The chairman of North Carolina’s Republican Party was indicted, alongside the owner of a multinational insurance firm, for allegedly planning to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in corrupt campaign contributions to the head of the state’s insurance regulator.
Robin Hayes, a former five-term congressman, conspired with North Carolina entrepreneur Greg Lindberg to bribe the insurance commissioner to replace a deputy who was critical of Lindberg’s company, Global Bankers Insurance Group, according to the indictment, unsealed on Tuesday.
The party was already embroiled in controversy. North Carolina’s elections board in February ordered a new vote in a U.S House district because of evidence that the results in November were rigged and tainted by fraud. The move followed the board’s probe of claims of absentee-ballot fraud orchestrated by a political operative on then-GOP candidate Mark Harris’s payroll during last year’s midterm election.
AC