According to Salon, former Florida Republican Party chairman Jim Greer has claimed in a sworn deposition that the GOP implemented a “systemic effort to suppress the black vote.” He also called some party officials “whack-a-do, right-wing crazies.”
Why was Greer being deposed? In 2010, he was charged with criminal fraud, money laundering and felony corruption. From the Orlando Sentinel:
The criminal trial itself — in which Greer is charged with money laundering and fraud — will hinge on whether his activities were concealed from party leaders or par for the course in multimillion-dollar political organizations.
His trial was slated to start on July 30 but has been postponed to mid-November. Greer was charged with moving about $200,000 of party money to Victory Strategies LLC, a fundraising firm where he was a silent owner. He has pled not guilty.
Greer was the hand-picked coat holder for Gov. Charlie Crist to oversee the affairs of the state party…
But as the now-disgraced Greer faces criminal fraud charges stemming from the time of his rule, the former chairman is lashing out at those he accuses of plotting against him. The list of usual suspects is impressive: outgoing Florida Senate President Mike Haridopolos, state Sen. John Thrasher, party counsel Jason Gonzalez and even Crist’s former chief of staff, Eric Eikenberg….
[C]onsidering Gov. Rick Scott and the rest of the Tallahassee Republican establishment embraced other voter suppression efforts such as reducing the number of early voting days and scrubbing of voter rolls, it would be reasonable to conclude where there’s smoke, there’s an elephant.
Amazing.
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