CHARLOTTE, N.C. — According to newly unsealed search warrants, months before his absentee activities would make national headlines, state investigators were closely following Leslie McCrae Dowless, the man at the center of the North Carolina 9th District election fraud case.
Investigators appeared interested in ATM records, personal banking records, bank records of his political action committee, Patriots for Progress, and personal cell phone records.
The warrants showed Dowless was being watched by the SBI and the FBI in the months leading up to the 2018 election. Records were seized by the SBI in December and January.
According to the documents, the SBI's criminal investigation of Dowless began on Feb. 28 of last year. He is currently awaiting trial on seven felony counts.
