According to a local report, a Democratic city council member in California has been arrested and charged with election fraud.
According to CBS Sacramento, Shakir Khan, a member of the Lodi City Council, was arrested last week after already facing additional criminal charges, according to The Conservative Brief.
Khan resigned from his position on Friday, according to the outlet, and then claimed that his resignation was coerced. According to reports, the new vote fraud charges are related to the 2020 election.
“We became aware of Shakir Khan’s arrest this morning and I had the opportunity to speak with him here at the county jail and asked for his resignation, effective immediately. He agreed to resign,” Lodi Mayor Mikey Hothi noted in a statement, according to the outlet.
“The city is fully cooperating with the investigation. I want to thank the sheriff’s office and everybody involved, ensuring a fair and thorough process.”
Khan's attorney told CBS13 that his client was coerced into resigning from his position without legal representation because he was under duress at the time.
The sheriff's office, on the other hand, claims that there is substantial evidence that Khan betrayed the public's trust.
Khan has been charged with multiple offenses related to voter fraud, including causing, procuring, or allowing false voter registration of himself or another person, submitting fraudulent voter registration to the Secretary of State, submitting a fraudulent candidacy petition, aiding and abetting fraud in any election, subscribing fictitious names to nomination petitions, making a false nomination or declaration of candidacy, fraudulently casting votes, and procuring, assisting, counseling, or advising another person who is not qualified to vote.
The local affiliate went on to point out:
Back in 2021, Khan was arraigned on charges relating to illegal gambling, money laundering, tax evasion, and unemployment claim fraud. The San Joaquin County Registrar’s Office said they are fully cooperating with the sheriff’s office with its investigation. They also say they are re-evaluating their systems in an effort to prevent voter fraud in the future.
According to FOX40, he will appear in court on Tuesday to answer to the 2021 charges.
The charges against Khan are the outcome of an investigation that started in 2019 in response to earlier allegations against him, according to San Joaquin County Sheriff Patrick Withrow. Withrow went on to say that the public's expressed concerns about the election's integrity led law enforcement to look into the situation.
“Our investigation uncovered that councilman Shakir Khan has attempted to undermine, manipulate and violate one of our most fundamental rights here in our country, and that is the right to free and fair elections,” Withrow noted during a press conference Thursday.
“It appears councilman Shakir Khan has targeted members of his own community, our Pakistani community in the north county,” Withrow continued.
“And we are doing everything we can to work with them to make sure that they are protected and that any damage done to them or their families is corrected by this man’s actions,” he concluded.
