Texas Dem pol and ex-Biden appointee arrested for allegedly posting fake racist social comments about himself
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
An ex-Biden White House appointee and current Democratic candidate for a county commissioner seat in Texas allegedly created a dummy social media account to post bogus racist comments about himself.
Taral Patel, 30, the challenger running for county commissioner in Fort Bend County Precinct 3 just outside of Houston, was arrested for online impersonation last week after an investigation initiated by his opponent, incumbent Andy Meyers.
The Fort Bend District Attorney’s Office started the probe in October, shortly after a lengthy Facebook post Patel made in September in which he painted himself and his family as victims of a vicious race-based smear campaign perpetrated by his opponent’s supporters.
Included with the post was a collage of about a dozen racist messages he claimed he received over the course of his candidacy, calling him vile names such as “monkey” and “subhuman” and attacking his Hindu faith.
Patel’s campaign website says he previously worked for the Department of Justice’s Criminal Division in the Public Integrity Section and was appointed by President Biden to serve in the Office of White House Liaison, as well as the White House Asian American Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Committee.
Meyers became suspicious when he recognized one of the names in the collage, “Antonio Scalywag,” as someone who had previously assailed him online, ABC 13 wrote, prompting him to request an investigation into Patel’s claims.
Investigators subpoenaed Facebook and Google to obtain account information about the user profile, which led them right back to Patel — including his address, phone number, bank card number and more.
On Wednesday Texas Rangers arrested Patel for online impersonation in the third degree — a felony — as well as a Class A misdemeanor charge for misrepresentation of identity.
He was briefly held in Fort Bend County Jail before posting bond Thursday morning, putting up $20,000 for the felony charge and $2,500 for the misdemeanor. His next scheduled court appearance is July 22.
Patel’s campaign website cites a number of jobs he’s previously held, including chief of staff for Fort Bend County. He says he also worked for the Department of Justice’s Criminal Division in the Public Integrity Section as deputy finance director for a governor and as a legislative staffer for the Texas House of Representatives.
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I'm sure the new Smollet's next step will be to declare all the evidence "deep fakes" and attack right wing media for sharing it.
So, according to this article it is illegal to create an anonymous, fake, social media persona and lie on social media?
John Barron, John Baron, John Miller, and David Dennison had better start watching over his shoulder.
Glad he got caught. Hope they throw the book at him.
“Antonio Scalywag,” that might be a clue
Better Check for Snidely Whiplash and Boris Badenov also