Two Hamtramck city councilmen were arraigned Tuesday on election fraud charges.

During separate hearings in Hamtramck’s 31st District Court, Muhtasin Sadman and Mohammed Hassan were arraigned on multiple counts, including forging signatures on absentee ballot applications, and election law forgery.

Mohammed Hassan is a Democrat. I can’t find a political affiliation for Sadman, but I would bet money he is as well.

A not guilty plea was entered on behalf of the defendants, who did not speak during their short hearings.

District Judge Alexis G. Krot set a personal bond for both councilmen, who must surrender their passports. The judge also ordered the media to turn off their recording devices during each hearing, and ordered the defendants to avoid contact with witnesses who the judge wanted to remain anonymous.

Separate preliminary examinations for the councilmen were scheduled for 9 a.m. Aug. 28. Probable cause conferences were rescheduled for Aug. 21.

Following each hearing, Jeffery Maynard, Sadman’s attorney, and Scott Ruark, Hassan’s attorney, declined to comment.

The charges follow a two-month investigation by the Monroe County Prosecutor’s Office, which was appointed by the Prosecuting Attorneys Association of Michigan to look into the allegations.

In April, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel’s office requested a special prosecutor to explore allegations that Hassan, Sadman and others who have not been charged conspired to receive unvoted absentee ballots that had been signed by recently naturalized citizens, and then filling in the candidates of their choosing. In June, the Prosecuting Attorneys Association of Michigan selected the Monroe County prosecutor to explore the accusations.

Sounds like the immigrant-to-Democrat voting fraud pipeline is alive and well in Michigan.

“Sadman forged an absentee ballot application with the intent to defraud and aided or counselled two unqualified electors to vote in the 2023 election,” Monroe County prosecutors said in a Monday press release. “It is further alleged that Council Member Mohammed Kamrul Hassan also forged an absentee ballot application with the intent to defraud in the 2023 election for City Council. Several law enforcement agencies conducted thorough investigations and submitted their findings to our office.”

Did either defendant have anything to say for himself? Yes. “The charges are made up to make the Bangladesh and Muslim communities to look bad.”

Oh yeah, he’s guilty as sin.

That post also noted some curious voting patterns in that election:

In the August Primary Election, [Nayeem Leon] Choudhury was the top vote-getter but, in the November election, he fell to fifth place out of a field of six candidates – an unheard-of drop-off for a top contender.

And Sadman, an obscure newcomer to politics, rose from fifth place in the primary election to the number two spot in the November election.

Hassan rose from fourth place — right behind Lynn Blasey, the only female in the election — to go on to become the top-vote getter in November’s election.

Hassan and Sadman’s sudden rise in the November election edged out Blasey from taking a seat on council.

Choudhury also claimed, that in the November 2023 election, 200 absentee ballots had not been counted.

Asked why he made this claim, Choudhury told The Review at the time:

“I don’t know, the whole community is shocked and saddened that they voted for me by absentee ballots — over a thousand. They don’t know why I lost against a candidate that came in fifth place in the primary.”

Once again, note the willingness of Democratic politicians to (allegedly) commit voting fraud in a relatively low stakes City Council election. Does anyone doubt that they’d be even more willing to break the law in higher-stakes elections? And remember that Michigan was one of those states with 3 AM ballot shenanigans in 2020.

Also note the evidence of plenty more illegal shenanigans going on there. “The investigation was initiated by suspended City Manager Max Garbarino. After Garbarino made the allegations in May, amid a visit by the FBI, he suspended Police Chief Jamiel Altaheri. The City Council, prompted by Mayor Amer Ghalib, in turn suspended Garbarino.”

“The people responsible for the previous suspensions have been suspended.”

Here’s to hoping a lot of disinfecting sunlight gets shined under all the dark rocks of Hamtramck’s government…