In September 2009, its Rensselaer County affiliate held a party primary to select its nominees for the upcoming Troy city council elections.

[4][5] The scandal was exposed after a local Republican Party official, Robert Mirch, funded an initial investigation into reports that some absentee ballots that were cast in the WFP primary were fraudulent.

[5] A county judge appointed special prosecutor, Youel "Trey" Smith, to conduct the investigation following the recusal of the local District Attorney, a Democrat.

The two remaining defendants, former councilman Michael LoPorto and former Board of Elections Commissioner Ed McDonough, were tried twice; in their first trial, they were tried together and the jury deadlocked, necessitating a mistrial.

[9] In his lawsuit, which was first filed in 2015 (just under 3 years since he was acquitted), McDonough claimed that Smith had intentionally framed him, fabricating evidence to link him to the ballot fraud case.

[15] The Second Circuit found that the statute of limitations on a fabricated-evidence claim runs when the plaintiff becomes aware of the fabricated evidence and has been deprived of liberty in some way.

In oral arguments before the Court, which took place in April 2019, McDonough was represented by Neal Katyal, former acting United States Solicitor General under President Barack Obama.

[16][2] The Supreme Court opinion noted that the common law rule for malicious prosecution had a pragmatic purpose as well, to ensure that criminal and civil cases over the same subject matter would not overlap or result in conflicting determinations.