Washington Blade: "Lincoln Project's avowed ignorance of John Weaver texts undercut by leaked communications"

I wonder who Rick Wilson will impotently threaten today.

The Lincoln Project's leaders, amid the unfolding scandal of co-founder John Weaver soliciting sexual favors from young men, have asserted they were unaware of his indiscretions until last month, but electronic communications obtained by the Washington Blade call that claim into question and suggest some Lincoln Project executives knew about the texts as early as last summer, but took no substantive action in response.

The communications with Lincoln Project officials undermine the assertion that "there was no awareness or insinuations of any type of inappropriate behavior when we became aware of the chatter at the time," as co-founder Steve Schmidt told The New York Times last month. These electronic messages, which date back to August 2020 and include Lincoln Project co-founder Mike Madrid, showed that leadership was made aware of allegations about Weaver from reporters who were investigating it, and had begun discussions of how to respond to any fallout.

...

On Aug. 6, the Lincoln Project announced Weaver would go on medical leave after a cardiac emergency, but no further action was announced.

"So instead of looking into the allegations, they swept it under the rug," one source familiar with the situation told the Blade.

...

Weeks later in August, a reporter with the Daily Caller made inquiries regarding Weaver, which Madrid discussed in internal communications.

The Blade has to add this, as if it's factually relevant:

Neither the New York Post, which endorsed Trump for re-election in 2020, nor the Daily Caller, a hard-right outlet co-run by Fox News personality Tucker Carlson before he left last year, have reputations for supporting the LGBTQ community.

It seems that the Lincoln Project was the last to know:

...

Nonetheless, the existence of those earlier alerts, regardless of the source, were about sexually aggressive messaging in which gay men were survivors and contradict the Lincoln Project's assertion that its leaders were only made aware of Weaver's indiscretions in the last month as the story gained traction.

...

Republican insiders who spoke to the Blade bolstered the Times reporting with stories about Weaver's reputation for inappropriate messages, and indicated Weaver's behavior was well known in recent years. One Republican insider not affiliated with the Lincoln Project said he received a text in 2016 warning Weaver had a history of sending "creepy" texts to younger gay men.

Emphasis added.

The National Man-Boy Lincoln Association responded with all the typical denials. They'll probably soon be responding with all the typical threats.

The Lincoln Project is claiming, impossibly, that when the New York Post and Daily Caller contacted this Mike Madrid about allegations that a co-founder was sending sexual texts to underaged boys, he didn't "run it up the chain of command."

Really? You had two news outlets asking about well-known rumors that John Weaver liked 'em male and young and your claim is that your partner didn't alert anyone else in the company about this?

That's your claim? That's the story you're going with?

That your partner never alerted you to the possibly-ruinous story? Never gave you a heads up? Never asked you how to respond? Never asked you if you had derogatory information about those making the allegations?

Nothing? Just kept it all to himself, for some professionally-negligent reason?

They're also claiming that Mike Madrid is a lower-ranking employee, despite his being repeatedly referred to by the Lincoln Project Twitter feed as a "founder" or "co-founder" of the company.

This is the same "I barely know that guy" bullshit they trotted out with co-founder John Weaver.

Will the National Man-Boy Lincoln Association (hat tip: El Kabong) repeat that story -- under oath?

You know, when they sue people for expressing skepticism about their various unbelievable claims, as they've threatened to do.

A lawsuit would be very interesting. I personally would love to fundraise a defense. I'm certain I could fundraise half a million dollars to expose the Lincoln Project -- easily.

Don't worry, I know you delete your emails on the reg, guys. The lawyer would be subpeonaeing Google and other services for email records.

We'd also be looking for spikes in phone activity among the company's principals -- and to and from its PR agent -- over the summer.

You guys deny ever having heard a whisper about this -- while not under oath.

Will you also deny it under penalty of perjury?

And will all the people you've burned over the past year support your claims? Or will they contradict it?

Are you sure your associates also deleted their copies of email correspondence with you?

Also be aware that anyone you sue will be very aggressive about filing for sanctions and criminal penalties for any perjury or concealment or destruction of evidence.

Keep threatening, guys. Keep slandering. Keep spinning. Keep claiming that you don't know any of the co-founders of the company.

posted by Ace at 04:21 PM

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