Trial Set in Loudoun Election Fraud Case

Forget, at least for now, about any courtroom showdown between Virginia state Sen. Jill Holtzman Vogel and the man she defeated in last summer's Republican primary, Mark D. Tate.

Today, a visiting Loudoun County judge denied Tate's motion to subpoena Holtzman Vogel (Winchester) and one of her top supporters to testify in Tate's felony election fraud case. A Sept. 8 trial date was set.

Tate, a Middleburg restaurateur, had sought the court's permission to get testimony and e-mail records from Holtzman Vogel and Warrenton Town Attorney Whitson W. Robinson, who chairs the Republican Party of Fauquier County.

Tate alleges that the charges -- first brought during the Republican primary last spring -- were politically inspired. Holtzman Vogel said she played no role in the investigation that led to charges that Tate filed hundreds of false campaign finance reports during his 2003 and 2007 runs for the state Senate.

"I think you're just grasping at straws and trying to conduct a fishing expedition with Ms. Vogel," visiting Circuit Court Judge Thomas A. Fortkort told Tate's attorney, Edward B. MacMahon Jr. "I am going to deny that" motion to subpoena Holtzman Vogel.

"I'll say this for the record," MacMahon told Fortkort near the end of the hearing. "You're leaving the defendant with no witnesses."

Special prosecutor Matthew J. Britton opposed the subpoenas, asserting that Tate's alleged crimes had nothing to do with his political opponents.

"The question is whether or not he did these misfilings . . . and whether he did that willfully and intentionally," Britton told Fortkort.

Tate won a partial victory in his bid to subpoena Loudoun County Commonwealth's Attorney James E. Plowman, a Holtzman Vogel supporter who initiated the investigation last winter before recusing himself in April. Tate alleges that Plowman leaked information about the investigation to a reporter to damage his campaign. Plowman has declined comment on the case.

Fortkort granted a subpoena that will allow MacMahon to question Plowman under oath only about "what the commonwealth knew" about the allegedly fraudulent filings "and when it knew it." The testimony would be related to Tate's contention that some of the charges were filed after a statute of limitations had expired.

Tate was indicted on nine charges of election fraud in January, three months after a judge had dismissed similar charges against him.

Plowman has said he was alerted to the alleged misstatements early last year by a woman who was a volunteer in Holtzman Vogel's campaign. Plowman asked for a special prosecutor to be appointed in the case because of his conflict of interest as a Holtzman Vogel supporter.

Britton took over the case in April, and soon rumors about a possible indictment began appearing on the Web site of Virginia Conservative Action, a political action committee that had endorsed Holtzman Vogel. MacMahon has suggested in court documents that Robinson, Plowman and perhaps others in the Loudoun commonwealth's attorney's office were involved in leaking information.

In April, Robinson "informed the Republican Party of Virginia that Mr. Tate was under criminal investigation and would be indicted," MacMahon wrote. Robinson also has declined comment on the case.

Britton declined comment after the hearing on the judge's rulings. MacMahon said, "I'm disappointed with some of the rulings. But we'll still go forward and put forward our case."