Bernie Sanders Campaign May Face Criminal Investigation Over Australia Labor Party Collusion

By Joshua Philipp, The Epoch Times
March 8, 2018 Last Updated: March 8, 2018
An Australian volunteer for the 2016 Bernie Sanders presidential campaign, Sandeep Sarath, allegedly sent and financed by the Australian Labor Party, explains his actions in an undercover video from Project Veritas. (Screenshot, Project Veritas)

Australian taxpayers may have unwittingly and illegally funded the Bernie Sanders 2016 presidential campaign, not only with donations but also with campaign workers who were deployed in several U.S. states to work for the Sanders campaign.

Undercover videos released by guerrilla journalism organization Project Veritas show the Australian campaign workers explaining how they were financed and deployed by the Australian Labor Party. Additional footage shows the Australian campaign workers stealing Trump election signs from the yards of homes, and admitting on-record that their actions were illegal.

The Project Veritas Action Fund requested the Justice Department to investigate the Bernie Sanders 2016 presidential campaign to determine, according to a press release, whether it and the Australian Labor Party “conspired to ‘defraud the U.S. government’ and allowed ‘foreign national interference with U.S. elections.'”

The grounds for the investigation, it notes, are the possibilities that there was a “conspiracy to defraud the United States government,” and there were likely “false statements to the United States government.”

Former Speaker of the New Hampshire House of Representatives William O’Brien also called for an investigation through the Department of Justice Public Integrity Section and the U.S. Attorney’s office in Concord, New Hampshire.

O’Brien noted in his letter, according to Project Veritas, that the investigation should look into “additional potential criminal violations stemming from an apparent conspiracy to defraud the U.S. government.” He noted federal election law states, “persons who knowingly and willfully engage in these activities may be subject to an FEC enforcement action, criminal prosecution or both.”

The Sanders campaign has already been fined by the Federal Election Commission for accepting $14,500 in “prohibited foreign contributions” for donations from the Australian Labor Party, after the donations were exposed by Project Veritas on Feb. 28.

The allegations that the Sanders Campaign colluded with the Australian Labor Party hit close to the current investigations into whether Russia interfered with the 2016 elections. While it’s still unproven whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia, there is video evidence of Australian nationals colluding with the Sanders campaign, and admitting their actions.

Among the individuals shown in the undercover videos is Ben Kremer, admitting that he was among several sent from Australia to work for the Sanders campaign. Their operations included, Kremer said, “Nevada, New Hampshire, Iowa, South Carolina, and there is one more.”

Kremer also states, “It is awesome, like I couldn’t afford to be here if they didn’t pay for it,” and acknowledges the money comes from Australian taxpayers.

Another Australian volunteer for Sanders, Sandeep Sarath, explained it as “like an exchange program,” and said the Australian Labor Party “sent us over.”

In another video, an Australian volunteer for Sanders, Rebecca Doyle, admitted her group of volunteers was coordinating with the Australian Labor Party. She states the local Sanders team was at least partially aware of their role.

“They knew we were coming, and they knew they had to give us a house, but not much else,” she said. “They thought we were only here for four days.”

She adds that the Australian Labor Party “pay for our flights. They pay for the cost of accommodation, which is just the staff house, and then we also get $60 stipend a day.”

Doyle clarifies that the Australian Labor Party did not pay for the entire staff house, but just the cost of their accommodation, suggesting there was some coordination in payments with the local Bernie Sanders team.