From St. Johns Citizen:
County Commissioners, Families, Campaign Staff Allegedly Met At St. Augustine House To Carry Out Voter Guide Scheme
- By Noah De Haan
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Two St. Johns County commissioners, the former St. Augustine Beach mayor and campaign staff charged Monday in the case surrounding fake 2024 voter guides met at a St. Augustine house to carry out the operation, court papers state.
The sworn affidavit from Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) special agent supervisor Adam Graff, who works for the agency’s Election Crimes Unit of the Office of Executive Investigations, details the probe into the alleged election conspiracy.
Graff’s testimony states that prominent campaign manager Brianna Jordan, consultant Jamie Lynn Johnson commissioners Christian Whitehurst and Sarah Arnold, former St. Augustine Beach Mayor Dylan Rumrell and other staffers gathered at a St. Augustine “campaign house” on Grant Street to create and distribute unauthorized voter guides.
DLE built the case through interviews with Johnson, Jordan’s intern Garret Davis, former U.S. House candidate Nick Primrose, and Primrose’s staffer Kyler Carpenter.
After the St. Johns County Republican Executive Committee endorsed candidates not represented by Jordan, she developed a plan to create voter guides that resembled the party’s official guides, according to the affidavit.
The guides allegedly used altered SJREC logo colors and omitted required disclosures about who produced them.
Jordan obtained between 10,000 and 30,000 voter guides, which were delivered to the campaign house via an 18-wheeler, according to the affidavit.
On August 1, 2024, at the campaign house, Jordan held a “Secret Envelope Stuffing” event at the Grant Street house, papers allege.
At Jordan’s behest, participants placed the guides into envelopes and placed pre-printed labels onto them.
Jordan and Johnson oversaw the operation, while Whitehurst, Whitehurst’s mother, Arnold, Rumrell, Davis, and Carpenter labeled, stamped and sealed envelopes containing the guides, officials said.
Rumrell denied involvement in the voter guide operation, stating that he only went to the campaign house to assist with Henry Dean’s campaign.
To conceal the guides’ origin, Jordan used U.S. postage stamps and mailed the guides from post offices in Jacksonville and Orlando, papers state.
Johnson confirmed that she was present at the operation, and further stated that Jordan burned unmailed guides at the Grant Street campaign house after local media began covering the controversy.
Davis stated that Jordan instructed him to buy a grill from Home Depot with cash to burn some of the guides at the campaign house, before the remaining guides were destroyed by Jordan in Sarasota.
Johnson says Jordan advised her and other participants not to speak with FDLE.
According to records cited in the affidavit, Jordan paid for an account on Canva, a design software, made several multi-thousand dollar purchases with the United States Postal Service, and made payments to Johnson, Davis, and another campaign worker.
Jordan contacted shredding services following news coverage of the unauthorized guides, papers state.
Graff believes probable cause existed to charge Jordan, Johnson, Whitehurst, Arnold and Rumrell with Unauthorized Voter Guides and Criminal Conspiracy, both misdemeanors, and to charge Jordan with tampering with physical evidence, a third degree felony.
Court arraignments in the case are scheduled for August 3.
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