Pro Publica Smears Whistle Blowers in SuperPAC Men Article

Late last week a story was published on a few left wing sites that boasted of SuperPAC corruption, deceit, and all sorts of shenanigans by consultants set to enrich themselves off a good-natured and well-intentioned millionaire who wanted to make a difference in the 2014 election cycle. Unfortunately, the true agenda behind this article, written by a George Soros funded “reporter”, wasn’t an objective report on consultant class corruption but rather a hit piece meant to smear the the individuals who blew the whistle on a plan to siphon nearly $4MIL in PAC funds for personal gain.

This is a complicated story and refutes a lengthy article, but it is well worth the read both because it is such a perfect example of well crafted Soros smear work, and because it is genuinely full of strange and fascinating tidbits in its own right. Part of this story, and a lesson in how the left wing hit machine works to craft a narrative from half truths and outright lies, was already published at a site called the Establishment Clearing House (ECH).

The ECH post details instances in which the Pro Publica “reporter” sliced and diced answers provided to him in order to push a narrative that, once exposed to the disinfecting quality of sunlight, simply does not hold water and leaves one asking cui bono?

While the Soros reporter at Pro Publica claims to have “obtained internal records and e-mails, reviewed campaign filings and court records and interviewed participants, some of whom spoke on condition of anonymity,” very little actual proof is supplied. That will not be the case in this post.

Vote To Reduce the Debt (V2RD), the now defunct SuperPAC founded and funded by Texas Oil man Ken Davis, was started with the goal of electing conservatives to the United States Senate who would address the steadily increasing burden of our debt. Patrick Davis and Italia Federici, the two people our Soros reporter tried to turn into Scooby-Doo villains in his voluminous story, were brought on by V2RD in late February 2014 by the original V2RD executive director Lynn Scarborough to help craft and execute a plan to assist in competitive states with on the ground Get Out The Vote staff. That is exactly what they did.

During the 2014 election cycle, Person to Person PAC, which is run by Patrick and Italia, covered 11,130 volunteer shifts for walking precincts and live phone banking by bringing activists from non-competitive states into states on V2RD’s targeted list of races. That is called doing the actual work of politics. Of the targeted races on V2RD’s list – those in which Patrick and Italia ran operations on the ground – the PAC-backed candidate won seven out of eight. That is called succeeding in the actual work of politics.

So why am I writing about a now defunct SuperPAC if it was actually successful?

It’s simple: A small group of people did try to scam $4MIL out of this PAC, and are now attempting to smear those who blew the whistle on them. Let me repeat that. There was an attempt to scam that money. The scammers are trying to smear those who caught them. Digest that.

In April, executive director Lynn Scarborough hired former Dallas TV newscaster Mike Snyder and former Internet TV show host Janee Hill to be fundraisers, which FEC reports show they actually did very little of. That is called NOT doing the actual work of politics.

It didn’t appear, within a month of being hired Janee Hill’s husband, Randy Hill, decided he wanted to be the PAC’s Executive Director, and on or about May 5, Hill acted against the instructions of The PAC’s founder and funder, Ken Davis, and fired Lynn to install himself in her position.

Neither the Hills nor Snyder had ever worked on a political race or campaign before. That said, Snyder had done some PR work in Dallas that led to some infamy (Don’t try to run a PR campaign with sock puppets, you will get caught). Upon taking control of the PAC, Randy and Janee Hill attempted to hire many of their friends within the realm of TV production.

This is when things really start getting interesting, but before we get too far there are still a few details to address.

Around this same time period, the PAC attorney Chris Gober started acting in ways counter to the stated conservative objectives of the PAC. After initial plans had been made for the PAC to engage in Mississippi and South Carolina on behalf of Chris McDaniel and Det Bowers respectively, Gober announced his standing conflicts due to his representation of Sen. Thad Cochran (R-MS)Heritage ActionScorecardSen. Thad CochranSenate Republican AverageSee Full Scorecard51% and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC)Heritage ActionScorecardSen. Lindsey GrahamSenate Republican AverageSee Full Scorecard47% respectively, and the PAC then pulled out of its previous plans to engage. According to sources, it didn’t appear that Gober was at all interested in the PAC’s stated goals of supporting conservatives and instead took affirmative steps to assist Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC)Heritage ActionScorecardSen. Lindsey GrahamSenate Republican AverageSee Full Scorecard47% and Sen. Thad Cochran (R-MS)Heritage ActionScorecardSen. Thad CochranSenate Republican AverageSee Full Scorecard51%. Remember that the stated goal was to elect conservatives. Actual conservatives remember the Mississippi race all too well. And Graham’s status is hardly worth elaborating here.

In any case, before the plug was pulled on engagement in Mississippi there was a critical moment on the campaign trail that would change the trajectory of V2RD and put Italia Federici and Patrick Davis at odds with the Executive Director Randy Hill.

An affidavit filed by Patrick Davis tells all the sordid details of a plan hatched by Randy Hill to create a reality TV show based around himself and a NASCAR team, which Hill told Davis and Federici during a drive to the Midland, Texas airport on June 5. Oh, and Hill planned on using ~$4MIL from V2RD to fund this NASCAR Reality TV Dream. Oh, and Hill also told Davis and Federici that the PAC’s lawyer, Chris Gober, was in on the plan. IN ON THE PLAN.

After Randy disclosed this plan to Federici and Davis, and because of Gober’s peculiar actions regarding not disclosing conflicts, and because Randy stated that Gober was in on the plan, Federici and Davis decided to take the information regarding Hill’s NASCAR fantasy scheme to outside firms for legal opinion. Between June 6 and June 25, Federici contacted multiple law firms and got opinions about how to unravel Randy Hill’s plan to increase his own wealth by funneling ~$4MIL in PAC funds to support his NASCAR Reality TV Star dreams. And that, dear reader, is called prudence. Or common sense.

On June 25, Cleta Mitchell (yes, that Cleta Mitchell) and Federici took the information to the PAC’s counsel Chris Gober. According to review of the emails, Gober seemed to slow-walk the process of bringing the information to the Board, and did not attempt to set a Board meeting for Patrick Davis to present the information. In an effort to get the info to the Board and to Ken Davis, and to bypass Gober, Patrick Davis swore an affidavit, which he then submitted to the Board.

So they learned of a plan to divert the PAC’s money to this get racing quick scheme, solicited legal input on what to do about it, obtained said legal input, informed the PAC’s counsel of it, and, lacking action on said counsel’s part, sent a sworn affidavit directly to the Board of Directors. This is the very definition of up and up.

Upon receiving the sworn affidavit from Davis, the Board began to move quickly, and Randy Hill was fired as Executive Director of V2RD.

Usually this is where a story like this would end, maybe with Patrick Davis and Italia Federici getting a nice letter from Ken Davis and his family thanking them for bringing to light a plot to take the 89-year-old oilman for a very expensive race car ride.

But it isn’t. It isn’t how it ended at all. Indeed, it has not ended.

Instead of that, Patrick Davis and Italia Federici, who were doing the actual work of politics and acting on the up and up in identifying a scam, were dragged through the mud, smeared by those who conspired, and treated as hostiles rather than heroes. They were subjected to repeated insults, bullying and hostility by attorney Gober and former newsreader Mike Snyder. What follows is the story of how.

In September, Gober – after being openly hostile to Federici in particular – sent a request to Davis and Federici asking for a 100k earmark from their PAC. Within weeks of his request being denied, Gober had Davis fired from V2RD. Federici and Davis believe this was direct retaliation for denying his attempt to access 25% of their PAC’s funds and thwarting the will of the NASCAR triumvirate.

Sources interviewed by the author of the Soros-funded Pro Publica hit piece confirmed that the story was instigated by Mike Snyder, and that no matter the many nice things she said about Federici and Davis, the reporter had his hit piece laid out and would not deviate from that narrative.

In an effort to counter that narrative and expose the truth of what happened at V2RD, and just who acted as hero and who acted as villain, I have provided the below timeline of important events with screenshots of emails from those times. As you will see, Davis and Federici appear to look out for the SuperPAC while others plot to funnel its funds to themselves, or ignore altogether the unethical schemes they see appear before them.

MAY 2014

Business appeared to be normal as Randy Hill assumed control and began to ask reasonable questions. One such question was his May 16 email in which Hill asks for the list of candidates the PAC hopes to support in order to pass the list along to the PAC’s lawyer and founder. Patrick Davis’ response to that email was normal as well, listing out multiple races and candidates the PAC would seek to support. As you can see from the linked screenshot of this email, one Pastor Det Bowers from South Carolina is listed.

On May 22 Janee Hill and Mike Snyder raved about the work Italia Federici had done to set the stage for the PAC to do great work in Iowa, South Carolina, and Colorado. The very next day Janee Hill, again, the wife of Executive Director and noted NASCAR fan Randy Hill, joined in with Mike Snyder to praise Italia’s work. “You ROCK! Great work!” Hill exclaimed in her reply to Federici and Snyder.

On May 30, just days before Hill would reveal his plot to siphon ~$4MIL out of the SuperPAC to fund his NASCAR Reality TV show, Snyder emailed Federici saying that it was a joy (“join”) to work with her.
MAY EMAILS
 

JUNE 2014

June started just as May had ended, on the 2nd Janee Hill was once again praising Federici in email. On the morning of June 5 things are still cordial between Randy Hill and Patrick Davis as Hill reminds Davis that Chris Gober, the PAC’s lawyer, has a conflict in South Carolina and that the PAC “pulled out of all social media ads in the state” during the primary due to this conflict.

On June 6 Janee Hill praises Federici and Davis collectively for their efforts. Curiously, Hill also asks Federici and Davis for their contact information from a previous event in Iowa. This, of course is one day after Randy Hill had disclosed his secret plan to funnel ~$4MIL in PAC funds to his quest for a NASCAR Reality TV Show.

On June 9 Randy Hill followed up on his wife, Janee’s original request for all the contact information of Italia and Patrick’s contacts in Iowa, lacking the jovial, or even cordial, tones of the emails that proceeded the revelation on June 5 of Hill’s NASCAR fantasy.

On June 11 Mike Snyder, the former Dallas newsreader who’d been hired to fundraise for V2RD, emailed Patrick Davis pitching a GOTV effort for Mississippi in support of Chris McDaniel that happened to involve a NASCAR wrapped in V2RD graphics. Not long after this request Patrick Davis replied lamenting the fact that he and Federici had been left out of the planning of this effort, and that it was a stark departure for the previous GOTV efforts the PAC had supported.

I assume you can guess what happened next, but we will continue through this until the very end.

By June 13, two days after Patrick Davis had figuratively kicked Randy Hill’s dream of NASCAR stardom in its figurative manhood, Hill was demanding to have Davis and Federici’s contacts from Iowa.

On June 19 Hill notes that he has brought on a new Chief Financial Officer for the PAC. After apparently alerting Chris Gober, again the PAC’s legal counsel, Patrick Davis found out the Gober hadn’t been made aware previously of this rather important PAC hire.

Between the time Randy Hill revealed his intentions to Patrick Davis and Italia Federici and June 25, Davis and Federici had already begun to seek outside council. On June 25 Federici emailed noted conservative lawyer Cleta Mitchell to formally enlist her help in the effort to stop Ken Davis from losing ~$4MIL on a wild NASCAR Reality ride.

An email from June 27 shows the PAC’s legal counsel, Chris Gober, began an investigation into the NASCAR scheme which Patrick Davis and Italia Federici alerted him to. Oddly, Davis is then instructed by Gober to do no work on the PAC’s behalf until his investigation is finished. Gober also requests Davis gather all of his evidence to present to the Board on July 2.

On June 28 Italia Federici emails Chris Gober and reiterates the allegations regarding the NASCAR plan the Hills brought to V2RD. After this email Chris Gober, who until now had shown little action other than to sideline Patrick Davis, wanted to call an emergency Board Meeting, leaving Davis with no time to collect evidence and provide a full statement in affidavit form.

A June 30 email from Patrick Davis to Chris Gober notes that the need for an emergency Board meeting was negated by the fact that Gober had already been alerted to, and put a stop to, the scam moving forward in Mississippi. This can be verified by a June 25 email noting V2RD had decided to bypass any work in Mississippi.

JUNE EMAILS IN ORDER OF DATE

JULY 2014

As July began Randy Hill’s days were numbered. On July 2 Patrick Davis sent his sworn affidavit to not only Chris Gober and the Board members of V2RD, he had sent it directly to the PAC’s founder and primary funder, Ken Davis.

In July Davis and Federici were still working with those close to Ken Davis, such as Anne Holland. In a July 9 email between Federici and Holland, Holland appears eager to get any remaining evidence of the Hills NASCAR scheme.

All quite different than originally reported by the Pro Publica, isn’t it? It is clear from the evidence provided here that those whom Pro Publica, and their sources, sought to destroy with this hit piece were actually the ethical actors concerned that an elderly millionaire was about to get fleeced.

JULY EMAILS IN ORDER OF DATE

Vote 2 Reduce the Debt was founded to elect conservatives to office in 2014, and it did just that despite the wild-eyed schemes of political neophytes attracted more by money than principle. The plan was to do old fashioned ground game in targeted states and to the degree it possibly could have, considering the challenges they faced internally, V2RD succeeded. How things went after Executive Director Lynn Scarborough was fired and Randy Hill installed as her replacement is a cautionary tale for conservatives. We must be vigilant, our movement can ill afford another ground game failure in 2016, whether due to tech consultants and a fail whale named ORCA, or a hustler trying to salvage his NASCAR

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