Within the last week, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced charges against multiple foreign nationals for illegally voting in American elections. The DOJ also revealed a foreign national pleaded guilty to conspiring in a voter registration fraud scheme.
As my colleague Beth Brelje reported, the DOJ announced Monday that 45-year-old Akeel Abdul Jamiel was charged with illegally voting in the 2020 election. Jamiel, an Iraqi, allegedly voted in the November 2020 election in Saratoga County, New York, despite not being a citizen. The U.S. Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) contributed to the investigation, the DOJ noted.
Some 1,200 miles south, 32-year-old Uzbekistan national Sanjar Jamilov pleaded guilty to “conspiring to submit fraudulent voter registrations,” the DOJ announced Tuesday. Jamilov was originally charged earlier this year, and his “sentencing date has not yet been set.”
According to a plea agreement, the DOJ explained, the scheme began when 45-year-old Russian national Dmitry Shushlebin “hired Jamilov and others to submit more than 100 fraudulent voter registration applications to the Pinellas County Supervisor of Elections in February and March 2023.” The applications used names other than those of the perpetrators and “bore various indicia of fraud,” like “repeat[ed] dates of birth and addresses,” as well as “nearly sequential Social Security numbers,” according to the DOJ. The applications were rejected after a county election supervisor detected fraud.
“Dmitry Shushlebin has been charged for his alleged role in this case. The case is currently pending,” the DOJ added.
Hellbound and Down 