In exchange for his plea, prosecutors will recommend that Stat spend six months in some Club Fed, instead of the maximum two years he faces for engaging in what the US criminal code calls the Deprivation of Rights Under Color of Law and what the rest of us call fixing elections. Reading the charges and the plea agreement leads to only two possible conclusions: Either Stat rolled and pointed the finger at others, or a two-year investigation by the FBI in which a staggering number of Everett residents were hauled before a grand jury has ended with a resounding thud. “No comment” from the office of US Attorney Carmen Ortiz. Smith’s plea hearing is scheduled for Friday, and his lawyers say Smith will not be implicating anyone else in the ballot fraud scheme.
More on the absentee ballot fraud case against Stephen “Stat” Smith, the now former state representative from Everett, Massachusetts forced to resign as part of a plea deal with federal prosecutors: