Today, Jack Burkman, 59, of Arlington, Virginia, and Jacob Wohl, 27, of Great Falls, Virginia, were sentenced by Judge Margaret VanHouten of





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*FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:*
December 1, 2025




*Media Contact:*
Danny Wimmer <[email protected]>






Burkman and Wohl Sentenced for Intimidating Voters in Robocall Case

*LANSING* – Today, Jack Burkman, 59, of Arlington, Virginia, and Jacob Wohl, 27, of Great Falls, Virginia, were sentenced by Judge Margaret VanHouten of the 3rd Circuit Court in Wayne County to one year probation after pleading no contest to orchestrating a series of robocalls [ [link removed] ] aimed at suppressing the vote of predominantly black voters in Detroit in the 2020 general election, announced Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel. Attorney General Nessel personally appeared at the hearing as the attorney on record for the Department of Attorney General. The plea and sentence were the product of a "Cobbs" agreement between the defendants and the Court. The Department of Attorney General was not involved in the agreement. 

“The defendants’ conduct used every racist dog whistle – fear of incarceration, fear of the government and fear of one’s benefits being taken away – to steal the most fundamental right that we often take for granted: the right to vote,” Nessel said. “While on probation, if they engage in these types of criminal behaviors, they will be held to account here in Michigan. We all are aware, and this Court has made these defendants aware, that continuing to engage in criminal conduct while on probation is a violation, for which the Department will be ever vigilant about bringing to the attention of their probation agents and this Court. If they willingly choose to engage in the types of repulsive behaviors they have gained notoriety for, this Court and my Department will be watching.” 

Burkman and Wohl pled to: 


* One count of election law – bribing/intimidating voters;
* One count of conspiracy to commit an election law violation;
* One count of using a computer to commit the crime of election law – intimidating voters; and
* One count of using a computer to commit the crime of conspiracy. 

Burkman and Wohl attempted to discourage voters from participating in the general election by creating and funding a robocall targeting specific and multiple urban areas across the country, including Detroit. The calls were made in late August of 2020 and went out to nearly 12,000 residents with phone numbers registered to an address with a Detroit zip code. They promoted falsehoods that: 


* voting by mail would place voters’ personal information in a public database that will be used by police departments to track down individuals with outstanding warrants;
* voting by mail would place voters’ personal information in a public database that will be used by credit card companies to collect outstanding debts; and
* the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were attempting to utilize vote by mail records to track individuals for mandatory vaccines.  

The robocall named Burkman and Wohl as responsible for the calls and claimed them to be the founders of a “civil rights organization” named “Project 1599.” It closed with a message urging the predominantly Black recipients to not be “finessed into giving your private information to the man. Stay safe and beware of vote by mail.” The Attorney General has called the robocall an egregious example of voter suppression. 

Following the formal charges from the Attorney General in 2020, both men were bound over for trial. Burkman and Wohl filed a motion to quash the charges in the circuit court. The circuit court denied this motion, and the defendants appealed to the Court of Appeals. The Court of Appeals declined to hear their appeal. 

Burkman and Wohl then filed an application in the Michigan Supreme Court, which remanded the matter to the Court of Appeals and required it hear the appeal. The Court of Appeals heard the defendants’ arguments, ruling in a published opinion that the statute governed their conduct as alleged and that it was a constitutional application of the statute. 

Defendants Burkman and Wohl then appealed that ruling to the Michigan Supreme Court, which upheld the validity of the statute, ruled that it governed the conduct as alleged, and remanded the matter to the Court of Appeals to apply a limiting construction of the law to ensure that it did not ensnare constitutionally protected speech. On remand, the Court of Appeals ruled that the alleged actions here would not be constitutionally protected speech. The Michigan Supreme Court then declined to hear an appeal of a lower court decision that upheld the criminal charges against Burkman and Wohl.

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