GOP candidate's son had concerns about political operative

The Republican in the last undecided U.S. congressional election ignored repeated warnings from his son against hiring a shady political operator now accused of illegally collecting voter's ballots in a rural North Carolina county and casting the GOP campaign into limbo, the younger man testified Wednesday.

Contradicting congressional candidate Mark Harris' public statements that he never suspected his campaign deployed an operative in rural Bladen County who collected ballots by the bundle and turned them in when he wanted, John Harris testified at a special state elections board hearing that he'd warned his father about Leslie McCrae Dowless' operation repeatedly since mid-2016.

John Harris said his warnings were overridden because local Republicans recommended Dowless to Mark Harris, who was gearing up for a primary rematch against incumbent U.S. Rep. Robert Pittenger. His parents met with Dowless in April 2017, when the operative insisted his method for maximizing mail-in vote results was legal and grounded in local relationships.

Mark Harris, Republican candidate in North Carolina's 9th congressional race, listens to testimony during a public evidentiary hearing on the 9th congressional district voting irregularities investigation Tuesday, Feb. 19, 2019, at the North Carolina State Bar in Raleigh, N.C. (Travis LongThe News & Observer via AP, Pool)

"I think they were lied to and they believed the person who lied to them," John Harris said of his parents. "I will also say, they were weighing what I had provided in terms of analysis against other people that they respected who endorsed Mr. Dowless' behavior. Do I agree with their ultimate assessment? No. I thought what he was doing was illegal. And I was right."

North Carolina's elections director said Monday that Dowless conducted an illegal and well-funded ballot-harvesting operation while working for Mark Harris during the 2018 election cycle. Dowless' workers in Bladen County testified at the special state elections board hearing that they were directed to forge signatures, collect blank or incomplete ballots voters handed over, and even fill in votes for local candidates who hadn't earned them.

Some Bladen County residents also raised their suspicions in sworn affidavits that Dowless also may have discarded the ballots of Democrat Dan McCready's supporters. He trailed Harris by 905 votes out of about 280,000 cast in November's election, but the race wasn't certified after allegations against Dowless surfaced. The hearing has produced no testimony showing ballots were discarded.

Mark Harris, Republican candidate in North Carolina's 9th Congressional race, listens to testimony during the second day of a public evidentiary hearing on the 9th congressional district voting irregularities investigation Tuesday, Feb. 19, 2019, at the North Carolina State Bar in Raleigh, N.C. (Travis LongThe News & Observer via AP, Pool)

Dowless declined to testify this week after the elections board refused to grant him immunity from prosecution based on what he might say. Dowless has felony convictions for insurance fraud and perjury, but Harris and his chief campaign consultant said those charges were missed in a brief background check.

John Harris said he did not have a significant role in his father's campaign and assumed campaign staffers and consultants had a duty to keep an eye on Dowless' performance.

Mark Harris previously told The Associated Press he sought out and hired Dowless because he delivered votes, including for a Republican rival in the 2016 GOP primary. Harris said he discussed with an attorney after that primary whether to challenge Dowless' incredible results for a GOP rival with mail-in ballots in Bladen County. Dowless' methods in the 2016 general election were referred to federal prosecutors, who took no action.

Agnes Willis, a Bladen County poll worker, prepares to testify under oath during the second day of a public evidentiary hearing on the 9th congressional district voting irregularities investigation Tuesday, Feb. 19, 2019, at the North Carolina State Bar in Raleigh, N.C. (Travis LongThe News & Observer via AP, Pool)

Since October, John Harris has worked in the civil division of the same U.S. Justice Department office in Raleigh. He said he was testifying voluntarily in his capacity as a private citizen and not as a Justice Department employee. Mark Harris appeared to tear up during his son's testimony.

John Harris testified that he initially warned his parents about Dowless after reviewing voting data immediately after his father's 2016 primary loss. Mark Harris had lost a Republican primary that June in which GOP rival Todd Johnson, who used Dowless in that campaign, scored 98 percent of the mail-in ballots cast in Bladen County.

In November 2016, John Harris forwarded a Republican fundraising email amid a vote-counting fight in the close North Carolina governor's race. The email claimed that a Democratic Party voting fraud scheme in Bladen County had been uncovered, based on a complaint by Dowless of misdeeds by a local black empowerment organization.

Marc Elias, an attorney for Democratic congressional candidate Dan McCready, and Agnes Willis, a Bladen County poll worker, look over a tape that shows early voting results during the second day of a public evidentiary hearing on the 9th congressional district voting irregularities investigation Tuesday, Feb. 19, 2019, at the North Carolina State Bar in Raleigh, N.C. (Travis LongThe News & Observer via AP, Pool)

Mark Harris reacted to the email with a reply to his son: "Amen! But interestingly enough, the guy who made the claim, Dowess (sic), is the same guy that Johnson paid to run the "absentee ballot program" for him! Guess he didn't like the Dems cutting into his business!"

Mark Harris is expected to testify Thursday. The elections board is expected to either declare him the winner in the 9th congressional district or order a new election after the multi-day hearing.

Follow Emery P. Dalesio on Twitter at http://twitter.com/emerydalesio . His work can be found at https://apnews.com/search/emery%20dalesio .

Dallas Woodhouse, executive director of the North Carolina Republican Party, talks with reporters prior to the second day of a public evidentiary hearing on the 9th congressional district voting irregularities investigation Tuesday, Feb. 19, 2019, at the North Carolina State Bar in Raleigh, N.C. North Carolina elections officials looking into ballot fraud in the country's last undecided congressional election are finding that votes were counted days ahead of Election Day in the rural county at the center of disputed results. (Travis LongThe News & Observer via AP, Pool)

Kim Westbrook Strach, left, executive director of the Bipartisan State Board of Elections & Ethics Enforcement, questions a witness during the second day of a public evidentiary hearing on the 9th congressional district voting irregularities investigation Tuesday, Feb. 19, 2019, at the North Carolina State Bar in Raleigh, N.C. North Carolina elections officials looking into ballot fraud in the country's last undecided congressional election are finding that votes were counted days ahead of Election Day in the rural county at the center of disputed results. (Travis LongThe News & Observer via AP, Pool)

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. intelligence officials have determined that Russian President Vladimir Putin likely didn’t order the death of imprisoned opposition leader Alexei Navalny in February, according to an official familiar with the determination.

While U.S. officials believe Putin was ultimately responsible for the death of Navalny, who endured brutal conditions during his confinement, the intelligence community has found “no smoking gun” that Putin was aware of the timing of Navalny's death — which came soon before the Russian president's reelection — or directly ordered it, according to the official.

The official spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive matter.

Soon after Navalny’s death, U.S. President Joe Biden said Putin was ultimately responsible but did not accuse the Russian president of directly ordering it.

At the time, Biden said the U.S. did not know exactly what had happened to Navalny but that “there is no doubt” that his death “was the consequence of something that Putin and his thugs did.”

Navalny, 47, Russia’s best-known opposition politician and Putin’s most persistent foe, died Feb. 16 in a remote penal colony above the Arctic Circle while serving a 19-year sentence on extremism charges that he rejected as politically motivated.

He had been behind bars since January 2021 after returning to Russia from Germany, where he had been recovering from nerve-agent poisoning that he blamed on the Kremlin.

Russian officials have said only that Navalny died of natural causes and have vehemently denied involvement both in the poisoning and in his death.

In March, a month after Navalny’s death, Putin won a landslide reelection for a fifth term, an outcome that was never in doubt.

The Wall Street Journal first reported about the U.S. intelligence determination.

FILE - Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny gestures while speaking during his interview to the Associated Press in Moscow, Russia on Dec. 18, 2017. U.S. intelligence officials have determined that Russian President Vladimir Putin likely didn't order the death of Navalny, the imprisoned opposition leader, in February of 2024. An official says the U.S. intelligence community has found "no smoking gun" that Putin was aware of the timing of Navalny's death or directly ordered it. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, File)