a former Atlantic City Council president is facing charges again longtime political operative Craig Callaway has been arrested on federal charges of ballot fraud authorities alleged Callaway organized a mailin ballot scheme that allowed him to deliver large blocks of ballots to election officials that often swayed the outcome of the election as senior correspondent Joanna gagas reports Callaway's political foes have long accused him of this fraud anybody messing with M mail bance needs to go U I don't care if you're a Republican or Democrat Michael sulaman is applauding the arrest and arraignment yesterday of Craig Callaway a political operative who's worked on the campaigns of elected officials from both parties he was charged by the US attorney with election fraud for coordinating efforts to fraudulently cast mailin ballots after years and years of this blatant illegality finally law enforcement is doing something about it I'll be it late we wish this happened years ago but we are uh vindica ated that you know the efforts we've taken against this guy have at least paid off sullan is Chairman of the Atlanta County Democratic committee that sueded Callaway for what they say are years of election fraud and public corruption saying he hired teams of Messengers to procure ballots from the most vulnerable citizens then return them fraudulently in support of Callaway's candidates he's no stranger to the legal system callow's already served time in federal prison for bribery and his role in a sexting operation but after his release he was hired by several prominent elected officials in New Jersey including Congressman Jeff Van Drew in 2022 well maybe that's why he got away with it for all these years because he has worked for both parties candidates have flocked to him because they get so desperate to win that they're tempted to use them how aware do you believe those who used his Services were of these untour practices he was engaging in well I think everybody knows uh the rumors and everybody knows what's going on here for some elected officials to plead ignorance like I've seen Congressman vanre do and the San guardian and Senator patina is just disingenuous and again with the Democrats the same thing Callaway is nationally known for his Shenanigans everyone in the state knows it everyone in Atlanta County knows it the value and the significance and the importance that I'd place on the actions of Callaway is how much the van Drew campaign paid him they paid him $65,000 which is as much as they paid their campaign manager in 2022 they claim Andrew claims I didn't know that anything wrong was going on well everybody else did and everybody else knew that that's what came with Craig Callaway services that that was what he did so my question is simple if you didn't know he was doing anything wrong what did you think you were purchasing van Drew's campaign issued a statement saying he received nearly 140,000 votes in the November election only 851 of which came from vote by male ballots in Atlantic City far fewer than his Democrat opponent and his margin of of victory was nearly 45,000 votes districtwide adding we never have and never would condone any illegal activity Callaway most recently worked for the campaign of Atlantic City Democratic councilwoman Latoya Dunston in the second ward Dunston won her primary in June by just six votes swelled by a huge turnout of vote by mail ballots we reached out to Dunston for comment but received no response 2019 the Republicans running for the general assembly came very close and they argued that the Callaway helped the two Democrats running for the assembly which he did quite frankly so again both parties are not um uh innocent of this Callaway's Attorney Megan Davies also hasn't replied to our request for comment in a statement us attorney for New Jersey Philip Selinger said holding free and fair elections is a Bedrock principle of our democracy today's charge reflects our office's commitment to hold to account those who try to undermine the electoral process if found guilty Callaway faces a minimum of 5 years in prison and a fine of $250,000 I'm Joanna Gagis NJ Spotlight News [Music]