| Republican Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick has run a nasty campaign based on categorical lies about Bob Harvie. Now he’s getting exposed.
First, outlets including POLITICO, WHYY, and The Bulwark revealed that Fitzpatrick’s ads cite fake articles written by a convicted felon who attended Fitzpatrick’s wedding and who he has paid.
Now, The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that multiple legal experts view Fitzpatrick’s attacks on Harvie falsely accusing him of being the subject of an FBI investigation as “campaign high jinks” and that he would not have any documents to release.
The Inquirer reports: “Three Pennsylvania legal experts and professors with decades of combined experience in prosecuting government cases or defending witnesses in federal investigations told The Inquirer it would be highly unlikely that Harvie has most — if any — of the documents Fitzpatrick’s campaign contends he has.”
The legal experts say in part:
- Fitzpatrick’s allegations sound “like campaign high jinks” and “this is all smoke and mirrors at this point.” – Stanley Brand, a distinguished fellow in law and government at Pennsylvania State University Dickinson Law.
- “If it was never turned into an indictment, it would be highly, highly unusual for any records, like internal FBI documents, to be released outside government channels.” – Lauren Ouziel, a law professor at Temple University’s James E. Beasley School of Law and a former federal prosecutor in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
- “They just keep saying [Harvie] has this stuff, but they don’t give any idea why they think he has it.” – Michael Levy, adjunct professor at University of Pennsylvania’s Carey School of Law
And Bob Harvie tells the Inquirer that Fitzpatrick’s lies are an attempt to distract from his own record, “which is failing, quite frankly, to protect the people of this district and this country from a president who’s been cutting their healthcare, who’s been making all their lives more expensive.” Harvie added: “So it doesn’t surprise me that he’s flailing around trying to smear me.”
Read more from the Inquirer for yourself:
The Philadelphia Inquirer: Does Brian Fitzpatrick’s challenger, Bob Harvie, have ‘FBI files’ to release? Pa. legal experts say it’s unlikely. |
