Four supporters of former U.S. Attorney Pat Meehan want their names removed from a court action that alleges that they participated in the fraudulent gathering of signatures on Meehan’s nominating petition to run for a seat in the House of Representatives.
The Delaware County Daily Times reported Friday that the four Meehan supporters were named in a motion filed earlier in the week in Commonwealth Court asking the court to rule that most of the 3,623 signatures Meehan submitted to qualify for the ballot in southeast Pennsylvania’s 7th Congressional District are invalid.
Patrick Meehan (DOJ)
If the signatures are found to be illegitimate, Meehan would be ineligible to run in the May 18 GOP primary. Meehan asked the Pennsylvania court on Thursday to throw out the motion challenging the validity of signatures on his nominating petitions for a House seat.
In the motion, the plaintiffs alleged that four of Meehan’s supporters — called circulators because they circulated Meehan’s nominating petition — falsely signed an affidavit verifying that they had personally witnessed the signatures on the petition.
Robert DiOrio, the lawyer for the four circulators, called the allegation “false and defamatory” and “outrageous charges” that should be removed immediately.
“My clients are very upset and concerned that they have been called frauds and we thought that this was the quickest way to publicly demand that this practice stop immediately,” DiOrio said, according to the Daily Times. The lawyer held a press conference on the matter Thursday afternoon.
Meehan blamed state Rep. Bryan Lentz, the likely Democratic nominee for the seat, for the challenge. In a letter to the Democratic candidate, Meehan called the motion a “shameless stunt.”
The Lentz campaign has stood in support of the challenge.
“This is a pending legal matter,” Lentz spokesman Vincent Rongione told the newspaper. “The Meehan campaign and their associates will have their day in court to defend themselves and that’s the appropriate place for this conversation, not a press conference.”
Meehan, who served as U.S. Attorney for the Philadelphia-based Eastern District of Pennsylvania during the George W. Bush administration, is looking to succeed Rep. Joe Sestak (D-Pa.), who is running against Sen. Arlen Specter in the Democratic Senate primary. The former U.S. Attorney is the only candidate in the Republican primary.
