BREAKING: Judge’s Opinion on VA-02 #Petitiongate Scandal Finds That Petitions Circulated by Rep. Scott Taylor (R) Staffers Were “rife with errors, inconsistencies, and forgeries”

See below for Richmond City Circuit Court Judge Gregory Rupe’s ruling in the VA-02 case involving “out and out fraud” by Rep. Scott Taylor’s staffers. In his opinion, issued a few minutes ago, Judge Rupe find that there were “blatant forgeries” in the petitions to get Shaun Brown on the ballot, and that Scott Taylor’s staffers circulated petitions “rife with errors, inconsistencies, and forgeries.” The questions now are: 1) what legal consequences will there be for Taylor’s staffers and for Taylor himself; 2) how much political harm will this do to Taylor (note that VA-02 was moved to “toss-up” this morning by the Cook Political Report)? For our post yesterday, which provides some background on all this, see here.