Did Vernon Sykes sign a petition for cult leader Lyndon LaRouche?

A petition circulated in 1999 by the the far-right political cult LaRouche Political Action Committee (LPAC) calling for the “full and immediate exoneration” of its leader, Lyndon LaRouche, appears to include the name of Ohio Senator Vernon Sykes, among numerous other public officials.

Lyndon LaRouche was the leader of a number of political groups — including the LaRouche Youth Movement, US Labor Party, and Schiller Institute — that formed the “LaRouche Movement.” LaRouche’s organizations sprung out of left-wing activist groups like the Students for a Democratic Society and the Socialist Workers Party, but quickly embraced a far-right conspiratorial politics of antisemitism, racism, homophobia, and political violence. The movement engaged in a series of violent attacks on left-wing activists and union members throughout the late 1970s known as “Operation Mop-Up,” and led the campaign for California’s Propositions 64 and 69, which would have forced HIV-positive Californians out of their jobs and into “quarantine.”

Throughout the 1980s LaRouche and his organizations were investigated by state and federal law enforcement for a litany of crimes including grand larceny, securities fraud, mail fraud, and obstruction of justice. In December of 1988 LaRouche and six of his associates were convicted of mail fraud and tax evasion, receiving a sentence of fifteen years in federal prison of which he served five before being released on parole.

Following LaRouche’s release, LPAC circulated an open letter and petition alleging that LaRouche was “framed” and “fraudulently charged,” following allegations during the trial that LaRouche was being prosecuted for his political beliefs in a scheme orchestrated by Mikhail Gorbachev and Oliver North. The petition is dated to January 1999 and ran in abridged form as a full-page advertisement in the September 18, 1996 editions of the Washington Post, Roll Call, and LaRouche’s own New Federalist.

Sen. Sykes’ name appears alongside dozens of other Democratic public officials and NAACP leaders from Ohio, including current President of the Ohio Conference NAACP Tom Roberts. In light of the movement’s characteristic deception and fabulism, it is unclear whether the list of signatories is genuine.

Despite his movement’s far-right character and relationship with the Reagan administration, LaRouche developed a political network within the Democratic Party throughout the 1970s and 80s. In addition to his numerous Presidential campaigns, LaRouche fielded hundreds of candidates in Democratic primaries (seeking to win over former George Wallace voters) and raised over $200 million to support them.