Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has encountered multiple legal challenges in his effort to place his name on the ballot for the November presidential election since he declared his intention to run as an independent candidate last October.
This week, he’s appearing in an Albany, New York, courtroom as the defendant in a lawsuit alleging that he falsely claimed New York residency.
Filed by Clear Choice PAC, an organization led by supporters of President Joe Biden, the legal action contends that Kennedy’s nominating petition says he lives in New York, but he has resided in Los Angeles since 2014 after marrying “Curb Your Enthusiasm” actress Cheryl Hines.
Clear Choice PAC filed the challenge with the New York State Board of Elections, claiming that at least 102,000 of the 145,000-plus signatures that Kennedy’s campaign submitted are inaccurate.
If the judge rules against Kennedy, the petitions will be declared invalid, and he won’t qualify to appear on the New York general election ballot.
David Michaelis testified on Aug. 5 that he hosted Kennedy as a guest through 2017 in Westchester County, New York, about 40 miles north of midtown Manhattan, but said that Kennedy was never a tenant at the home.
Barbara Moss, the woman who owns the suburban New York home that Kennedy claims is his residence, testified in court on Aug. 6 that he rents a room for $500 a month.
Questioned by Kennedy’s attorney, William F. Savino, Moss said Kennedy was her tenant, but there was no written lease. She testified that Kennedy regularly received mail at the property and identified photos that she said she recently took of the room showing Kennedy’s clothes in a closet and dresser drawers.
“As long as Bobby needs the room, it will continue. That was our understanding,” said Moss, whose husband is a friend of Kennedy’s, according to court documents.
John Quinn, an attorney for the plaintiff, said Kennedy made his first payment to Moss on May 20, a day after the New York Post published a story questioning Kennedy’s claim that he lived at the address.
The lawsuit claims that Kennedy “has no meaningful or continuous connections to the property” and has spent “vanishingly little time [there], if any.”
“Moreover, the evidence will show that Kennedy’s wife and children live in California, along with his three dogs, two ravens, an emu, and his personal belongings,” the legal action contends.
Savino said in an Aug. 5 statement that “the home ... in Katonah, New York, is Kennedy’s official address.”
“He receives mail there. His driver’s license and automobile are registered there. His voting registration, fishing, and falconry licenses are from New York. His law office is in New York. He pays taxes to New York [state]. New York has been his residence continuously since 1964, and Kennedy has deep ties to it. He even keeps his beloved falcons in New York state. He has never claimed any other state as a residency,” Savino stated. “He intends to move back to New York as soon as his wife retires from acting.”
The campaign reported that on May 28, Kennedy submitted more than 145,000 signatures, which is thought to be more than any presidential candidate in New York history.
In April 2023, Kennedy announced his candidacy to challenge Biden for the 2024 Democratic Party’s presidential nomination.
After encountering multiple roadblocks from the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and claiming that the organization was “rigging the primary” to favor Biden and prevent other candidates from competing, Kennedy chose to run as an independent in October 2023.
Since then, he has focused on gaining ballot access in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The DNC and other pro-Biden organizations have attempted to destabilize his campaign.
Earlier this year, the DNC announced the creation of a team to counter third-party and independent presidential candidates.
It hired Lis Smith, a veteran Democrat strategist who managed Pete Buttigieg’s unsuccessful 2020 presidential campaign, to spearhead an aggressive communication plan to combat Kennedy, independent Cornel West, and Green Party nominee Jill Stein.
In October 2023, after announcing his candidacy as an independent, Kennedy told The Epoch Times that his campaign expected organized efforts by both parties to keep him off the ballot and off the debate stage and would be prepared to combat those attempts.
During an Aug. 4 news briefing, he reiterated that goal.
Kennedy’s campaign noted that it has a “perfect record of winning ballot access challenges” and has “defeated every ballot access legal challenge made against it across the country.”
According to the campaign, Kennedy has collected more than 1 million signatures to date, which is thought to be more than any presidential candidate in U.S. history. Kennedy has so far collected the necessary signatures to appear on the ballot in 45 states, the campaign said on Aug. 6.
