GOP Voting Obstruction Case Bound for Trial
A former national Republican Party official will stand trial on charges he conspired to jam Democratic get-out-the-vote phone lines on election day 2002, a federal judge said in Concord.
Judge Steven McAuliffe rejected an argument by James Tobin that the conspiracy charges should be dismissed because the government’s allegations were insufficient. A trial for Tobin, who in 2002 was political director of the national committee working to get Republican senators elected, is scheduled for Dec. 6.
Tobin’s lawyers argued that the allegations against their client might have prevented some from mustering voters, but did not amount to blocking voters from their right to cast a ballot, a distinction McAuliffe agreed to consider.
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