During the now-infamous Saturday Trump campaign press conference at Four Seasons Total Landscaping in Northeast Philadelphia, Rudy Giuliani called upon three witnesses who he said could prove voting fraud in the presidential election.
The first witness was a convicted sex offender who has been a consistently unsuccessful candidate in New Jersey for several years, as first reported by Politico.
“It’s such a shame. This is a democracy,” Daryl Brooks, who said he served as a GOP poll watcher, said at the press conference outside the landscaping business after shaking Giuliani’s hand. “They did not allow us to see anything. Was it corrupt or not? But give us an opportunity as poll watchers to view all the documents—all of the ballots.”
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Brooks served three years and eight months in prison in 1998 after he was convicted on several charges of lewdness, sexual assault, and endangering the welfare of a minor for allegedly exposing himself in front of two girls who were ages 7 and 11. According to NJ.com, Brooks maintained his innocence, claiming he was set up by Trenton police and other elected officials because of his work as a city activist.
The arrest came three years after police said Brooks was reported for public masturbation after he was seen naked from the waist down on a city street near a mini-police station while holding a bottle of brandy, according to The Philadelphia Tribune.
But Giuliani was not at all fazed by Brooks’ criminal past—insisting his dirty deeds have nothing to do with his claims of widespread election fraud.
“There are over 50 witnesses. There are so many others,” Giuliani told the New York Daily News, admitting he was unaware of Brooks history. The Trumpkin then compared Brooks’ situation to that of President-elect Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden.
“Geez you got a guy....who is endorsed by someone with an outstanding endangering children claim,” Giuliani said, repeating an unsubstantiated allegation against Hunter. “Does it affect the credibility of others who support Biden? Print that!”
Brooks, 52, has also made several unsuccessful runs for political office. Describing himself as a libertarian and a Tea Party activist, Brooks attempted to run for Congress twice and the U.S. Senate—a campaign in which his slogan was the “Poor People’s Campaign.”
During his 2004 run for Congress in New Jersey’s 12th District, Brooks took one-half of 1 percent of the votes in his race against three-term Democratic Rep. Rush Holt and Republican Bill Spadea. Brooks, who ran as a Green Party candidate, reportedly finished last among four candidates.
In 2008, then-Senate hopeful Brooks was imprisoned after failing to pay more than $70,000 in child-support payments to three women, according to NJ.com. In response, Brooks vowed to go on a hunger strike in protest of America’s treatment of previously incarcerated residents.
“The hunger strike will draw attention to this critical issue—and hopefully stir action and lead to justice,” Brooks said, according to a legal defense fund that appears to be set up for him, and which also alleges the Trenton native was mistreated by the New Jersey Parole Board.
Pictures posted on the legal defense fund Blogspot appear to show Brooks in photo ops with former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, philosopher Cornel West, and Tim Pawlenty, a former Minnesota governor and presidential candidate. Brooks also appears to have an audiobook, Why Me?, in which he discusses his life and time in prison.
Brooks again challenged Menendez in 2012 and finished last in a field of 11 candidates as the Reform Party candidate. He received 2,066 votes statewide, or 0.06, and lost to Menendez by 1,985,614.
At Saturday’s press conference, Brooks did not mention his political past, stating he had moved to Philadelphia two years ago and decided to come out to “support our president.”
“The election was stolen as soon as Trump was elected president; they were plotting, the plan was in the mix,” Brooks said, adding that while at the polls, he had been forced to stand at least 20 feet away and could not make sure the votes were legal.
“I started watching it and all of a sudden I was like, ‘There’s New Jersey’s perennial candidate claiming to live in Philadelphia and Giuliani claiming him to be a poll watcher and Philadelphia resident,” Trenton Mayor Reed Gusciora told Politico. James Gee, chief of staff to Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman, also told the outlet they recognized Brooks.
“Yeah, I know Daryl. It’s so fitting that he would be there,” Gee said.
Brooks did not immediately respond to The Daily Beast’s request for comment.
In an interview with Politico on Monday, Brooks admitted he did not know if Trump’s lawyer knew about his criminal past—which he still denies, claiming the alleged victims were children of neighborhood drug dealers he had called out in his community—but stressed he didn’t think it was relevant.
“I’m not sure, but all he asked—he was asking about the truth. I told him the truth and the other ones told him the truth,” Brooks said, revealing he also worked for a third-party group supporting Hillary Clinton’s campaign in 2016.
Speaking about this conviction, Brooks added: “I went to prison for three-and-a-half years. That’s what they said I did. I was 25 years old. I was an activist always doing the right thing. They lied on me. The cops set me up.”
The failed New Jersey politician’s allegations mirrored those of Trump’s personal lawyer Giuliani, who held the press conference just as major news networks called the 2020 election for President-elect Joe Biden. Giuliani, along with former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi and Trump campaign adviser Corey Lewandowski, baselessly alleged illegal ballots have been cast in the names of the deceased in Philadelphia.
“Will Smith’s father has voted here twice since he has died,” Giuliani said. “I don’t know who he voted for because the vote is secret. In Philadelphia, they keep the votes of dead people secret.”
The complaint was one of several lodged against Pennsylvania’s voting practices—including a lawsuit filed by the Pennsylvania Republican Party—whose 20 electoral votes clinched the White House for Biden after days of tallying mail-in ballots.
