Prosecutor clears congressman's son of voter fraud

Prosecutors in Arlington County, Va., say they will not pursue charges against the son of U.S. Rep. Jim Moran, Patrick Moran, who resigned from his father's campaign last fall after he was videotaped apparently conspiring to commit election fraud.

The announcement comes from authorities who said they looked into the case before closing their investigation, and that Moran and the Jim Moran campaign were cooperative.

According to the Washington Post, the investigation followed an undercover video that showed Patrick Moran offering "guidance on how to possibly skirt Virginia's new voter identification laws."

The video sting by James O'Keefe's Project Veritas, first reported by WND, prompted the resignation of Patrick Moran, who is Rep. Jim Moran's son, and a criminal investigation by the Arlington County Police Department in Northern Virginia, near Washington, D.C.

O'Keefe told WND, "The video and the subsequent actions of both Patrick Moran and Congressman Moran speak for themselves. What we saw on the video was so obviously damning and inappropriate that Pat Moran immediately resigned, and his father's office released a statement saying that what he had done was wrong. I don't need to make any comment beyond that."

His video:

Patrick Moran is also the nephew of Virginia Democratic Party Chairman Brian Moran, Jim Moran's brother.

In an earlier statement, Brian Moran said his nephew made "a mistake" and called him "a good kid."

"He has taken responsibility and has stepped down from the Moran campaign," Brian Moran said at the time. "The Democratic Party of Virginia is an organization that stands for free and open participation in our elections and we oppose even the appearance of any effort to undermine those values.”

Patrick Moran, however, has insisted the whole interchange with the undercover reporter was a joke to him. He explained that he stepped down, "because I do not want to be a distraction during this year's critical election."

He asserted "at no point have I, or will I ever endorse any sort of illegal or unethical behavior."

"At no point did I take this person seriously. He struck me as being unstable and joking, and for only that reason did I humor him," Moran said.

As WND reported, Jim Moran, 67, a controversial figure in Congress, has been criticized for his collaboration with Islamic leaders with ties to terrorism. In 2003, Moran, then a regional whip in the House of Representatives, was punished by House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi after he suggested Jews were responsible for the push for war against Iraq.

Moran was videoed by the Project Veritas reporter Oct. 8 at the Cosi Restaurant in Arlington, Va., just across the Potomac River from the nation's capital. The video shows the undercover reporter posing as a citizen concerned that the Democratic Party might lose power in the upcoming Nov. 6 elections.

The reporter, who approaches Moran at the restaurant, says he has a friend who found the names of 100 Virginia residents who have been registered the past three elections but have not voted.

Later, Moran suggests creating fake utility bills to serve as voter ID so the Project Veritas reporter can cast ballots in the names of the registered voters. Moran warns there will be "a lot of voter protection" at the polling places to enforce the state's identification laws.

"So, if they just have the utility bill or bank statement – bank statement would obviously be tough … but faking a utility bill would be easy enough," Moran says.

As WND reported, earlier O'Keefe's team captured on video a regional director of the voter mobilization group launched by Barack Obama, Organizing for America, helping an undercover reporter vote for the president in two states. The director was fired after the video was reported.