Seemingly out of nowhere, a third Michigan elected official inside Detroit is now under investigation for election fraud after surveillance video emerged showing him stuffing huge stacks of ballots just days before winning re-election.
Hamtramck City Council member Abu Musa was allegedly caught on camera on Aug. 1 in the passenger seat of a car handing stacks of paper to the car’s driver, who then dumped them into a nearby ballot box, footage shows.
Hamramck is an autonomous city contained largely within the city of Detroit, and has been dominated by the Democrat-controlled Motor City’s politics. The city became the United States first Muslim-majority city in 2013, thanks to an influx of immigrants over the past two decades from countries in the Middle East and Southeast Asia.
The shocking video footage from Aug. 1, three days before Hamtramck’s primary election, shows a car pulling up to the ballot box. The passenger, appearing to be Musa, who was up for re-election, is seen depositing three large stacks of ballots.
Take a look —
BREAKING: another Hamtramck, MI city councilman, Abu Musa, under investigation for ELECTION FRAUD
Surveillance video allegedly shows Musa depositing STACKS of ballots at a drop box days before the primary election.
He won by just a few dozen votes.
But Democrats say this never… https://t.co/zZWLNi7FkD pic.twitter.com/43inuy5uWw
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) August 15, 2025
Musa held on to his re-election spot in the primary four days later on Aug. 5, beating out 11 other candidates with 1,129 votes. But only 286 of those votes were cast on Election Day — with 843 being cast by absentee ballot. Musa would have placed fifth without the absentee ballots.
Hamtramck, a small political entity that exists almost entirely within the Democrat-dominated city of Detroit, is no stranger to controversy. Two other city council members, Mohammed Hassan and Muhtasin Sadman, already face serious felony charges after prosecutors say they worked with others to illegally obtain and fill out absentee ballots during the 2023 city council election.
Monroe County Prosecutor Jeffery Yorkey, a Republican serving as special prosecutor, filed multiple felony and misdemeanor charges against Hassan and Sadman following a months-long investigation by Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel’s office.
State prosecutors allege that six people total worked together during the 2023 election to receive blank absentee ballots that had been signed by recently naturalized immigrants in the Muslim-heavy Hamtramck. The conspirators would then allegedly fill in the candidates they wanted, bypassing the voters’ actual choices, authorities said.
Hassan faces four charges: election law forgery, two counts of unqualified elector attempting to vote, forging a signature on an absentee ballot application, and providing a false statement in an application for an absentee ballot.
Sadman is charged with five counts: election law forgery, forging a signature on an absentee ballot application, providing a false statement on an absentee ballot application, two counts of unqualified elector attempting to vote, and forgery.
The charges carry severe penalties. The felony counts could result in up to five years in prison and substantial fines, while the misdemeanor charges carry potential jail time of up to 90 days and additional fines.
The investigation into Hassan and Sadman began in March when Attorney General Nessel requested a special prosecutor to examine allegations involving four current council members and one former member in what prosecutors called a “conspiracy to unlawfully obtain access to absentee ballots with the intent to illegally vote the ballots.”
The scheme unraveled when the city clerk noticed suspicious patterns with absentee ballots, including identical handwriting on multiple envelopes and large bundles of ballots submitted at once, prosecutors said. The clerk discovered alleged irregularities in absentee ballots in late 2023 and was advised by City Manager Max Garbarino to report the findings to Hamtramck police.
While Musa was named in that earlier investigation, he was not formally charged. He has reportedly denied all allegations.
Michigan State Police say they are finalizing their investigation into multiple Hamtramck city councilmen regarding numerous accusations, with findings soon headed to prosecutors.
The newly released footage of the ballot box stuffing was taken as a part of their investigation, Michigan State Police confirmed.
Local Michigan law has no limit on how many absentee ballots a single person can physically turn in on other voters’ behalf — but people can only legally submit another person’s absentee ballot if they are close relatives or live in their home. It remains unclear whose ballots were being returned in the video.
The video is an escalation in what has become a massive corruption scandal inside Democrat-dominated Detroit. Republicans have long accused the city of being a haven of electrion fraud. Hassan and Sadman, along with other Hamtramck city leaders, were already named in a lawsuit filed earlier this year by City Manager Garbarino and Special Investigator David Adamczyk.
The lawsuit alleges corruption and violations of the Michigan Whistleblower Protection Act and Open Meetings Act. According to the legal filing, Garbarino originally received complaints that city leaders were improperly helping people with ballots and entering restricted areas during the election period.
After the investigation reached the Attorney General’s office, council members allegedly retaliated against those who reported the election irregularities. The lawsuit claims Hassan, Sadman, and other council members harassed Garbarino and the city clerk, attempting to force Garbarino to fire the clerk who had discovered the ballot problems.
Meanwhile, Hamtramck’s police chief and city manager are both on administrative leave pending separate investigations, adding to the city’s ongoing governance challenges.
All three council members continue to serve despite the criminal charges and ongoing investigations.