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McCotter Sues Former Staffers for Forged Ballot Signatures

Ex-Rep. Thaddeus McCotter, R-Mich., is taking two former staffers to court, suing them for the fraudulent nomination petitions that ultimately led to his resignation from Congress in July.

In the lawsuit filed in Michigan’s Wayne County Circuit Court on Thursday, McCotter alleges that the two aides deliberately submitted forged ballot petitions to foil his re-election efforts, according to The Associated Press.

The former fringe 2012 GOP presidential hopeful filed the suit against his former deputy district director, Don Yowchuang, 34, and former intern, Dillon Breen, 20.

Yowchuang was already charged with forgery, to which he pleaded not guilty, and was sentenced on Jan. 18 to probation and community service. Three other former staffers, Paul Seewald, Mary Melissa Turnbull and Lorianne O’Brady, also faced criminal charges, but were not listed in McCotter’s lawsuit.

Breen was never charged with a crime.

The saga originally began when election officials uncovered that McCotter’s primary ballot petition was filled with duplicate signatures. After launching an investigation, election officials found that only a quarter of the 1,000 signatures necessary to make it onto the ballot were valid.

Because of the controversy, McCotter dropped his re-election efforts in June and then resigned from Congress in July before his term was up.

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