Two Republicans visited a voter fraud suspect in jail. An attorney now wants their notes
An attorney for a woman accused of being part of an organized voter fraud ring in Fort Worth has subpoenaed a Republican political consultant over his alleged jailhouse meetings with her.
In an application for the subpoena, attorney Greg Westfall alleges that the target of the subpoena, Aaron Harris — a Republican who heads Direct Action Texas and helped spur the voter fraud investigation — met with Leticia Sanchez twice on the day after she was jailed on indictments issued in the case.
He was accompanied in these visits by Alex Kim, an attorney, Westfall alleges in the application that includes several surveillance photos showing Harris and Kim inside the Tarrant County Jail lobby.
The subpoena is the latest development in a case alleging that four women are part of a ring that targeted voters on the city’s north side.
Sanchez, her daughter Leticia Sanchez Tepichin, Maria Solis and Laura Parra were indicted in October on charges related to voter fraud.
The subpoena by Westfall, who represents Tepichin, seeks notes from the Oct. 12 jailhouse meetings with his client’s mother.
“There is no record that Judge Alex Kim ever represented Leticia Sanchez, so there would be no reason to believe communications between them would be protected under the attorney/client privilege or work product privilege...” a subpoena attachment states.
The subpoena also seeks all correspondence between Harris and Kim regarding the jail visit and subsequent text messages with Sanchez.
On Wednesday, State District Judge Scott Wisch issued a gag order in the case, calling on attorneys involved to “not make public statements nor answer any questions about the case to the press.” The gag order also extended to the defendant in the case.
Jailhouse meeting
Kim, who a month after this jailhouse visit was elected incoming 323rd District Judge, said he visited Sanchez in jail to see if she needed an attorney. Kim said Harris, who accompanied him to the jail, worked for him at the time.
“Attorneys can visit people with their staff,” Kim said.
In response to the subpoena, Kim said he and Harris will turn over all correspondence with Sanchez, which has already been submitted to the Attorney General’s office.
The first jailhouse meeting, he said, lasted for about 10 to 15 minutes. The second meeting was because Sanchez asked about her daughter. Kim said he went to the front desk to ask about that and found out that someone had posted bond for both but Sanchez had yet been released.
Kim said he followed up with Sanchez through texts but she hired someone else.
Harris, who was referred to as “Phillip Aaron Harris” in the court documents, did not immediately return a telephone call to the Star-Telegram.
Voter fraud investigation
In 2016, Harris talked publicly about looking into local voting concerns.
That year, shortly before the presidential election, he said he formally filed a voter fraud complaint regarding mail-in ballots — which let people vote from their homes without showing photo IDs — with the Secretary of State’s Office.
And Harris referred to a Jan. 22, 2016, letter in which the Texas Secretary of State’s office referred his “allegations of criminal activity in Tarrant County” to the Texas Attorney General’s Office.
The AG’s office declined at the time to “confirm or deny” any local investigation.
On Oct. 12, 2018, the AG’s office announced there was an “organized voter fraud ring” in Tarrant County.
Paxton’s office said Sanchez, Tepichin, Solis and Parra were arrested and indicted on charges that they targeted or stole the votes of elderly people living on Fort Worth’s north side. Paxton’s office said these women allegedly were paid to target voters “in a scheme to generate a large number of mail ballots and then harvest those ballots for specific candidates in 2016.”
“My office is committed to ensuring that paid vote harvesters who fraudulently generate mail ballots, stealing votes from seniors, are held accountable for their despicable actions and for the damage they inflict on the electoral process,” Paxton said in a written statement.
2016 investigation
Harris publicly talked about how he and a team he formed sifted through thousands of mail-in ballots. He claimed they found cases where voter signatures on envelopes that contain ballots didn’t match signatures on requests for mail-in ballots.
And he referred to some campaign workers who allegedly removed ballots from voters’ mailboxes and filled out the forms themselves.
“This vote harvesting operation preys on the elderly and the economically disadvantaged, who are among our most vulnerable neighbors,” Harris said in a 2016 statement. “This research has uncovered major flaws in the election code and its enforcement. We were happy to assist the AG’s office in their investigation.
“Given the magnitude of this issue, we must reform the election code to restore the integrity of the process.”
Westfall’s subpoena also requests copies of all documents, including emails, between Harris and employees with the Attorney General and Secretary of State offices pertaining to his investigation “that ultimately forms the basis of this case.”
After Harris began talking about this investigation shortly before the 2016 general election, the United Hispanic Council filed a complaint with the Department of Justice, saying the investigation into possible voter fraud “left a trail of confused and upset seniors who are now afraid of voting or participating via the absentee ballot process.”
After that complaint was filed, Harris made a post on Facebook.
“So I expose the fraud, and those who are stealing the votes and suppressing voters want to sue me. They are going to be very surprised when the facts come out in this one,” he posted. “Strap in, this is going to be a fun ride.”
