Florida Congressman Joe Garcia’s (D) former chief of staff is expected to spend 90 days in jail as part of a plea deal in a fraudulent absentee-ballot case, the Miami Herald reported Sunday.
Jeffrey Garcia (no relation to the congressman) is slated to plead guilty to requesting absentee ballots on behalf of voters in a deal to be inked Monday with the Miami-Dade state attorney’s office, according to the Herald.
Garcia’s attorney maintained that the former staffer never actually touched a ballot or manipulated any votes.
“He accepts responsibility for his conduct which involved requesting absentee ballots for voters when it was the voters themselves who are required to make the requests,” Garcia’s attorney Henry Bell said in a statement, as quoted by the Herald. “Jeff is a good person who made a mistake. He is sorry and is doing the right thing in admitting this and accepting responsibility.”
In addition to the state’s absentee-ballot probe, Garcia was also under FBI investigation for his alleged involvement in a Tea Party candidate’s “secretly funded mail campaign.”
