A woman who was caught on O’Keefe Media Group’s undercover camera illegally paying people to register to vote on Skid Row in Los Angeles, California, has been federally charged.
The Justice Department on Monday announced that Brenda Lee Brown Armstrong was charged with one felony count of paying another person to register to vote. She is facing a max of five years in federal prison.
“False registrations undermine Americans’ faith in elections – even more so when payoffs are involved,” said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.
“This Justice Department is committed to ensuring that all U.S. elections are fair and free from illegal meddling – so that all Americans can accept the results with confidence,” she said.
BREAKING NEWS: JAMES O'KEEFE INVESTIGATION LEADS TO DOJ INDICTMENT OF ELECTION FRAUDSTER IN LOS ANGELES, CA
Brenda Brown, the Skid Row election petitioner O’Keefe Media caught on hidden camera has pleaded “GUILTY.”
Election Fraudster Brenda Brown has been charged with:
5 years… pic.twitter.com/87bk137xXr
— James O'Keefe (@JamesOKeefeIII) May 18, 2026
Harmeet Dhillon announced the charges on Monday.
Per the DOJ:
Armstrong has agreed to plead guilty to the charge and is scheduled to make her initial appearance this morning in U.S. District Court in Santa Ana. She is expected to plead guilty in the coming weeks.
According to her plea agreement, for approximately 20 years, Armstrong periodically worked as a “petition circulator.” In that role, she was paid by individuals and entities – known as “coordinators” – to collect voter signatures on official petitions that qualify initiatives, referendums, and recalls for California state ballots. Armstrong drove around the Los Angeles area to find registered voters to sign the petitions.
After gathering enough signatures, Armstrong returned the petitions to her coordinators, who then paid her a set amount for each registered voter’s signature. The amount she was paid varied depending on the specific ballot initiative. Because her coordinators only paid for signatures attributable to registered voters, Armstrong endeavored to ensure the people who signed her petitions were registered voters.
Armstrong occasionally solicited petitioned signatures in Skid Row, an area of downtown Los Angeles notorious for its homelessness problem. Skid Row was a convenient place for Armstrong to collect signatures because of its high concentration of people in a relatively small area who were willing to sign petitions in exchange for payment. Armstrong regularly paid and offered to pay individuals cash, usually in amounts between $2 and $3, to induce them to sign her petitions.
The @JusticeDept announced TODAY that Brenda Lee Brown Armstrong has agreed to a plea deal, admitting she paid homeless people in Los Angeles to register to vote in Federal elections to support her paid signature gathering business. @USAttyEssayli Election integrity matters!… pic.twitter.com/0zF2RRkBJB
— AAGHarmeetDhillon (@AAGDhillon) May 18, 2026
The O’Keefe Media Group in March released its investigation into a California elections fraud cash for ballots scheme.
James O’Keefe and his team of journalists went undercover on Skid Row in Los Angeles, posing as homeless people.
‘Petitioners’ told the undercover journalists that they are paid between $7-$10 per signature. Some of them earn up to $1,000 per day.
“California NGOs Encourage Fake Addresses To Homeless People To Sign Petitions & Register Voters, A State & Federal Felony. Footage Shows 28 Instances Of Cash Changing Hands For Ballot Signatures & Voter Registration Forms,” they said.
“Many of the petitioners had no understanding of the petitions’ purpose they were advertising. Circulators also instructed individuals to use fake addresses. “Oh, you can just fake an address.”” OMG reported.
“Weingart Center, which received hundreds of millions in public funding, is on tape directing people to where the fraudulent petitioners are located, and directing homeless individuals to petitioners & coaching plausible deniability,” OMG said.
O’Keefe Media Group reporters encountered “28 instances of petitioners offering cash, cigarettes, and marijuana for signatures on petitions.”
“See they say ignorance is no excuse for the law. But a lot of times, I have to say ‘I didn’t know, I had no idea,’” a Weingart Center employee told the undercover journalist.
WATCH:
CALIFORNIA ELECTIONS FRAUD CASH FOR BALLOTS PART I: Homeless Bribed with Cash & Drugs In Exchange For Registering To Vote & Signing Election Petitions Caught On Tape Undercover On Skid Row In California.
“You can just put Pinocchio Lane.”
California NGOs Encourage Fake… pic.twitter.com/2pkylhgPY9
— James O'Keefe (@JamesOKeefeIII) March 17, 2026
The post BREAKING: Woman Caught on O’Keefe Undercover Camera Illegally Paying People to Register to Vote on Skid Row Federally Charged appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.