In this WITF article, Fordham Law Professor Bruce Green, director of the Louis Stein Center for Law and Ethics, questioned Lancaster County District Attorney Heather Adams’ decision to make the investigation into allegedly fraudulent voter registration forms in five Pennsylvania counties public.
An investigation into allegedly fraudulent voter registration forms in five Pennsylvania counties turned six months old this week, but the state’s top prosecutor said he can’t provide any details on it.
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The potentially fraudulent forms became national news in late October when Lancaster County District Attorney Heather Adams announced a criminal investigation shortly before Election Day.
Adams says she held the Oct. 25 press conference to send a message that her county’s elections were secure and to alert other Pennsylvania counties to potential voter registration fraud.
But Bruce Green, a legal ethics expert at Fordham Law School in New York, questioned the decision to make the investigation public.
“ It looks political, it looks like you’re handing one party or another something that’s going to give them a rhetorical benefit in the election or that that’s otherwise going to potentially influence voters,” Green said.
There are rules that limit what federal prosecutors can say publicly before an election, according to Green. In the U.S. Department of Justice, there is a prohibition on announcing political investigations within 60 days of an election, and violations of this expectation in Pennsylvania in September 2020 were reviewed by the federal Office of the Inspector General. But state and county prosecutors have tremendous discretion, with restraints being self-imposed, he said.
Read “Voter registration investigation ongoing, 6 months in” on WITF.