Former candidate for Congress indicted on charges of obstructing justice

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A former Orange County congressional candidate whose campaign mailed letters warning immigrants against voting was indicted by a federal grand jury Wednesday on obstruction of justice charges, reports My-Thuan Tran.

Tan Nguyen, right, whose staff sent letters to 14,000 voters in central Orange County with Spanish surnames in October 2006, allegedly misled investigators who were looking into whether the letter violated federal election laws, federal officials said.

Nguyen, a Vietnamese immigrant, was running to unseat Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Garden Grove) in the November 2006 election. Three weeks before the election, his campaign sent a letter in Spanish that said, ‘You are advised that if your residence in this country is illegal or if you are an immigrant, a vote in a federal election is a crime that can result in jail imprisonment or you will be deported for voting without the right to do so.’

The letter also falsely said that the state had developed a tracking system that would allow new Latino voters’ names to be handed over to anti-immigrant groups.

Read the rest of the report on the indictment of a former Orange County congressional candidate here.

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