News10NBC obtains excerpts from State BOE investigation into 2017 Mayor Warren campaign

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WHEC) — News10NBC Tuesday obtained excerpts from a State Board of Elections report and investigation targeting Mayor Lovely Warren and the money from her re-election campaign three years ago.

One of the excerpts we saw included the conclusion and recommendation of the report.

The report was completed in March and concludes the mayor and two other people "engaged in a scheme to evade contribution limits."

The report recommends that "in light of the potential for criminal liability, it is recommended these findings be forwarded to the Monroe County District Attorney’s Office."

On Friday, the District Attorney’s Office issued grand jury subpoenas to several people including WXXI radio host Evan Dawson.

Dawson says his subpoena asks him to be ready to testify by Sept. 21. Dawson says prosecutors are interested in comments the mayor made on his show in July of 2017. They want to make sure her comments on the program were not edited.

Monday, Mayor Warren called this a political witch hunt.

“I just think that this is a complaint that was done in my re-election campaign from 2017, we’re now in 2020 and this has just come to fruition,” Warren said. “Ask yourself why. Come January I’ll be running for reelection and I believe this is a political witch hunt. I think that it’s wrong and I think that people have overstepped here. And I plan on and my attorneys plan on defending me to the fullest extent of the law. I think that it is imperative that the people in this community understand what is going on here and I would hope that our media will go and do their research and look into this. We are talking about something that happened or [was] alleged to happen four years ago all of a sudden now has come to fruition right before I get ready to run for re-election. Ask yourself: Who’s running against me? And who are they tied to? Thank you.”

News10NBC was the first to report the existence of an investigation into the mayor’s campaign finances.

In December 2018, our story showed you how investigators from the DA’s Office traveled to the Board of Elections in Albany for investigative purposes.

We also reported several people were subpoenaed at that time including the mayor’s fundraising chair.

As of now, no charges have been filed against Mayor Warren.