Grace Panetta

The special counsel Robert Mueller released a memorandum on Friday detailing the cooperating and witness testimony provided by Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump's former personal lawyer and longtime fixer.

Mueller's sentencing memo and a separate memo filed last week by Cohen's lawyers say Cohen has provided 70 hours of testimony to the special counsel, who is investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election and whether the Trump campaign collaborated with Moscow to tilt the race in Trump's favor.

Read more: <a id="9be7be23-e6d9-30a5-ad2b-eeb3ca2579ae" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/special-counsel-mueller-recommends-three-half-year-sentence-for-michael-cohen-2018-12?utm_source=intl&amp;utm_medium=ingest"> Federal prosecutors recommend 'substantial' prison sentence for former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen, saying he demonstrated a 'years-long pattern of deception' </a>

On November 30, Cohen struck a deal to plead guilty to one count of lying to Congress in exchange for cooperating with the special counsel. Cohen admitted to falsely stating in his September 2017 congressional testimony that the Trump Organization ended talks to build a Trump Tower in Moscow sometime in January 2016.

In reality, prosecutors say, those discussions continued well into June 2016, and that Cohen "admitted he told these lies—which he made publicly and in submissions to Congress—in order to minimize links between the Moscow Project and Individual 1," referring to Trump.

Cohen provided testimony to Mueller on the following subjects:

<h1> The Trump Organizations attempt to build a Trump Tower in Moscow </h1>

The memo says Cohen provided "a detailed account of his involvement and the involvement of others in the Moscow Project," an effort that continued until June 2016, after Trump became the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.

The memo goes on to describe "in or around November 2015, Cohen received the contact information for, and spoke with, a Russian national who claimed to be a “trusted person” in the Russian Federation who could offer the campaign “political synergy” and “synergy on a government level.”

While this person is not named in the memo, BuzzFeed News reported in January that <a id="c0b20dfa-0c15-3e26-a9d3-9124ffdab26b" href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/anthonycormier/ivanka-trump-putin-moscow-meeting-michael-cohen-tower?utm_term=.eszJplG95V#.pxM3Qe05ka"> Cohen reached out to Russian weightlifter Dmitry Klokov </a> about the project. Klokov claimed to be connected to Russian President Vladimir Putin. They were reportedly introduced by Ivanka Trump, then a vice president at the Trump Organization.

The memo says that Klokov told Cohen that a meeting between Trump and Putin would have a "phenomenal" impact "not only in political but in a business dimension as well," referring to the Moscow Project, because there is "no bigger warranty in any project than consent of [the President of Russia]."

Cohen did not follow through with Klokov's offer, telling him there was an existing agreement to build a Trump Tower between Russia and the Trump Organization.

Read more: <a id="e69e789f-17a8-35df-a93c-c92dd6111d49" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-explanations-russia-contacts-campaign-mueller-2018-9?utm_source=intl&amp;utm_medium=ingest"> Trump and his allies' explanations for the campaign's Russia contacts have seen a stark evolution as new evidence has spilled out </a>

Mueller's sentencing memo said Cohen's false testimony to Congress "obscured" the fact that the Trump Tower Moscow deal represented a potentially lucrative business opportunity that may have required approval from the Russian government.

"If the project was completed, the Company could have received hundreds of millions of dollars from Russian sources in licensing fees and other revenues," the memo said. It also added that Cohen's continued work on the proposal, as well as his communications with Trump about it, were doubly relevant because they happened while the Russian government was actively interfering in the 2016 election to sway the race in Trump's favor.

<h1> Other "discrete Russia-related matters" </h1>

The memo says that "Cohen provided the [special counsel] with useful information concerning certain discrete Russia-related matters core to its investigation that he obtained by virtue of his regular contact with Company executives during the campaign."

This line stands out, given that many executives of "the Company" are in Trump's immediate family and have been implicated in other parts of the probe.

Donald Trump Jr., also a vice-president at the Trump Organization, attended a June 2016 Trump Tower meeting with top campaign officials and two Russian lobbyists who were offering dirt on the Hillary Clinton campaign. The parties involved have said nothing came of the meeting and that the Trump campaign did not get the kompromat it was promised, but the campaign's willingness to meet with Kremlin-aligned operatives has piqued investigators' interest.

Trump Jr. also testified to Congress last year that his father did not have any advance knowledge of the meeting. If investigators learn that Trump did know about it, however, the revelation could land his eldest son in the same legal trouble Cohen found himself in for misleading Congress.

Cohen, as well as at least two other Trump associates, have indicated that Trump may have known more about the meeting than he let on.

Read more: <a id="09640afd-4f11-3a6b-ad6e-40d67e7ede61" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/michael-cohen-plea-deal-donald-trump-jr-risks-2018-11?utm_source=intl&amp;utm_medium=ingest"> Michael Cohen's plea deal poses a significant danger to Donald Trump Jr. </a>

<h1> Contacts with persons "connected to the White House" </h1>

Mueller's memo also said Cohen provided "relevant and useful information concerning his contacts with persons connected to the White House during the 2017-2018 time period."

This line is also significant, because "relevant and useful" information to the special counsel investigation could indicate that Cohen and people in or near the White House continued to pursue criminal activity after the campaign, and well into the first two years of the Trump administration.

"That sounds to me like someone else in the Trump orbit will be indicted as a co-conspirator either for lying to Congress or for obstruction of justice," said Jens David Ohlin, a vice dean at Cornell Law School and criminal-law expert.

<h1> "Preparing and circulating" his false congressional testimony </h1>

Finally, the memo states that Cohen "described the circumstances of preparing and circulating his response to the congressional inquiries, while continuing to accept responsibility for the false statements contained within it."

Ohlin said it was also telling that the memo said that Cohen divulged who he collaborated with in the administration "while continuing to accept responsibility for his false statements."

"Sounds to me that they consider this a collective crime with multiple perpetrators," Ohlin said. "Additional indictments are likely, especially involving contacts between the Trump campaign and Russia, which is the last piece of the puzzle."

Mueller's memo came shortly after the Southern District of New York filed a separate sentencing memo regarding Cohen's cooperation in its investigation into his and Trump's financial dealings before the election.

Cohen pleaded guilty in August to tax evasion, bank fraud, and campaign finance violations. He said he violated election law by participating in payments to two women who claim to have had affairs with Trump shortly before the 2016 race. Cohen told investigators he did so at Trump's direction.

Friday's memo from the Manhattan US attorney's office echoed Cohen's claim, saying he committed his crimes "in coordination with and at the direction of" Trump, who is identified in the document as Individual-1.

"The biggest takeaway from this is that prosecutors actually named President Trump as an unindicted co-conspirator," said Jeffrey Cramer, a longtime former federal prosecutor in Chicago who spent 12 years at the DOJ. "And it's not just based on Cohen's word. These documents make it clear that investigators also have other independent, corroborating evidence."

"You really can't overstate this," he added. "The President of the United States was an unindicted co-conspirator in a felony? When's the last time that statement's been uttered?"

NOW WATCH: <a id="554804a8-641b-3638-a6f7-6cdadbd1ac94" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/anthony-scaramucci-trump-press-economy-2018-11?utm_source=intl&amp;utm_medium=ingest"> Anthony Scaramucci claims Trump isn't a nationalist: 'He likes saying that because it irks these intellectual elitists' </a>

<ul><li> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/michael-cohen-committed-crimes-with-and-for-trump-prosecutors-say-2018-12?utm_source=intl&amp;utm_medium=ingest">Federal prosecutors say Cohen committed crimes 'in coordination with and at the direction of' Trump</a> </li><li> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/special-counsel-mueller-recommends-three-half-year-sentence-for-michael-cohen-2018-12?utm_source=intl&amp;utm_medium=ingest">Federal prosecutors recommend 'substantial' prison sentence for former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen, saying he demonstrated a 'years-long pattern of deception'</a> </li><li> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/michael-cohen-and-paul-manafort-legal-strategies-in-mueller-probe-black-roullette-2018-12?utm_source=intl&amp;utm_medium=ingest">While Michael Cohen cooperates with Mueller probe, Paul Manafort appears to be betting on a presidential pardon</a> </li></ul>

SEE ALSO: Here's everyone who has been charged and convicted in Mueller's Russia probe so far

Everything Michael Cohen told Mueller about the Trump campaign's contacts with Russia, according to the memo that could land Cohen a 'substantial' prison sentence

Special counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election and whether President Donald Trump's campaign colluded with Moscow, has detailed in a memo released Friday exactly how former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort breached his plea agreement with investigators.

The memo says Manafort breached his plea agreement by lying to the special counsel's office and FBI investigators.

The alleged lies are related to Manafort's statements about his associations with a Russian-Ukrainian political operative, wire transfers to a firm working for Manafort, and Manafort's contact with Trump administration officials, among other things.

Much of the details in Mueller's filing are redacted, but it reveals that federal investigators collected evidence of Manafort's alleged series of lies via "electronic communications" and "travel records."

A late November court filing from Mueller's office had <a id="835e4e9a-b45a-3213-ade0-a0fbed0ab771" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/paul-manafort-new-accusations-plea-agreement-mueller-russia-probe-2018-11?utm_source=intl&amp;utm_medium=ingest"> accused Manafort of lying to investigators </a> from the special counsel's office and the FBI "on a variety of subject matters" in the two months he was nominally a formal cooperating witness in the Mueller probe.

The filing said Manafort "thus relieves the government of any obligations it has under the agreement," since the terms of the plea deal required Manafort to agree not to commit crimes during the course of his cooperation.

Manafort has been charged twice in the Mueller probe for offenses relating to his years of work lobbying for a pro-Russian Ukrainian political party in the US.

Manafort was first charged in December 2017 in the District of Columbia on 12 offenses, including money laundering, failing to register as a foreign agent, and obstruction of justice. He and his deputy Rick Gates were charged again in the Eastern District of Virginia on 18 counts of tax fraud, bank fraud, and hiding foreign bank accounts in February 2018.

Read more: <a id="8d851fa1-d748-35e9-af20-8590a449ce15" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/who-has-been-charged-in-russia-investigation-mueller-trump-2017-12?utm_source=intl&amp;utm_medium=ingest"> Here's everyone who has been charged and convicted in Mueller's Russia probe so far </a>

While Gates immediately chose to take a plea deal and testify against his former mentor, Manafort went to trial. In August, a jury in Arlington, Virginia, <a id="0d829f69-7fec-38b7-ae61-a31cd41485a9" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/paul-manafort-guilty-tax-bank-fraud-mueller-russia-2018-8?utm_source=intl&amp;utm_medium=ingest"> convicted him on eight counts of tax and bank fraud, </a> with a mistrial declared on the other 10 counts to which jurors could not come to a consensus.

Manafort was scheduled to go to trial again in September, but instead <a id="603ad09c-a2bd-3cd6-acb0-9b0661b99ed5" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/paul-manafort-plea-deal-mueller-guilty-2018-9?utm_source=intl&amp;utm_medium=ingest"> struck a deal with the special counsel's office </a> to plead guilty to one count of conspiracy and one count of obstruction of justice in exchange for his cooperation.

Now that Manafort's plea deal has fallen apart, his last hope to avoid spending the rest of his life in prison is a presidential pardon.

Read more: <a id="b456a33e-a7c6-300e-ab7f-149b7ba3a8d4" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/michael-cohen-and-paul-manafort-legal-strategies-in-mueller-probe-black-roullette-2018-12?utm_source=intl&amp;utm_medium=ingest"> While Michael Cohen cooperates with Mueller probe, Paul Manafort appears to be betting on a presidential pardon </a>

Trump has spent months publicly signaling he could pardon Manafort, saying that he believed Manafort's treatment was "unfair" and calling him "brave" for not flipping, in contrast to Cohen.

<ul><li> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/mueller-flynn-sentencing-memo-takeaways-implications-2018-12?utm_source=intl&amp;utm_medium=ingest">Mueller sent a clear message — and a warning — with Flynn's sentencing memo</a> </li><li> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/mueller-sentencing-memos-manafort-cohen-flynn-2018-12?utm_source=intl&amp;utm_medium=ingest">Mueller is about to drop major new details about 3 of the most important players in the Russia probe</a> </li><li> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/michael-cohen-and-paul-manafort-legal-strategies-in-mueller-probe-black-roullette-2018-12?utm_source=intl&amp;utm_medium=ingest">While Michael Cohen cooperates with Mueller probe, Paul Manafort appears to be betting on a presidential pardon</a> </li></ul>

SEE ALSO: While Michael Cohen cooperates with Mueller probe, Paul Manafort appears to be betting on a presidential pardon

Special counsel Robert Mueller reveals how Paul Manafort breached his plea agreement

Roger Stone, the former adviser to President Donald Trump, is invoking his Fifth Amendment right and declining to provide documents requested of him by the Senate Judiciary Committee.

In <a id="f8a4bc56-784e-3259-a2f0-e6e363b59eb8" href="https://www.feinstein.senate.gov/public/_cache/files/f/e/fe389cd2-53ff-4377-a9a9-45fb5f18b559/D12EFE67064D9B532143AAB2CB67F176.stone-response-to-senate-judiciary-12.3.18.pdf"> a letter to the committee publicly released by ranking Democratic member Sen. Dianne Feinstein </a> , Stone's lawyer Grant Smith said Stone "respectfully declines to produce any documents and declines the invitation for an interview." The letter cited the Fifth Amendment's protection against self-incrimination.

Smith called Feinstein's requests "far too over-broad, far too overreaching," and "far too wide-ranging in their all-embracing list of persons to whom the request could relate with whom Mr. Stone has spoken over the past three years."

Stone has become a central figure in special counsel Robert Mueller's probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election and whether the Trump campaign collaborated with Moscow to tilt the race in Trump's favor. The special counsel has called at least seven of his associates to testify before the grand jury convened to hear testimony in the probe.

Stone's <a id="aa120ad0-9fa7-3cb9-a366-b77d2caa4339" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/mueller-emails-roger-stone-jerome-corsi-wikileaks-dump-russia-2018-11?utm_source=intl&amp;utm_medium=ingest"> involvement in the Russia probe </a> revolves around whether he had foreknowledge of radical transparency group WikiLeaks releasing emails from the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton's campaign allegedly hacked by Russian security officers to sow discord in the 2016 election.

Read more: <a id="779b5b3f-4fdb-3f35-af1b-d9b43f4a4d18" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/roger-stone-wikileaks-backchannel-campaign-trump-2018-11?utm_source=intl&amp;utm_medium=ingest"> Top Trump campaign officials and right-wing media allies were convinced Roger Stone was much closer to WikiLeaks than he's let on </a>

In the letter to the Judiciary Committee, Smith also called for the transcript of Stone's September 2017 closed-door testimony before the House Select Committee on Intelligence to be made public.

Feinstein originally requested documents of Stone's communications with WikiLeaks and Trump campaign officials <a id="37d16c07-b2e2-3c56-a3be-6243e8c1cf8d" href="https://thehill.com/policy/cybersecurity/419727-stone-declines-dem-request-for-interview-documents-invoking-fifth"> in November 2017 </a> .

NOW WATCH: <a id="f5625ceb-ec49-3f6a-a36d-f9e73da7e615" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/megyn-kelly-santa-is-white-remark-fox-news-nbc-ignition-today-controversial-remarks-2017-11?utm_source=intl&amp;utm_medium=ingest"> Megyn Kelly in 2017: 'I regret a lot' of the controversial stuff I've said on live television </a>

<ul><li> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/mueller-sentencing-memos-manafort-cohen-flynn-2018-12?utm_source=intl&amp;utm_medium=ingest">Mueller is about to drop major new details about 3 of the most important players in the Russia probe</a> </li><li> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/legal-implications-mueller-plea-deal-michael-cohen-trump-russia-2018-11?utm_source=intl&amp;utm_medium=ingest">Michael Cohen's latest plea deal shows Mueller's 'starting to finally get to the truth' behind Trump and Russia</a> </li><li> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/roger-stone-jerome-corsi-committed-crime-reportedly-lying-to-fbi-mueller-wikileaks-2018-11?utm_source=intl&amp;utm_medium=ingest">Roger Stone says Jerome Corsi committed a crime by reportedly lying to the FBI</a> </li></ul>

Former Trump adviser Roger Stone snubs Senate and invokes Fifth Amendment in Russia probe

The 116th Congress will be sworn into office on Jan. 3rd — and the incoming House of Representatives is shaping up to be the most diverse House in history.

The 2018 midterms saw historic gains in Congressional representation for women, people of color, LGBTQ+, and younger candidates — with the vast majority of those gains coming from Democratic candidates.

A record 103 women were elected to serve in the 116th House, an increase of 22% over the 84 women who served in the 115th House. Combined with five new female Senators and ten female Senators not up for re-election, <a id="c02600db-733e-3831-a345-e9a45eba1815" href="https://www.quorum.us/data-driven-insights/women-in-116th-congress/401/"> a total of 131 women will serve in the 116th Congress. </a>

Read more: <a id="c9284cbc-abfe-3692-a8e8-abfb366f84e6" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/2018-midterm-election-records-early-voting-women-lgbt-candidates-2018-11?utm_source=intl&amp;utm_medium=ingest"> 12 records the 2018 midterm elections smashed </a>

While <a id="83bbce36-2691-3081-a089-0b986fae35df" href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/11/28/us/politics/congress-freshman-class.html"> 52% of the 67 incoming House Democratic freshmen are female </a> , only two, or 4.5% of the 44 incoming Republican freshmen are women — West Virginia's Carol Miller and Arizona's Debbie Lesko. Lesko won a special election earlier this year to replace Rep. Trent Franks, who resigned in the wake of a sexual misconduct scandal.

Republicans saw their roster of female House representatives <a id="3b1f808d-2243-3a89-ae50-109bf86cf2e2" href="https://twitter.com/Redistrict/status/1065033957035642885"> gutted 43% from 23 members to 13 </a> , as many Republican women either stepped down to run for higher office — like Marsha Blackburn in Tennessee and Kristi Noem in South Dakota — or were unseated by Democratic challengers.

As the blue wave swept through suburban America, it unseated many Republican women in its wake, including Karen Handel in the Atlanta suburbs, Barbara Comstock in the DC suburbs of Northern Virginia, and Mimi Walters in Orange County, California — formerly reliable Republican areas.

The 116th House will also boast more women of color than ever before, including the first Native American women to serve in Congress and the first African-American women to represent Illinois and Massachusetts in the House, respectively.

As with gender, the gains in representation for people of color <a id="2ead8206-28d1-3067-aedd-5b5dc265e89e" href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/11/28/us/politics/congress-freshman-class.html"> are heavily concentrated in the Democratic Party </a> . A full 34% of the incoming House Democrats but 2% of their Republican colleagues identify as people of color. Anthony Gonzalez of Ohio will be the only incoming non-white freshman Republican.

Read more: <a id="ca0180c7-5f27-353a-ace1-57f15b659a47" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/differences-between-new-republicans-and-democrats-headed-to-congress-2018-11?utm_source=intl&amp;utm_medium=ingest"> 2 photos show the stark difference in the new representatives Democrats and Republicans are sending to Congress </a>

Furthermore, four of the 15 Republican representatives who were identified as Hispanic or African-American in the 115th House either retired or lost-re-election to Democratic challengers, including Florida's Carlos Curbelo and Utah's Mia Love. Among the 200 Republicans in the 116th House, 90% will be white men.

While two of the 115th House's LGBT members, Krysten Sinema of Arizona and Jared Polis of Colorado, resigned to pursue higher office, four new Democratic LGBT candidates were elected: Chris Pappas of New Hampshire, Sharice Davids of Kansas, Angie Craig of Minnesota, and Katie Hill of California. There have been no openly LGBT Republicans in the House or Senate since 2006.

The 115th House <a id="2519a56d-f0ef-31a6-ac7b-ef5e39ee28f3" href="https://www.quorum.us/data-driven-insights/the-115th-congress-is-among-the-oldest-in-history/175/"> was one of the oldest in history, </a> but 2018 midterms also ushered in a wave of younger Gen X'ers and Millennials elected to Congress. Come January, the average age of a member of the House will decrease a full decade from 57 to 47.

NOW WATCH: <a id="c5f96678-6469-3e0e-af4f-1ec389f5bb13" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/obama-barack-michelle-make-spend-money-net-worth-2018-10?utm_source=intl&amp;utm_medium=ingest"> The Obamas are worth $40 million — here's how they make and spend their money </a>

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house of representatives before and after 2x1

This one graphic shows how much more diverse the House of Representatives will become in January

After months of speculation over his political future, bombastic attorney Michael Avenatti said Tuesday he does not plan to run for president as a Democrat in 2020.

<a id="90fe4a25-3a5e-38ae-a13a-ec3e23734871" href="https://twitter.com/MichaelAvenatti/status/1070000911559192577"> In a statement posted to his Twitter account </a> , Avenatti said that following "consultation with my family and at their request, I have decided not to seek the Presidency of the United States in 2020."

Avenatti is best known for representing porn star Stormy Daniels in her suit against President Donald Trump. He gained national prominence representing Daniels in a bid to invalidate a non-disclosure agreement she signed agreeing to stay silent about an alleged 2006 affair with Trump in exchange for $130,000.

Read more: <a id="f3b1b99f-6fb1-3c54-ae5b-bddf59d4f3b4" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/michael-avenatti-bio-lawyer-representing-stormy-daniels-2018-3?utm_source=intl&amp;utm_medium=ingest"> Meet Michael Avenatti, the high-profile lawyer and professional sports car driver who represents Stormy Daniels &amp;gt; </a>

He also represented migrant mothers who were separated from their children at the border as part of the Trump administration's "zero-tolerance" policy, as well as a woman who alleged sexual misconduct against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

In October, Avenatti <a id="07b2790e-ae55-3213-a88f-43e064f842d3" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/michael-avenatti-2020-democratic-nominee-white-male-2018-10?utm_source=intl&amp;utm_medium=ingest"> came under fire </a> for being quoted in TIME Magazine as saying that the 2020 Democratic nominee "better be a white male."

In his statement Tuesday, he said he remained "concerned" about the Democratic Party's path forward.

"I remain concerned that the Democratic party will move toward nominating an individual who might make an exceptional President but has no chance of actually beating Donald Trump," he said. "We will not prevail in 2020 without a fighter. I remain hopeful that the party finds one."

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Michael Avenatti says he won't run for president in 2020

The 2018 midterm elections were held almost a month ago, but the results of a closely contested North Carolina congressional race are in doubt after the state elections board <a id="46d21ec5-03e2-34df-a486-c0e5665ec233" href="https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/politics-government/election/article222363510.html"> delayed the certification of the results </a> to review allegations of ballot tampering and election fraud.

In the November 6 election, Republican Mark Harris defeated Democrat Dan McCready by just 905 votes in the race for North Carolina's 9th Congressional District, after beating incumbent Congressman Robert Pittenger in the May primary.

But earlier this week, the North Carolina State Board of Elections and Ethics Reform voted unanimously to delay the certification of the results due to <a id="1cd9253f-e994-3279-a42a-50904dddcb2d" href="http://www.oldnorthstatepolitics.com/2018/11/ncs-closest-congressional-contest-gets.html#more"> the number of mail-in ballot irregularities </a> reported in Bladen and Robeson counties in both the May primary and November general.

These include consistent patterns of unusually high rates of absentee ballots being <a id="8feb9184-c18c-3b50-a7c2-13359ab6a269" href="http://www.oldnorthstatepolitics.com/2018/11/ncs-closest-congressional-contest-gets.html#more"> requested by voters but not returned, </a> a disproportionate share of total votes coming from mail-in and absentee ballots, and a disproportionate share of those absentee votes going to Mark Harris in both the primary and general.

"We encourage all allegations of voter fraud to be investigated and prosecuted, and perpetrators should go to prison," the North Carolina Republican Party <a id="bd0836da-411f-303f-a14c-f2b5984ea931" href="https://www.wsoctv.com/news/local/sworn-affidavits-allege-us-house-district-9-election-was-mishandled/880454598"> said in a statement </a> <a id="fe426bd1-3a2f-3f5e-aca6-589fcbd7710a" href="https://www.wsoctv.com/news/local/sworn-affidavits-allege-us-house-district-9-election-was-mishandled/880454598"> Thursday </a> . "However, Democrats are throwing everything, including the kitchen sink, at the wall to try and steal an election."

The investigation and move to delay the certification were not, however, spearheaded by Democrats. The Board of Elections is made up of four Democrats, four Republicans, and one unaffiliated member.

Read more: <a id="691ffd94-5670-3310-a9bc-1ba1b1d50542" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/house-race-results-most-competitive-in-2018-midterms-2018-11?utm_source=intl&amp;utm_medium=ingest"> Here are the results of the 27 most competitive House races in the 2018 midterm elections </a>

"Today's news reports of the serious allegations in Bladen County are troubling," <a id="bf0205ac-23d9-35e0-a7b1-70a2eb357717" href="https://www.danmccready.com/"> the McCready campaign said Thursday </a> . "I stand with voters all across the 9th district in wanting to make sure any wrongdoing is investigated and prosecuted regardless of the outcome of the election."

In <a id="11a0764f-1ff7-3591-ac0e-f8e7de797a7e" href="https://twitter.com/JoeBrunoWSOC9/status/1068269893412364289"> two affidavits obtained by WSOC-TV </a> , witnesses described overhearing Leslie McCrae Dowless, a local political operative working on behalf of Harris, saying he hired 80 people to do "absentee" for the Harris campaign and would receive a $40,000 cash bonus if Harris won.

Voters in Bladen and Robeson counties who submitted other sworn affidavits <a id="6ac11f8a-28bb-3b2d-a2c9-eb470656bec2" href="https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/politics-government/election/article222263905.html"> said they received absentee ballots they did not request </a> and were canvassed at their homes by operatives who told them to fill out only a few races on absentee ballots. The canvassers told voters they would fill out the rest of the ballot and send it in.

Bladen County not only had the <a id="cae06e7a-1102-308f-a6e7-57574189dbbe" href="http://www.wfae.org/post/harris-pittenger-race-unusual-bladen-county-absentee-mail-votes-poured-harris#stream/0"> highest rate of votes that came from absentee ballots </a> at 22%, compared with up to 1.6% in any of the other counties in the district, <a id="dcff156d-d794-3b87-a813-37cface6437c" href="http://www.wfae.org/post/harris-pittenger-race-unusual-bladen-county-absentee-mail-votes-poured-harris#stream/0"> but Harris won 96% of the absentee ballots from Bladen </a> , compared with 62% of absentee ballots from the other 6 counties in the county.

Under North Carolina law, "ballot harvesting," or filling out and submitting absentee ballots on behalf of others is illegal. Some analysts have also pointed to eyewitness accounts and disproportionately rates of requested but not returned absentee ballots as possible evidence that people working on behalf of Dowless and the Harris campaign <a id="518fe5bd-3119-3df9-a899-3f363cb366c7" href="https://twitter.com/ElectProject/status/1068933247269314560"> went door-to-door to collect, and then destroy </a> , the absentee ballots of people who voted for Pittinger and McReady.

On Friday, the North Carolina State Board of Elections (NCSBE) decided in a 7 to 2 vote to hold an evidentiary hearing into the allegations before December 21 during a session closed to the public and reporters.

While the North Carolina Democratic Party applauded the board's decision to conduct a hearing and delay certification, the North Carolina Republican Party and Harris campaign <a id="13d26b31-3d88-3c01-aeff-f2fcda99e4d6" href="https://twitter.com/JoeBrunoWSOC9/status/1068622712078241792"> slammed the lack of transparency </a> in the board's Friday proceedings. On Saturday, <a id="62ccc9a5-c243-3469-ac01-1e9442d268c8" href="https://twitter.com/AmyEGardner/status/1068940545375051776"> the Democratic chairman of the NCSBE resigned, </a> stating he did not want to be a "distraction" to the investigation after the NCGOP accused him of bringing partisan bias to the probe.

While the Harris campaign said in a Thursday statement that they are preparing for Harris to take office on Jan. 3rd, the fraud investigation and possible litigation over the election results could drag on for weeks, leaving control of the seat in limbo.

As WSOC-TV reporter Joe Bruno said on Thursday, the state elections board <a id="261ee3eb-6144-3b15-aaff-0f477df60a5e" href="https://twitter.com/JoeBrunoWSOC9/status/1068287680616849411"> doesn't need to determine that voter fraud influenced the outcome to order a new election </a> . They only need to determine that "irregularities occurred to such an extent that they taint the results of the entire election and cast doubt on its fairness."

Gerry Cohen, a North Carolina elections expert who served as chief counsel to the North Carolina General Assembly, told INSIDER on Friday that if the Board ordered a new election, it would be rematch of just the general election contest between Harris and McCready.

The House Committee on Administration — which has the final say in the results of contested House races — could also vacate the results of the election and restart the entire process, which would include ordering new candidate filings, primaries, and a general election, Cohen added. Eventually, the full House of the Representatives could end up seating McCready instead of Harris.

Bladen County has been the subject of voting controversies in previous years, though complaints against absentee-ballot results in 2016 were dismissed. "I’m very familiar with the unfortunate activities that have happened in my part of the state," NCSBE member <a id="54908981-60de-3cb6-a100-f8b640f329fe" href="http://www.wfae.org/post/harris-pittenger-race-unusual-bladen-county-absentee-mail-votes-poured-harris#stream/0"> Joshua Malcolm said Tuesday. </a>

"And I am not going to turn a blind eye to what took place to the best of my understanding, which has been ongoing for a number of years, and which has been repeatedly referred to the United States attorney and the district attorneys to clean up," he added.

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SEE ALSO: Here are the results of the 27 most competitive House races in the 2018 midterm elections

A hotly contested congressional race in North Carolina remains in limbo amid an investigation over possible election fraud–here's what we know so far

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