Right-wing operatives Jacob Wohl and Jack Burkman agree to pay up to $1.2 million for misleading 2020 robocalls

Far-right operatives Jacob Wohl and Jack Burkman have agreed to pay New York Attorney General Letitia James' office up to $1.2 million for a robocall campaign they put together to suppress the Black vote ahead of the 2020 election.

“Wohl and Burkman orchestrated a depraved and disinformation-ridden campaign to intimidate Black voters in an attempt to sway the election in favor of their preferred candidate. Now they will pay up to $1.25 million," James said in a statement Tuesday announcing the agreement, which still needs to be approved by a judge.

James filed suit in 2021 against the pair, who were known for smearing then-President Donald Trump's political opponents with transparently false accusations. The suit alleged that Wohl and Burkman were responsible for more than 5,000 robocalls filled with misinformation about voting in New York in August 2020.

The speaker on the call identified herself as “Tamika Taylor of Project 1599,” and falsely claimed that voting by mail would result in voters “having their personal information used by the police to track old warrants, credit card companies to collect debts, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to track individuals for mandatory vaccines."

“Don’t be finessed into giving your private information to the man. Stay home safe and beware of vote by mail,” the call said, according to a transcript released by James' office.

Last year, U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero found Wohl and Burkman liable for having violated state civil rights laws and the federal Ku Klux Klan Act with the calls. The "undisputed evidence in this case establishes that Defendants’ conduct in designing and executing the Robocall was racially motivated; the Robocall sought to deter