North Carolina Election Committee Says Mark Harris Campaign Takes Relevant Documents

The fourth day of testimony at a North Carolina hearing on allegations of fraud during a disputed congressional election of mid-term last year began on a controversial note Thursday. when state officials said Republican Mark Harris's campaign lawyer had withheld documents relevant to the investigation.

According to state council attorney John Lawson, Harris' election campaign lawyer released his documents late Wednesday night, a day before Harris was about to appear. The records in question should have been delivered earlier as part of a subpoena sent to the campaign committee, the council said.

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Harris' campaign lawyer, John Branch, said he mistakenly believed the documents did not fall under the subpoena.

"I'm here to acknowledge it," said Branch, adding that he did not think to ask the Harris campaign director or other campaign staff paid by the Red Dome Group consulting firm to restore discs.

The revelation provoked the elector of election committee chairman Bob Cordle, who described Branch's actions as "unacceptable".

Marc Elias, Democrat Dan McCready's lawyer, has asked the board for an "adverse inference", but unless, in his opinion, the board is assigned to the director of the Harris campaign and others employees whose records would not have been searched under the initial subpoena.

"I hear a lot from analyzing what has been done to find out what recordings were searched for and what recordings were not searched for," Elias said. "We will have to expand our list of witnesses."

This turning point is the last turning point of an ongoing saga in North Carolina's 9th congressional district, which has left voters without a representative in Washington for months. After the vote count Harris ran McCready with less than a thousand votes, but the election committee refused to certify the results, instead opening an investigation into allegations of fraud against Leslie McCrae Dowless, a paid political officer. by the Harris campaign.

Harris began his testimony Thursday morning.