Pro-Trump activist and right-wing commentator Karyn Turk has been the subject of a few posts here on Right Wing Watch, mostly stemming from 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."
Turk pleaded guilty in federal court yesterday for stealing more than $17,000 from her mother's Social Security, reportedly to pay for her own lavish lifestyle. As the Palm Beach Post reports:
Fresh from hosting a fund-raiser for the legal defense of Republican operative Roger Stone, conservative media commentator Karyn Turk on Friday admitted she stole her 83-year-old mother’s Social Security checks.
Looking relaxed and unperturbed, Karyn Turk pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to a single charge of Social Security fraud. Turk, who was crowned Mrs. Florida 2016 and touts her involvement in charities, faces a maximum one-year jail term and possible $100,000 fine when she is sentenced on Dec. 13.
Because the charge is a misdemeanor, the 47-year-old Highland Beach woman who uses social media and her radio and television shows to defend all things Republican would not lose her ability to vote - a right she described as “very important to me.”
Instead of using $17,300 in government checks to pay for the care of her mother who was ravaged by dementia, Turk used the money for herself, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Adrienne Rabinowitz.
Turk didn’t dispute the prosecutor’s description of her crime. While she and her attorney, Guy Fronstin, declined comment as they left the courthouse, both said additional information would surface that would explain her actions.
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In court papers, guardian Amy Nicol accused Turk of using her mother’s Social Security checks to promote her dream of appearing on “The Real Housewives of Palm Beach” and to garner publicity.
As evidence, Nicol’s attorney Brian O’Connell accused Turk and her husband of renting large homes in Wellington, where they then lived, and buying tables at equestrian events that they could ill-afford.
