USGD president accuses administration of wiretapping in unopposed election

April 1, 2017 Jack Goff 5,185 Comments

USGD president Jackson Dangremond, who is running unopposed in the current USGD election, is accusing his own administration of wiretapping.

Newly elected Undergraduate Student Government Downtown (USGD) President Jackson Dangremond accused the current administration, which he also runs, of wiretapping his campaign headquarters during his unopposed election campaign.

The Dangremond-Leith-Yeban ticket has provided no evidence for the claim, despite the fact that as the current President of USGD Dangremond would know of any surveillance or wiretapping activities he may be conducting.

USGD Director of Public Relations Kaitlyn Kor said the administration would not comment on the allegations until they are further investigated by the USGD Intelligence Committee.

“You can’t allow this to happen,” said current Vice President of Policy and vice-chair of the USGD Intelligence Committee Timmy Harwood. “Claims like this can’t be made without evidence so we will be fully investigating it.”

Dangremond made the claim in an early-morning tweetstorm two days following his win in the undisputed USGD Executive Ticket Race. Responding to a request from Phoenix Diablo for comment at a joint press conference held with USG Tempe President Brandon Bishop, Dangremond denied responsibility for the accusations, saying he saw an article about it in the Stale Mess.

“Look, I read it and it was written by a very terrific student publication, very terrific, I can’t tell you how many terrific articles they’ve written,” Dangremond said. “So really you should take it up with them.”

Phoenix Diablo reported earlier this year that Dangremond had wiretapped Bishop last year as a part of a far-reaching USGD surveillance scheme that affected all four campuses.

“At least now we have something in common,” Dangremond said.

The day following Dangremond’s tweetstorm and after an exhaustive two-hour investigation, Arwood said there was no evidence of wiretapping from the current administration.

Responding to this, Kor said Dangremond had been taken out of context.

“When the President (of USGD) says ‘wiretapping’,” Kor said, making air quotes with her hands. “It can mean a whole host of different surveillance means.”

Kor said this could incorporate hacking as well as data collection of text messages between USGD members.

Vice President of Policy-elect Ryan Leith, who chairs on the USGD Intelligence Committee, took findings that showed Dangremond and associates were surveilled legally by Dangremond when they came into contact during the campaign with spies from the West Campus whom some have accused of leaking information damaging to Dangremond’s nonexistent opponents.

“Look, it was a judgement call, and I just think it was the right move to tell Jackson that we found evidence which supported his claim of wiretapping himself,” Leith said.

Arwood accused Leith of violating the integrity of the USGD intelligence Committee and called for his resignation from the committee.

“We have a Banana Republic of a student government downtown, the fact that he would brief Jackson with information he is already aware of while he is under investigation is a disgrace and he should recuse himself from any ongoing investigation,” Harwood said.