina, and spent the past two years flogging lies about rigged elections and trying to get Trump to declare martial law.

Conan Hayes was a former pro surfer who had worked with Mr. Trump’s legal team as it challenged the 2020 results. In 2021, Mr. Byrne paid him around $200,000 to continue his work for a year, according to Mr. Byrne.

According to an account from Mr. Byrne, and confirmed by Mr. Hayes, he attended the trusted build on May 25, 2021. Mr. Hayes called Mr. Byrne from inside the Mesa County election offices, speaking in a hushed voice and explaining that he’d been invited to make backup copies of machines by a government official who thought that a cover-up was underway, Mr. Byrne said. When the two spoke over FaceTime, Mr. Byrne saw Mr. Hayes was dressed like a computer “nerd” and wearing someone else’s identification tag, Mr. Byrne said.

Hayes was also involved in the effort to prove Michigan's election was stolen, by spinning a clerical error in Antrim County into a grand plot to steal the state for Joe Biden. The data Hayes allegedly stole in Colorado proves nothing, but that hasn't stopped Lindell's crew from citing it as proof of shit they already believe for no other reason than that they really, really want it to be true.
...
Gerry Wood -- the guy the badge was supposed to be for -- and Peters both gave interviews to conservative radio host Jimmy Sengenberger, in which they accused each other of lying about the events in question. After Wood testified that he'd been at his kids' graduation party during the "trusted build" with Dominion, Peters said he'd "perjured himself on the stand."

https://www.wonkette.com/colorado-election-clerk-tina-peters-knows-the-election-was-stolen-and-she-don-t-need-no-stinkin-evidence

[DonaldsRump]

2. A video...no comment required

[Wellstone ruled]

5. And to thing his close personnal friends

John Thune,Mike Rounds and Kristy Noem walk away unscathed.

[muriel_volestrangler]

6. His lawyer asked for him to be confined at home, due to higher risk from coronavirus

after a heart valve replacement. The judge pointed out Erickson walked into court not wearing a mask, so didn't seem to think he was that much at risk after all. Hah!

Link to tweet

"Court docs say Erickson, an @NRA ally, and Butina, who infiltrated the highest ranks of the NRA before she was sent back to Russia, swindled $2.3 million from victims, including a FOX news commentator and a congressman."
Which commentator and which congressman were bedazzled by the beautiful Russian and the Republican operative? The public should know which are the gullible ones that can't be relied on.