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Ehrlich Campaign, Robo-Call Investigation Continues

BALTIMORE (WJZ)--Members of the state prosecutor's team were seen carrying evidence from the home of controversial political operative Julius Henson on Friday morning.Henson worked for the Ehrlich campaign and was behind a robo-call that some believe urged voters to stay home, just hours before polls closed.

Mike Hellgren investigates.

Sources say the property searched in Mt. Vernon was office space used by Henson and his company, Universal Elections.

There are no charges.  Henson says he did nothing wrong. And the state prosecutor is not straying from his policy of keeping ongoing investigations secret.

Controversial political consultant Julius Henson wasn't home when WJZ stopped by to get his side of the story after staffers from the state prosecutor's office were seen carrying items from his house earlier in the day.

The same office brought down former Mayor Sheila Dixon.

All they would tell WJZ was "We don't confirm or deny what we may be doing."

But sources say they're looking into the possibility that election law was violated because of a robo-call Henson told WJZ his company authorized while working on Bob Ehrlich's campaign for governor.

Henson didn't shy away from questions shortly after the scandal broke.

When ask if he should be prosecuted or if he was aware of a possible prosecution, Henson said: "Prosecuted for what?  The law on voter fraud and voter suppression is clear.  It's in the statute.  Look at the statute, and look at the call. There's nothing in it that would suggest that, nothing at all." 

Still, that hasn't stopped prominent lawmakers from calling for state and federal investigations.

Attorney General Doug Gansler even filed a civil suit against Henson.

"When it's targeted to suppress or intimidate, then it's against the law, and so we're conducting an investigation into it," Gansler said.

But such investigations can take lots of time.

Henson's company—Universal Elections— is still advertising services online, including packages that cost more than $100,000, with thousands of robo-calls.

"I'm on the Bob Ehrlich team," Henson said. "We thought a call like that would help, and we made the call."

Ehrlich has been mostly silent on the scandal, but did tell the Annapolis Capital the calls were beyond his purview.

Henson says Ehrlich probably didn't know about them.

Attorney General Gansler's lawsuit seeks $56 million in fines.

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