Cochran's campaign suborned wholesale violation of Mississippi Code 23-15-575, which states, "No person shall be eligible to participate in any primary election unless he intends to support the nominations made in which he participates.” It may be unenforceable against any one individual, but it's still the law.
Reverend Fielder was apparently one of a number of people they hired to induce Democrat voters illegally to cast primary votes for Cochran while intending to vote for Cochran's Democrat opponent in November.
But the reason we've heard of Fielder in the first place is that he apparently snookered a couple of eminently gullible "journalists" by falsely confessing to have been a conduit to buy votes at $15 apiece. If those incriminating text messages allegedly from Saleem Baird are real, why haven't we heard further? If Baird was paying Fielder to buy votes, he must have been doing the same with a plenty of other "campaign workers". It should have blown wide open by now. But it hasn't.
Moreover, the only place we've seen those text messages is in the video portion of that interview with Fielder, which was made by Chuck Johnson's partner, Joel S. Gilbert, who is one talented video maker. Just watch Atlanta attorney Loren Collins demonstrate Joel's skill.
At this point, it would seem as if McDaniel has two main means of legal attack:
Of course, if vote-buying by Cochran's campaign could be proved, that would be peachy. But I doubt it.
I, for one, do NOT doubt that there was payment for votes. There would be no other reason for the blacks to turn out in masses to vote for Thad otherwise. Sure, they used the race baiting, but, still - I don’t think it motivated the blacks to that degree. Someone greased their palms.