Report: Fetterman Accused of ‘Abuse of … Mayoral Authority’ for Using Local Police to Get Dirt on Political Opponent

Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman (D), running against Dr. Mehmet Oz for the state’s open United States Senate seat, was previously accused of abusing his “mayoral authority” while mayor of Braddock, Pennsylvania, for using local police to dig up dirt on his political opponent.

While running for re-election in 2009, Fetterman was accused by Braddock solicitor Lawrence Shields of “abuse of your mayoral authority” for requesting a local police officer pull a 2004 police report on his opponent, Jayme Cox.

Cox told the Washington Free Beacon that he had gotten into an altercation with his wife, who passed in 2017, but that claims he had hit her were not true. The changes against Cox were dropped after he attended a domestic abuse course.

“[Fetterman will] stab anybody in the back who gets in his way,” Cox said.

City Council members wanted Fetterman to be arrested for allegedly trying to get the police report on Cox, as Pennsylvania state laws restrict such information when the charges are dropped against an individual.

Braddock, officials told the Free Beacon, was nearly sued for Fetterman’s actions:

As lieutenant governor, Fetterman has proposed rewriting the very same law he was accused of violating in 2009, the Criminal History Record Information Act. He claimed the act “unfairly” disqualified “many Black and Brown Pennsylvanians” from employment. Braddock solicitor Shields said in 2009 that Fetterman’s release of the police report on Cox, who is black, opened Braddock up to a potential lawsuit for violating the act, which bars the release of criminal information three years after an arrest when no conviction occurred. Pennsylvania’s Bucks County was fined $67 million in 2019 for violating the act by publishing protected criminal information. [Emphasis added]

Following the incident, Fetterman also helped cast the deciding vote to fire Shields as Braddock solicitor.

As Breitbart News previously reported, Fetterman oversaw crime surges and a declining population while mayor of Braddock, despite his promises to revitalize the area.

John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.