Florida political operatives burned fake voter guides in a backyard grill to hide their crime.
Now the county GOP chairman says burning the evidence was only the beginning of what investigators found.
Denver Cook says the two-year investigation into a stolen Florida primary is far from over.
Fraud Operation Ran on Tens of Thousands in Cash and Mailers
Cook sat down with host Matthew Boyle on Breitbart News Saturday on July 11.
He told Boyle the fake voter guide case could still produce more indictments.
Prosecutors already charged five people on July 6.
Two of them sit on the St. Johns County Commission right now.
Commissioner Sarah Arnold and Commissioner Christian Whitehurst both face conspiracy charges.
St. Augustine Beach Commissioner Dylan Rumrell was charged alongside them.
Political consultant Brianna Jordan and her employee Jamie Lynn Johnson round out the five defendants.
Prosecutors say Jordan ran the entire scheme out of a rented St. Augustine campaign headquarters.
Investigators allege she purchased more than 10,000 counterfeit voter guides and roughly 20,000 postage stamps.
The guides copied the real Republican voter guide's logo, but reversed the colors from white lettering on red to red lettering on white.
Workers stuffed them into envelopes with no return address and mailed them from Jacksonville and Orlando.
Investigators say that was no accident – it was built to hide who sent them.
The scheme targeted about 25,000 super voters, the ones who actually decide St. Johns County primaries.
Cook said the scheme was built to overrule what actual Republican primary voters and the party had already decided.
Investigation Moved After Two Prosecutors Recused Themselves
The case sat for nearly two years before charges finally came down.
Prosecutors in St. Johns County's own judicial circuit recused themselves from the case.
So did the neighboring circuit that covers Jacksonville.
Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a confidential executive order in April assigning the case to an outside prosecutor.
Eighth Judicial Circuit State Attorney Brian Kramer ultimately filed the charges.
When investigators dug further, they found Jordan had allegedly tried to destroy the evidence.
She now faces a felony tampering charge after investigators say a campaign worker burned unmailed guides in a backyard grill once the story broke.
That felony could put her behind bars while her co-defendants face misdemeanors only.
Arraignments for the elected officials are set for August 3.
Cook made clear he doesn't believe the fraud stopped with these five people.
He made clear GOP membership won't protect anyone else implicated, telling Boyle "anyone who violates the law or commits fraud, regardless of party."
Cook said sworn testimony from the defendants themselves could surface new names before this case closes.
He's already telling Boyle to expect civil suits stacked on top of the criminal case.
None of the three sitting officials are up for reelection anytime soon, so removal from office isn't automatic.
Florida's governor has the power to suspend an elected official once criminal charges are filed.
DeSantis has pulled that trigger before – in 2022 he suspended Hillsborough State Attorney Andrew Warren after Warren announced he wouldn't prosecute certain criminal cases, and he suspended an Orlando-area prosecutor on similar grounds in 2023.
Neither of those cases involved anything close to a felony conspiracy charge, which is exactly what Jordan is facing right now.
Whether DeSantis pulls that same trigger on Arnold, Whitehurst, and Rumrell is now the next thing St. Johns County Republicans are watching.
Republicans Policing Their Own Sets a National Precedent
This is what real election integrity enforcement looks like – a state Republican Party turning its own sitting commissioners over to prosecutors instead of circling the wagons.
Two elected Republicans allegedly helped stuff the very envelopes that may have cost them their seats – and Ann-Marie Evans lost her primary to one of them by roughly two points.
Grassroots conservatives in St. Johns County flagged this fraud within days of it landing in mailboxes, and it still took two years, two recusals, and a governor's order to force charges.
That's not a broken system protecting the guilty – that's the system working exactly as slowly as it always does when the accused hold office.
This isn't just a Florida problem – election officials elsewhere have flagged similar counterfeit-mailer schemes surfacing in Montana and California, which means St. Johns County may be the case that finally gets prosecuted, not the only one that happened.
A felony tampering charge next to a governor with a track record of suspending officials for far less sends exactly the message St. Johns County Republicans have wanted since the fake guides first hit mailboxes two years ago.
Sources:
- Mariane Angela, "GOP Chair Says More Indictments Possible in FL Fake Voter Guide Case," Breitbart, July 11, 2026.
- Breitbart News, "Florida Officials, Political Operatives Charged in Alleged Counterfeit GOP Voter Guide Plot," Breitbart, July 7, 2026.
- Staff, "Charging Documents Reveal 'Secret Envelope Stuffing' Operation Behind Fake St. Johns County Voter Guide," News4JAX, July 7, 2026.
- Staff, "New Details Emerge in Alleged Fake St. Johns County GOP Voter Guide Scheme," Action News Jax, July 8, 2026.
- Staff, "Fake Voter Guides, Fraud Charges Could Cloud St. Johns County Election," News4JAX, July 8, 2026.
- Mary Ellen Klas, "State Attorney Is Latest Example of DeSantis' Use of Power to Suspend Elected Officials," Tampa Bay Times, August 9, 2023.
