Bill McSwain’s Pa. governor campaign ads and statements, fact-checked

Bill McSwain built a standing as U.S. Legal professional in Philadelphia as a prosecutorial pundit — usually ready for bare-knuckle political fights with Democrats.

He has created his marketing campaign for Pennsylvania governor from that exact same model. The West Chester Republican describes himself as the gentleman who took on “the most leftist, lawless jurisdiction in the region.”

A number of statements he’s built about his tenure in marketing campaign advertisements and speeches warrant additional rationalization.

“I really don’t imagine it’s an exaggeration to say that the U.S. Attorney’s Office below my management virtually stopped Philadelphia from burning to the floor. … I stopped those riots due to the fact term bought out that McSwain and the feds had been charging people.” — McSwain in a Feb. 28 job interview with AM 990′s Chris Stigall

McSwain’s workplace billed fewer than a dozen defendants with crimes related to the unrest in Philadelphia in late May possibly and early June 2020, following the Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd. Most of these expenses had been submitted properly immediately after the unrest experienced abated and involved police vehicle arsons and attacks on ATM equipment.

The wide greater part of protest-related arrests moved through city courts, including expenses in opposition to a number of hundred demonstrators and a handful of officers accused of utilizing extreme drive. District Attorney Larry Krasner dispatched extra than 500 of individuals scenarios — the majority involving defendants accused of small violations and who had no prior arrest background — as a result of a pretrial diversion application.

“As President Trump’s U.S. lawyer, I took down corrupt community officials and I jailed politicians who stuffed ballot containers.” — McSwain Tv set advertisement

McSwain oversaw a robust community corruption device at the U.S. Attorney’s Business office that secured convictions versus dozens of govt employees, contractors, and officers on bribery and relevant costs. But he did not straight oversee some of the most substantial-profile scenarios he normally takes credit for on the marketing campaign path.

McSwain recused himself from the bribery scenarios of figures such as labor chief John J. Dougherty and Philadelphia Town Councilmembers Bobby Henon and Kenyatta Johnson, because of likely conflicts of interest with his prior task at a law organization that had represented some of the defendants and businesses implicated in those situations.

Another scenario McSwain has taken credit for in interviews is the corruption conviction of previous Allentown Mayor Ed Pawlowski. But Pawlowski’s trial ended in a responsible verdict a month just before McSwain was sworn into workplace in April 2018. The former mayor’s sentencing and attractiveness did overlap with McSwain’s tenure.

» Examine A lot more: McSwain was ‘angling to run for something’ as U.S. attorney. Now his operate for governor is all about his time as a prosecutor.

In Tv set adverts, McSwain suggests he jailed “politicians who stuffed ballot containers,” a reference to a 2020 circumstance his place of work brought towards former U.S. Rep. Michael “Ozzie” Myers, who is billed with spending two South Philadelphia judges of elections to increase votes for consumers who employed him as a consultant.

That investigation, which centers on elections from 2014 to 2016, also commenced yrs just before McSwain’s appointment, although the indictment was secured on his check out. The two election judges have pleaded responsible and await sentencing. Myers — the only previous politician billed in the situation — remains cost-free awaiting a demo established to commence in June.

McSwain claims he “doubled prosecutions of violent criminals” in his practically three several years in business office. — McSwain Tv ad

Justice Office figures clearly show that in 2019, the initially full yr of McSwain’s tenure, his prosecutors secured 669 indictments — a 42% raise in excess of the prior year’s 470.

And the whole amount of prison situations submitted through McSwain’s two-and-a-50 %-12 months tenure matches the final a few several years of his predecessor. Component of that can be blamed on the pandemic, which quickly halted the federal grand jury method.

“On Election Day and afterward, our business acquired several allegations of voter fraud and election irregularities. As part of my responsibilities as U.S. Attorney, I wanted to be transparent with the public and, of training course, look into entirely any allegations. Attorney Basic [Bill] Barr, on the other hand, instructed me not to make any public statements or place out any press releases concerning feasible election irregularities.” — A June 9, 2021, letter from McSwain to former President Donald Trump

The claim that has induced the most significant waves among the his previous colleagues in Philadelphia and Washington is McSwain’s recurring allegation that he was disappointed in voicing his problems about the 2020 election by prime Justice Office officials.

He 1st made that charge in his letter to Trump, which the previous president shared publicly very last summer season, falsely proclaiming the letter said McSwain was barred from investigating.

McSwain has repeated his promises because, even though consistently dodging requests for specifics and queries in excess of whether or not everything he saw as U.S. legal professional would induce him to problem the legitimacy of President Joe Biden’s election.

Quite a few of his previous prosecutors, speaking on condition of anonymity to explore investigations that did not guide to fees, explained the U.S. Attorney’s Business office uncovered no evidence of considerable election improprieties.

There is no proof of any substantial fraud in Pennsylvania’s 2020 election.

» Go through A lot more: Monthly bill McSwain tried using to wander a political tightrope on Trump’s election lies. Invoice Barr lower it.

With no scenario in Philadelphia supporting Trump’s false fraud promises, McSwain pitched the concept of keeping a news convention in late 2020. He prepared to include his voice to the chorus of GOP problems about how Pennsylvania had administered its election, according to two sources familiar with the make a difference.

Justice Section officials in Washington shot him down.

Barr pushed back on McSwain’s claim that he was at any time stopped from investigating any election-linked problems in an job interview with The Inquirer final 12 months.

“He was in the thick of investigating things with me prodding him along,” the previous attorney common mentioned. What Barr objected to, he reported, was that McSwain “wanted to not do the business of the department, which is to investigate cases, but in its place go out and flap his gums about what he didn’t like about the election general.”

McSwain declined requests to reply to Barr’s remarks.