LA Prosecutor Who Led Election Investigation Placed On Leave

George Soros-funded Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon has placed a top assistant prosecutor on administrative leave after he worked on a now-dropped case against a Chinese national who was accused of violating election laws.

Deputy D.A. Eric Neff was placed on leave soon after Gascon decided to drop charges against Eugene Yu, CEO of election software company Konnech. According to the Los Angeles Times, Yu had been accused of storing U.S. election workers’ information and other data on servers in China in violation of law.

Yu, 51, had been arrested on October 4 on claims that he had endangered personal information, including social security numbers, of L.A. County election workers by sending the data to a China-based server.

The charges against Yu included embezzlement and conspiracy based on allegations that he had effectively stolen public funds.

Gascon’s office said in November that the charges against Yu were being dismissed because “upper management” had become “aware of irregularities in how the case was presented.” No other details were provided in the public statement.

Gascon also had the Public Integrity Division of his office brought under the direct control of his chief of staff Joseph Iniguez. That division was responsible for the investigation and filing of charges against Yu.

It was something of a surprise among conservative media outlets in October when the charges in L.A. against Yu were announced, especially given that Konnech was suing conservative activist organization True the Vote for defamation for making similar election security claims publicly.

Gascon’s selective leak of the news of Neff’s suspension to the L.A. Times stands as an indication that he is working carefully to distance himself from the Yu investigation. When the charges were dropped, Gascon’s spokesperson said that much of the information the D.A. provided at the news conference announcing the original filing of the case came from “employees closest to this investigation.”

Even though Gascon exuded confidence in the case on October 4, it is virtually certain he underestimated the political fallout that would come from any action daring to challenge the security of a California election. Later events indicate that his response was an attempt to throw the blame onto a scapegoat for bringing him into some sort of “conspiracy theory” investigation.