Current Student Council Executive Vice President Claire Ting ’25 has been disqualified from running for president following an investigation by the SA Elections Commission, which unanimously voted 10-0 against her candidacy.
An Electoral Commission report obtained by The Sun found that Mr Ting had defended his motives for providing internal SA communications to a progressive student publication, but had breached election rules. The leak of her text messages was considered an intimidation tactic that likely led to the harassment and extortion of multiple members of Congress, one of whom (named in the report as Individual 7) was an internal affairs officer. and Vice President Clyde Lederman ’26, a potential person. President's rival.
Liederman could not be reached for comment at the time of publication.
With Mr. Ting's disclosure, “[ed] A “climate of fear” deterred candidates, including Mr. Liederman and executive vice president candidate Individual 11, from running for SA. The investigation concluded that “Ting broadly believed that Individual No. 11 was considering running as a 'duo' with him.” [Lederman]”
The report confirms that Mr Ting sent a screenshot of the SA Executive Committee group chat to Dispatch, which the report describes as a blog “because we cannot verify Dispatch's journalistic standards.” . Although the message was originally sent in August 2023, it was sent to Dispatch on March 1, in the weeks leading up to the spring 2024 student general election, the report notes.
The investigation found that “Mr. Ting failed to report what he believed were ethical concerns in a timely manner to the appropriate agency, the Office of Ethics, and instead waited until just before the spring 2024 election” to send the message. It turned out that it had been handed over to Dispatch. Meanwhile, Mr. Ting justified his actions as a “whistleblower.”
According to the report, two people, Student Council Leader Man and Individual 11, decided not to run as a result of the leaked messages. Ting acknowledged in his report that he had known for the past several months that both men were considering running.
Messages Ting shared with the Dispatch suggest Lederman is working with the fraternity to run the Ithaca Common Council. The Dispatch article centered on Leaderman and what was described as his role in “designing” the structure of the student council.
The report states that Timo Isreb ’26, identified as Individual 2 and who has written several pieces critical of Lederman, “was known in Congress to target Lederman and to have strong biases. ” he said. [Lederman]”, citing several members of parliament and an alleged public altercation between the two at an SA meeting on February 1. According to the report, Mr. Isreb, who is the editor-in-chief of Dispatch, received information from Ting that he had “inappropriately distributed student general meeting communications,” and published an article dated March 22 in which Mr. Isreb was the lead author. That information was posted on.
“This is unfortunately a desperate attempt by a clearly corrupt student government to silence those who speak out against it,” Isreb said when asked for comment. I wrote about the report. Isreb also explained that Dispatch's reporters and staff did not testify before the election commission because “this would be a violation of journalistic standards regarding confidentiality of sources.”
Within a week of the publication of the March 22 article, a senior member of Mr. Isreb's team at Dispatch, identified as Individual 4, allegedly threatened to “ruin” him. [Lederman’s] The report presumes that additional documents will be disclosed in future articles.
According to the report, “the following serious allegations were made” [Isreb]“Acts against women, including alleged undesirable acts toward female students.'' One of these alleged students is Individual 8, who the report states has a “close personal relationship” with Lederman.
According to the report, Ting initially said, “I was approached for an interview by Dispatch.” However, Ting said in an interview with The Sun that if he had known about Isreb's alleged affair with a woman, he likely would have reconsidered his choice to leak internal communications to Isreb, and that his actions could have affected his future in the presidential election. He said it led to his disqualification.
“I didn't know anything [Isreb’s] reputation for women [when giving Isreb documents]''Ting told The Sun. “As a woman, and especially as a campaigner against sexual harassment and sexual assault, I would not have been more cooperative if I had known or been aware of this information. My attitude and willingness to cooperate with my story. [with Isreb] It would have changed a lot. ”
Due to the nature of the “serious allegations” against Isreb, the Electoral Commission referred Isreb to the Office of Student Conduct and Community Standards in accordance with SA's election regulations.
“I have full confidence in the Office of Student Conduct to pardon me and welcome transparency in this matter,” Isreb said in a statement.
Correction, April 18th, 7:40am: An earlier version of this article had the source's gender incorrect. The Sun deeply apologizes for this error.
