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Two far-right operatives who told tens of thousands of people not to vote by mail in a robocall scheme will now have to spend 500 hours registering people to vote thanks to a legal sentence from an Ohio judge. 

Jacob Wohl and Jack Burkman robocalled roughly 85,000 voters across Michigan, New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois and Ohio in the summer of 2020, falsely telling them that voting by mail would risk "giving your private information to the man." 

Prosecutors say the pair were targeting neighborhoods known to have a high percentage of Black voters. 

The robocaller, who claimed to be with a non-existent group called "the 1599 project," falsely said that voters' information would go into a database accessible to police, debt collectors and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which would use the information to impose vaccine mandates. The caller cited no evidence to support these claims. 

that they weren't responsible for the calls, pleaded guilty to telecommunications fraud in Ohio in October.

On Tuesday, Ohio's Cuyahoga County Common Pleas court sentenced them to two years of probation, six months of monitoring with a GPS ankle bracelet, $2,500 each in fines and 500 hours of registering voters in Washington, D.C. 

"These two individuals attempted to disrupt the foundation of our democracy," said Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Michael O'Malley, a Democrat. 

Wohl expressed his "absolute regret and shame over all this," 

 who were present during the sentencing hearing. 

An attorney for Wohl did not respond to NPR's request for comment. NPR could not locate the contact information for Burkman's attorney. 

The robocall stunt was only one of several high-profile acts the two activists used to spread disinformation ahead of the presidential election. 

frame Robert Mueller, Pete Buttigieg and Anthony Fauci of sexual assault allegations

. They staged a phony FBI raid on Burkman's own house, 

stole the phone of a White House liaison that Wohl was dating

 to tweet out false allegations from her account, then said she'd accused Wohl of kidnapping. 

For their role in the robocalls, the duo is 

lawsuits from various civil rights groups

 and the state attorney general in New York. 

The Federal Communications Commission is also 

considering fining the pair a record-breaking $5 million for making robocalls

Politics and Government News

Emily Olson

Author

Jacob Wohl and Jack Burkman robocalled roughly 85,000 voters across five states, falsely telling them that voting by mail would risk "giving your private information to the man."

They ran a voter suppression scheme. Now they're sentenced to register voters

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