Why President Trump Should Pardon Craig Callaway: Seth Grossman In Press Of Atlantic City

It was easy. Laws today are so complicated and intrusive that almost every successful business owner is guilty of something at some time.

Donald Trump was targeted and prosecuted for his politics. So were hundreds of Jan. 6 Trump supporters who carefully walked within the velvet ropes during their protest inside the Capitol. So were Democrats like New York City Mayor Eric Adams who criticized Biden’s open border policies.

In his first three weeks, Trump stopped many prosecutions and gave some 1,600 pardons to correct this. Trump should give his next pardon to Craig Callaway of Atlantic City.

Craig Callaway is a professional “ballot harvester.” He is now 65 years old. As a young Black man, he took an interest in politics and supported the Democratic Party. He learned grassroots politics from old-timers who once got votes for the real Nucky Johnson and his Boardwalk Empire. Before every election, Callaway walked door to door to register voters and distribute literature. He then drove voters to the polls on Election Day.

Above Video:  At our February Fundraiser last year, Craig Callaway explained how he first took an interest in grass roots politics. He then explained how “ballot harvesting” works, and why it is so effective.

During the late 1990s, leftist Democrats and clueless Republicans completely gutted long established laws that minimized election fraud and intimidation. They allowed unlimited mail-in and messenger ballots instead of in-person voting. Callaway adapted to those changes by “harvesting” thousands of those votes weeks before Election Day.

For years, Democrats praised his work and paid him well. However, in 2002, Callaway lost faith in the Democratic Party. He ran for office himself and picked his own candidates. It was a disaster. Callaway was one of the 130 public officials who Chris Christie set up and prosecuted as U.S. attorney to jump-start his political career.

Callaway was then prosecuted for punishing a former political ally who betrayed him. Callaway did to him what the Globe tabloid did to a well-known celebrity in 1997. Callaway did not know that New Jersey made it a crime in 2004. Callaway was sent to prison.

In 2013, he helped a Republican unseat a Democratic mayor in Atlantic City, an overwhelmingly Democrat majority town.

In 2020, Callaway helped Congressman Jeff Van Drew win reelection. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi forced Van Drew out of the Democratic Party after he refused to vote for President Trump’s impeachment. Van Drew then ran as a Trump Republican. Callaway helped Van Drew defeat his Democratic opponent. She was Amy Kennedy, the wife of former Congressman Patrick Kennedy who was trying to make a comeback.

Callaway helped Van Drew get easily reelected in the midterm elections of 2022. At that time, he was the target of an intense investigation by the U.S. Justice Department.

Sellinger put Craig Callaway under video surveillance for three weeks during the 2022 election campaign. Sellinger then arrested and charged Callaway 16 months later — just before the June 2024 primaries.

In a press release, Sellinger credited eight law enforcement agencies for helping him. They included attorneys and FBI agents from his Trenton branch office, “Organized Crime and Gangs Unit” and “Special Prosecutions Division.” Sellinger also thanked an “Atlantic City Resident Agency Public Corruption Task Force.” That was a team of agents supplied by the Atlantic County prosecutor, the Atlantic City Police Department, the New Jersey State Police, the U.S. Department of Labor, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, Philadelphia Division.

Democrats have good reason to put Craig Callaway in prison and out of business. He is using their ballot harvesting methods to elect Republicans.

Republicans so far have not defended Callaway. It seems they would rather complain about ballot harvesting than end it by demanding a return to in-person voting on one Election Day.