Sheriff Bilal backtracks on his claim that his main opponent funded the criticism of his office

[ad_1]

It was a brazen claim offered without proof. And it wasn’t true.

Last week, Philadelphia Sheriff Rochelle Bilal accused Michael Untermeyer, one of her top Democratic opponents, of paying Alexandra Hunt to criticize the sheriff’s office.

Hunt, a Democratic candidate for city comptroller, responded with a cease and desist letter from a lawyer who said Hunt had not taken money from Untermeyer and threatened to sue Bilal if she didn’t. did not withdraw this request.

Bilal relented this week, editing the Facebook posts where she made the accusation. In return, Hunt agreed to edit social media posts suggesting Bilal was pocketing money from the process of selling properties seized by the sheriff’s office.

Hunt and a lawyer for Bilal confirmed the resolution on Thursday.

Bilal, on his Facebook campaign page, presented his backtracking as a sign of responsibility.

Untermeyer issued her own cease and desist letter to Bilal this week, threatening to sue her over other claims she made in Facebook posts.

Bilal called Untermeyer, a lawyer and real estate investor who donated $250,000 to his campaign, a self-proclaimed money laundering expert multi-millionaire who owns a part of every major development in Philadelphia.

She also noted that Untermeyer had previously run for office and that his Facebook post included a false claim that he ran for the Philadelphia school board in 2019.

Philadelphia does not have an elected school board.

Untermeyers’ lawyer wrote to Bilal on Tuesday, calling his allegations inaccurate and defamatory and demanding that they be removed.

Attorney Lee Herman noted that Untermeyer had expertise in money laundering since he was a prosecutor in the state attorney general’s office.

Untermeyers’ campaign was still awaiting a response from Bilal on Thursday.

Bilal was elected in 2019, presenting himself as a reformer. She is now seeking a second term amid controversy over how she runs the sheriff’s office.

So what does she have to say about all this?

Clout texted her on Tuesday to a cell phone number we had previously used to contact her. Clout then noted that we had received no response when we first wrote about that Tuesday afternoon.

Bilal attended the Democratic City Committees Spring Dinner on Tuesday night, where Clout asked her if she had any evidence to back up her (now retracted) claim about Untermeyer and Hunt.

You are a liar so you can stop talking to me, Bilal replied, insisting that she had not received our message earlier in the day.

Clout kept asking for proof and Bilal kept calling us liars 11 more times until she walked away.

Clout then called Bilal’s cell phone and heard his recorded voice asking callers to leave a message. That’s what we did, standing next to Bilals’ communications consultant. We mentioned in our message that the consultant witnessed our last attempt to contact Bilal.

Members of Sheet Metal Workers Local 19 remove campaign signs belonging to mayoral candidate Jeff Brown from their property, before the start of the United Democrat Spring Dinner at their banquet hall on Tuesday….Read MoreTom Gralish / Staff photographer

A sign of more union problems for Jeff Brown

Its tradition: People arriving at the Democratic City of Philadelphia committee’s spring dinner pass an excess of campaign signage on their way to the food hall run by the Sheet Metal Workers’ union Local 19 on Columbus Boulevard.

Lawn signs for Jeff Brown were torn from union lawns by Local 19 members on Tuesday, a sure sign that mayoral candidates’ problems with building trades unions persist.

Democratic Party Chairman Bob Brady told Clout that Local 19 President Gary Masino ordered the pullout.

He said: You must have permission to put up signs on my property, Brady said of Masino, who did not respond to a request for comment.

During a televised debate last week, Brown hit out at the Philadelphia Building & Construction Trades Council for endorsing Cherelle Parker and claimed he didn’t want that endorsement. Sheet metal workers are part of this council.

Building trades leader Ryan Boyer insisted Brown had asked for council support and said any union backing Brown should drop him.

Brown’s spokesman, Kyle Anderson, suggested people feel threatened by Brown’s possible victory.

They’re trying to silence Jeff because they know he will bring the change we need in Philadelphia, Anderson said.

PA’s top court candidate dodges election question

Pennsylvania Republican-endorsed Supreme Court nominee Carolyn Carluccio told the Erie County Republican Party two weeks ago that she wanted a chance to rework Bill 77, the 2019 law passed with strong GOP support that dramatically expanded mail-in voting.

Carluccio, presiding judge of the Montgomery County Court of Common Pleas, noted at the beginning and end of her comments that she should exercise caution, but then said the law was bad for the Commonwealth and raised the specter of an unproven panky handkerchief with mail-in ballots.

Clout wondered: Does Carluccio think the 2020 and 2022 state elections were free and fair? Many in the Republican Party, since former President Donald Trump, have embraced election denial without offering evidence that could convince judges in court.

Carluccio responded with a word-salad statement that didn’t come close to answering Clouts’ question. She offered this instead:

If even a Pennsylvanian has concerns about our election process, we must address them, she wrote. Our government cannot simply ignore the concerns of a large portion of our electorate.

A CBS News-YouGov poll released Monday showed that 75% of Republican voters still believe Trump won in 2020. That appears to be the part of the electorate that Carluccio is thinking in.

Clout provides often irreverent news and analysis about people, power and politics.

[ad_2]