Diego Morales Administration Faces Questions Over Noncitizen Deputy Chief of Staff and Indiana Voter Registration Records

This story has been out there for a couple weeks now, and I know of multiple media outlets that are looking into it. I don’t know if they’re planning stories of their own. I don’t know if they have more information than what was released this morning in Indy Politics, but it is not something that just came to Abdul. This story has been out there for a couple weeks now.

Indy Politics Report Raises Questions About High-Ranking Morales Administration Staffer

Now look, I’ve told you guys it is rare, but I will do it, that I will break news. And usually the way I handle whether I’m going to break the news or not is if I know someone else is going to break the news, because it’s not what I do. I mean, I will do it, I’ve done it. You look at things like the Tom Kleinhelter story. You look at things like the Mid-States Corridor. I will break stories if I believe nobody else is going to do it. And I’ll just be candid with you guys. The reason that I let somebody else do it, it’s a lot of work. It’s a lot of work to break the news. I am more of a commentator. I just, very candidly with you guys, don’t want to put the time it takes to break news because you got to investigate, you got to cite, you got to source, you got to do all of this stuff, right? It’s a lot of work to break a story, and it’s just so much easier to let somebody else do it and then comment on the work that they’ve done. In the case of like the Tom Kleinhelter story, I realized nobody else was doing it. And so I said, okay. And it took me, we’ve talked about this, we’ve talked about this last year, it took me about a month, but about a month of citing and sourcing and getting second sources and going into things and ultimately proven totally correct. Same thing with the Mid-States Corridor. Cite it, source it. Get a second source. Look into this stuff. Go over here. Do this. Read this document. Make sure this document matches up with that document. It’s a lot of work. It’s not really what I do. And so the reason I know this story has been out there for a couple weeks is one of the people that was brought to was me, and I spent a couple of weeks looking into it. Somebody else beat me to it. And it appears other people are going into it as well. We’ll see what they come up with. So it’s not just something that only went to Abdul. This has been out there and members of the media have known this was going on for a while, but Indy Politics put it out first. So we will use Abdul’s reporting that came out this morning involving this crazy story, this absolutely crazy story involving the now former deputy chief of staff for the office of Secretary of State Diego Morales. And look, there are still things to come out. There are still things that are not known. There are still things that are going to be confirmed, denied, whatever. And so we’re going to give you what we know from Abdul right now, what Abdul has reported. We will give it to you right now. And as new information comes out, we will give you that.

Diego Morales Faces Scrutiny Over America First Messaging and State Hiring Practices

And the story here, when it comes back. Look, the story that we’re going to come back to here is Diego Morales has latched on to the Trump orbit, right. He’s all in on Trump orbit and a huge part of Trump orbit, a huge part of the Trump agenda, a huge part of the Trump message is America first, Americans first, American jobs ahead of foreigners coming into this country and taking jobs of Americans. So the issue here, when we come back to, I mean, right now, we’re going to give you some information that is alarming, but it’s that a guy, the hypocrisy of a guy who has run on, who has touted, who has talked about who has. I mean, how much money did he spend trying to find all the illegals that supposedly voted? And then he found one guy. America this, Trump that. That’s Diego parroting talking points. And now, according to Abdul, it appears you have a potential non-citizen who rose to very high ranks in the Morales administration. So here’s what we know. Here is what Abdul said. Records obtained by Indy Politics show Morales was paying $160,000 a year to a deputy chief of staff in the office that serves as Indiana’s chief elections authority, and who carries an Indiana driver’s license restriction the state applies to non-U.S. citizens. The same individual, nearly two decades ago, signed an Indiana voter registration form affirming that she was a U.S. citizen. Abdul goes on to say that noncitizen is a category that includes lawful permanent residence visa holders and others who are legally present in the United States but are not citizens. So, look, there are all sorts of people who work in this country who are not permanent citizens. They work at many different types of jobs. Our country has special visas for these people. The first issue that we need to address, because then there are some bigger issues inside of this that we’ll get to, and we’re going to work through this, and we will continue to talk about this as new information comes out. The bigger issue is you have a guy who is in charge of everything from elections to businesses, who has made the idea of America first. Trump’s the best. I’m the world’s biggest Trump fan. American jobs for Americans. And he has access to personal information on millions and millions of Hoosiers. This was always my deal with India. The biggest part of the deal with India was you have a Secretary of State who has access to personal information on millions and millions of Hoosiers, millions and millions of Hoosiers and businesses, thousands and thousands of businesses. And he goes to a foreign country, disappears to a foreign country for ten days, and he won’t tell you who paid for the trip or what he did there. That’s a massive deal. And in this case, you have, according to Abdul, the same guy who’s running this America first agenda, American jobs for Americans, Trump agenda. And according to Abdul, he had a very high ranking official in his administration who was a non-citizen deputy chief of staff. So I’m going to read you exactly what Abdul wrote in Indy Politics. You can read this whole article for yourself if you want today over at Indy Politics. And again, it’s another example, if all this plays out, as Abdul has written it, of the hypocrisy of Diego Morales, of the hypocrisy of the Republicans. Her name is Elina Kupce. According to Abdul, she resigned on April 29th after roughly two and a half years on the state payroll. Communications Director Lindsey Eaton confirmed the departure in May 14th email to Indy Politics, stating that Kupce, quote, resigned, citing personal reasons. The office made no public announcement of the departure. Usually, not always, but usually when someone that rises to the level of deputy chief of staff for a statewide office holder leaves, that’s usually a big deal. And there’s usually something put out about it, if not by the office, by the person. Copsey was first hired, according to Abdul, by the state of Indiana on October 30th, 2023. According to records released this month by the Indiana State Personnel Department under the Access to Public Records Act, she was moved into the deputy chief of staff role May the 12th, 2024. So November. December. January. February. March. April. Basically within six months, she was elevated to deputy chief of staff. The annualized salary disclosed by the personnel department was $160,000.36. Look, I don’t care who it is. The deputy chief of, not even the chief of staff. The deputy chief of staff makes $160,000. What did she do all day? Now, this is where this gets very interesting. According to Abdul, the position was not publicly posted as directly. The personnel department confirmed, quote, this position was not posted. You have a deputy chief of staff position and they didn’t post it. Where have we heard that before? And people don’t know what she did. Oh. Adam Krupp. That’s right guys. Adam Krupp and his little special advisor role to the governor that we don’t know what he does. See, this is what happens with the government. Didn’t they say, is my memory failing me? Didn’t they say that position was not posted? You guys can correct me on that if I’m wrong. Seems to be kind of a theme here. According to Abdul, the work history released by the state lists no prior government service of any kind. So a woman gets hired into the office. According to state personnel lists, no prior government service of any kind and immediately is elevated to or almost immediately is elevated to deputy chief of staff. Sources disclosed background, according to Abdul, consists of marketing roles with the Indiana Pacers and Indiana Fever between 2011 and 2014, a sales lead manager position at the retailer Aldo from 2017 to 2019, fundraising work with the Miami Dolphins Foundation and the Super Bowl 54 Host Committee in 2019 and 2020, and a quote, event activation vice president role at a company called Image First Events. It gets even more interesting. According to Abdul, the resume also lists Copsey as co-owner and vice president of Slovakia’s Elite Cleaning Service, which Abdul claims a start date of January 2000. Copsey was born in 1987, which would have made her 12 years old. Asked what relevant prior experience Copsey brought to the role and what prior government service she had, the personnel department referred Indy Politics to its earlier answer, listing the work history above. So basically he’s like, hey. Abdul asked, what did this person do that would have qualified them to be a deputy chief of staff? What experience do they have in this area? Well, we sent you a resume. No, no, no, it’s not what I asked. Gets even more interesting. Kupce's own LinkedIn profile describes her as, quote, chief of staff to Secretary of State. The personnel department’s response listed her as deputy chief of staff. Big difference. Big difference. That’s not like normally something you’d be like, oh yeah, that was just a typo error. Big difference between being the chief of staff and the deputy chief of staff. The Secretary of State’s office has not responded to questions about the discrepancy. As for the driver’s license, according to Abdul, Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles records shows Copsey’s current driver’s license, Indiana’s driver’s license carries a restriction code nine temporary. That is the restriction the Indiana BMV applies to driver’s licenses issued to non-U.S. citizens, with the driver’s license expiration tied to the expiration of the holder’s underlying immigration document. Let’s go back to that. The Indiana BMV applies to driver’s licenses issued to non-U.S. citizens, with the license expiration tied to the expiration of the holder’s underlying immigration document.

Questions Emerge About Voter Registration Records and Employment Verification Procedures

Now, let’s talk about the voter registration. According to Abdul, separate records from the Indiana statewide voter registration system show that an Elena Copsey with the same date of birth was registered to vote in Tippecanoe County from June 2008 to August 2013. The residence was listed. Abdul, the residence. It was Purdue student housing. I’m not going to list the residence. The signed registration application dated September 27th, 2007, includes a check mark in the box affirming the applicant was a U.S. citizen. The SVRS shows no voting history. The registration was placed on inactive status in June of 2010, and was automatically canceled in August of 2013. Indiana law, according to Abdul, Indiana law and federal law restrict voter registration and voting to U.S. citizens. A non-citizen who registered to vote and affirms U.S. citizenship on the registration form may face immigration consequences regardless of underlying lawful or unlawful nature of their immigration status. Now, he does go on to point out both Indiana and federal statutes of limitations on any criminal charges arising from a 2007 registration have long since run out. Okay, so that’s what we know, according to Abdul so far. According to Abdul, this woman who had in six months time risen to the level of deputy chief of staff, even though she lists herself as the chief of staff, according to Abdul, had a driver’s license with a temporary status associated with a noncitizen, and the same person had registered to vote in 2007, though never cast a vote. When you register to vote, you affirm that you are a U.S. citizen. Abdul then goes on to write, in its APRA request, the Indiana State Personnel Department was asked whether Kupce had completed form I-9 employment eligibility verification and whether her work authorization had been verified through E-Verify, as required for Indiana state agencies. Listen to this response. And this is why people hate the government. The department responded that the information was disclosable under the APRA request, and that the department, quote, verifies employment eligibility for all state employees hired, but did not affirmatively state that Copsey’s I-9 was on file or that her authorization had been verified. Asked whether Kupce is currently lawfully present in the United States and authorized to work, the personnel department wrote that it, quote, does not maintain records related to the whereabouts of previous state employees, and again noted that records were not exempt from disclosure without producing them. That’s what we know, guys. The story right now, right now. And as they say in pro wrestling, card subject to change, is that you have a woman who appears to have not been a citizen of this country that somehow rose to the deputy chief of staff in an administration that has made America first and jobs for Americans a top issue. And you also have this person who appears, at least someone matching the name and date of birth, to have registered to vote. We also don’t know the whereabouts of this person. And maybe we will get that. Maybe we’ll get into explanations on all of this in the coming days. This is the reporting that Abdul gave. That is the information we have based on what Abdul put out there. Now, you may think it’s no big deal that you have a noncitizen in the office of Secretary of State, if indeed that’s what happened, and having access potentially to personal information of millions of Hoosiers, if that’s what occurred. I think that’s a huge deal. Even if you take away the repeated message from Diego Morales and the Indiana Republican Party trying to mirror and align with President Trump’s message about jobs for Americans and Americans first. If indeed you had a noncitizen, not just in the office, but elevating themselves to the level of deputy chief of staff, while also, according to Abdul, presenting themselves as the chief of staff to the Secretary of State. I think that’s a massive deal.

Pressure Builds for Morales Administration to Publicly Address Citizenship and Election Oversight Concerns

Now, the best thing to do here would be for Diego, if Abdul has this reporting wrong, to immediately address it. To immediately come out and say, no, this person is a citizen. Here’s the information that has been incorrectly reported. I mean, at the very least, it appears you have somebody who, unless I’m missing something here, who is in the Secretary of State’s office, a high ranking official, or was. And part of what Diego Morales promotes is people voting. You know, he spends tons and tons of taxpayer money promoting people voting. And this person did not vote. So the very least there’s that, right? That’s kind of strange, isn’t it? That’s kind of strange how many people that are high ranking officials in the Secretary of State’s office do you think don’t regularly vote? Look, there are a lot of unanswered questions here. Now, the usual M.O. from Diego when bad news comes out is play victim, scream about the media, shout about fake news or fake Indy Star, fake WIBC, just shout bizarre things like I pray and hope the story goes away. Hope the media doesn’t look into it further. If this person is still legally in the country, that should be pretty easy proof. If this person was legally allowed to work the entire time they were legally in this country, the entire time they were working for Diego Morales, that should be a pretty easy prove. And I think if they can prove that that makes one part of the story go away. Now again, you still have a person, if indeed Abdul’s reporting is accurate, you have a non-citizen helping run our elections in some capacity because of her ties to Diego. Helping oversee businesses in the state of Indiana because of her ties to Diego and the high, high ranking government position she held, $160,000, if Abdul’s reporting is accurate, to a noncitizen. Now, then you get into the other side of it. Even if you can prove, hey, the entire time she worked here, she was legally in the country. She was verified to work. She was authorized to work. Okay, that’s one part of it. Then you get into, well, how and why was this person registered to vote? How and why was this person registered to vote? And if they knew they weren’t registered to vote legally. Again, there’s so many unanswered questions here. Why did this person never try to vote? Who registered to vote? Look, there’s a lot of stuff here and there’s other people that are looking into it. And hopefully we’ll get some answers on this. Hopefully Diego will take the lead and answer these questions. And if there are answers for this, that puts this person, that puts his office in the clear, hopefully he’ll put all those out and then we’ll be able to report on that. In the meantime, that’s what we know.