Last October, we took note of the fact that pro-Trump activist and right-wing commentator Karyn Turk had pleaded guilty to stealing tens of thousands of dollars from her mother’s Social Security benefits, reportedly to pay for her own lavish lifestyle.
We had covered Turk, who last year hosted a fundraiser for Roger Stone, a few times here on Right Wing Watch, thanks to her appearances on Bill Mitchell’s “YourVoice America” program, where she asserted that Democrats are “domestic terrorists” and declared that the sexual assault allegations made against President Trump and Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh should not be believed because the women who made them “are unattractive.”
On Thursday, Turk was sentenced to a month in federal prison, plus five months of house arrest:
Karyn Turk, a former Mrs. Florida beauty pageant winner turned conservative commentator, was sentenced to a month in federal prison plus five months of house arrest Thursday after pleading guilty to social security fraud in September.
The charge stemmed from Turk pocketing her mother’s social security checks rather than sending the money to the nursing home in which her mother was receiving care for dementia. Turk’s mother died June 10.
In separate cases in civil court, the nursing home, the mother’s court-appointed guardian and the guardian’s lawyers are all suing Turk to collect money they say she owes them as the representative of her mother’s estate. The total amount owed according to the three lawsuits is more than $320,000.
Turk is reportedly appealing the sentence and, taking a page from President Donald Trump’s playbook, is portraying herself as a target of a partisan witch hunt:
One day after being sentenced to a month in prison for Social Security fraud, conservative pundit Karyn Turk said there is a deeper back story – one she wants to tell.
“In a lot of ways this seems like a witch hunt against me and I think a lot of it is because of my political affiliation,” said Turk.
