Outrageous! Tarrant County Texas Sheriff Won’t Investigate Police Body Cam Footage of Ballot Harvesting “Confession”

Last month The Gateway Pundit published an exposé on an authenticated police body cam footage obtained through open records request in Fort Worth, TX.   The story began to pick up traction and a follow-up was written by Kanekoa, including a condensed 2-minute version of the police body cam footage.  It is still worth it to watch the entire 11 minutes or so of footage here.

The Tarrant County Sheriff has decided not to investigate the evidence due to a “conflict of interest.”  The Fort Worth Star-Telegram writes:

The Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office will not investigate voter fraud claims made in body camera footage about Democratic County Judge candidate Deborah Peoples, according to a press release Monday evening.

Because Peoples is at the center of the claims and Sheriff Bill Waybourn has endorsed candidates on the ballot, the release states that Waybourn believes it would be “inappropriate” for the sheriff’s office to investigate.

A representative for the sheriff’s office told the Star-Telegram Tuesday afternoon that they had made the attorney general’s office aware of the video and that the sheriff’s office had gotten complaints about it and concerns about voter fraud from callers.

An Open Records Request with Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office returned no responsive records, however, the Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office did tell The Gateway Pundit that they made the Attorney General’s office aware of this issue via phone communications.  An Open Records Request to the Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office has not yet been returned but we will update the article accordingly.

Alerting the AG’s office, however, is a dead end as the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ruled the Attorney General’s Office does not have the authority to investigate election crimes without being invited by a local prosecutor.

In an article by the Houston Chronicle, AG Ken Paxton said:

“The Criminal Court of Appeals’ shameful decision means local DAs with radical liberal views have the sole power to prosecute election fraud in TX — which they will never do.  The timing is no accident — this is devastating for the integrity of our upcoming elections.”

The Tarrant County Sheriff “alerting” AG Paxton’s office of this evidence without coincidingly making the local District Attorney, Sharen Wilson, aware would be meaningless.  Wilson, a Republican, will not be seeking re-election in this coming midterm and without her invitation to assist in the investigation, the Attorney General’s hands are tied by the Court of Criminal Appeals’ ruling.

The people of Tarrant County, a county that was a Republican strong hold for 56 years until the 2020 election when it swung for Joe Biden, are facing a midterm election in which their County Judge, District Attorney, County Commission, Constable, and other Judicial Offices are up for grabs.  Meanwhile, evidence supporting existing allegations are being widely ignored as the election nears and one of the accused, Deborah Peoples, is a candidate for the most important office in the county.

Stuart Clegg was also named in the Leticia Sanchez case.  Jackson alleged in the body cam footage that Clegg bailed him out of jail when the Star-Telegram arrived there to interview him.  Jackson also claims he was put under a gag order.  The Star-Telegram confirmed this in an article from 2019.

Apparently, if you are accused of an election crime, the best thing for you to do is run for office.  The Sheriff won’t investigate due to a “conflict of interest” in endorsing her opponent.  He passed the evidence on to the Attorney General’s office who is constitutionally forbidden from investigating without the request from a local prosecutor for assistance.  We have reached out to the local prosecutor, District Attorney Sharen Wilson’s office, to ensure that they are aware of this evidence and to ask if they will investigate it, and if they will ask the AG for help.

All we are calling for is an investigation.  An open, transparent investigation.  However, it seems very difficult to find someone to investigate this when all of the elected officials refuse.  Par for the course.

 

 

 

 

The post Outrageous! Tarrant County Texas Sheriff Won’t Investigate Police Body Cam Footage of Ballot Harvesting “Confession” appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.