WASHINGTON (AP) – Last June, the Lincoln Project was at a peak.
Led by several prominent former Republican consultants, the slick advertisements attacking President Donald Trump made it perhaps the most famous of the so-called Never Trump organizations. The group sought to claim higher moral ground in an effort to rid Trump of the GOP. The money poured in with tens of millions of dollars from donors eager to help.
But a crisis broke out within the organization.
In June 2020, members of the organization’s leadership were informed in writing and in subsequent phone calls of at least 10 specific allegations of harassment against co-founder John Weaver, including two employees of the Lincoln Project, according to several people with direct knowledge of the situation. The email and phone calls raise questions about the Lincoln Project’s statement last month that it was “shocked” when allegations surfaced in public this year. It is also the first known suggestion that Weaver targeted an employee of the Lincoln Project.
The organization announced Thursday night, after new details were reported by The Associated Press, that the board had decided to “retain a best-in-class outside professional” to review Weaver’s tenure “to establish both accountability and best practices. for the future. Lincoln Project. “
The group also encouraged anyone bound by a nondisclosure agreement “to contact the Lincoln Project for release.”
Despite the initial warning in June, the group took no action against Weaver and continued its high profile work. For the rally of GOP consultants and former officials, anti-Trump became very good for business. Of the $ 90 million that Lincoln Project raised, more than $ 50 million went to companies controlled by the group’s leaders.
There is no evidence that the Lincoln Project buried the allegations against Weaver for business reasons. But added together, the allegations of intimidation and new revelations about spending practices raise important questions about the management of one of Trump’s most prominent antagonists. The revelations threaten not only the status of the Lincoln Project, but also the wider coalition of establishment-focused Republican groups trying to get Trump out of the party.
Lincoln Project co-founder Steve Schmidt insisted that he and the rest of the group’s leadership were unaware of internal allegations of wrongdoing involving Weaver.
“No employee, intern or contractor of the Lincoln Project has ever made an allegation of improper communication about John Weaver that would have prompted an investigation by HR or an outside employment advisor,” Schmidt said in a Wednesday interview. “In other words, no human has ever made an allegation of improper sexualized communication about John Weaver.”
Weaver declined to comment on this story, but in a statement released to Axios late last month, he generally acknowledged wrongdoing and apologized.
“For the men I made uncomfortable with my messages that I considered back then two-way conversations, I’m really sorry,” he wrote. “They were inappropriate and it was because of my shortcomings that this inconvenience was caused to you.”
The Lincoln project was launched as a super PAC in November 2019 allowing his leaders to raise and spend unlimited sums of money.
The founders represent a who’s who of leading Republican cable television strategists, including Schmidt and Reed Galen, both former advisers to John McCain; conservative lawyer George Conway; former New Hampshire GOP chairman Jennifer Horn; Rick Wilson, a veteran Florida political advisor; and Weaver, who has long counseled former Ohio Governor John Kasich.
Backed by the founders ‘impressive social media presence, the organization quickly drew a huge following of Trump critics in both sides who exceeded even the founders’ expectations.
Since its inception, the Lincoln project has raised $ 90 million. But only about a third of the money, about $ 27 million, was paid directly for ads that aired on broadcast and cable, or appeared online during the 2020 campaign, according to an analysis of campaign finance disclosures and data from the ad agency Kantar. CMAG.
That leaves tens of millions of dollars for expenses such as production costs, overheads and exorbitant consultancy costs collected by members of the group.
“It raises questions about where the rest of the money ultimately went,” said Brendan Fischer, an attorney with the impartial Campaign Legal Center in Washington. “In general, you would expect a large super PAC to spend a majority or more of its money on advertising, and that hasn’t happened here.”
The vast majority of the money was distributed to consulting firms controlled by the founders, including about $ 27 million paid to a small company controlled by Galen and another $ 21 million paid to a boutique business run by former Lincoln Project member Ron Steslow , according to campaign finance revelations. .
But in many cases it is difficult to say how many members of the group have been paid. That’s because the Lincoln Project adopted a strategy, much like the Trump campaign they criticized, to mask how much money they made.
While several firms have collected payments, Weaver and Wilson are not mentioned in publicly available records. They were likely paid as subcontractors to those companies, an arrangement that avoids disclosure. Schmidt received a $ 1.5 million payment in December, but quickly returned it.
“We are in full compliance with the law,” said Schmidt. The Lincoln Project will be delighted to open its books for audit immediately after the Trump campaign and all affiliated super-PACs do, explaining the cash flow of the nearly $ 700 million that flowed through their organizations, audited by Brad Parscale and Jared Kushner. “
The Lincoln Project said goodbye to a co-founder, Horn, last week, claiming in an unusual public statement that she was looking for a $ 250,000 signing bonus and a $ 40,000 per month consulting contract. Horn said she left after revelations of Weaver’s “grotesque” behavior and existing leadership’s divergent views on how to proceed.
Public records show that the unexpected success of the Lincoln project has extended a lifeline for some founders who have spent much of the past decade in financial straits.
Over the past decade, Weaver has repeatedly failed to pay taxes, defaulted on loans, and faced lawsuits from creditors seeking to collect. In October, he paid off $ 313,000 in back taxes dating back to 2011 to the IRS, reports show. A separate case in Texas is still pending more than $ 340,000 in back rent due from his family after closing a children’s boutique they operated, records show.
Others used the money they had made during their time at Lincoln Project to refinance homes or buy a new one. Schmidt purchased a $ 1.4 million “Mountain Modern” custom home in Kamas, Utah, with five bedrooms, seven baths and “beautiful” views of the Uinta Mountains, according to property records and property listings. He is currently trying to resell the house for $ 2.9 million.
But as the money poured into the group, several people with direct knowledge said allegations against Weaver were repeatedly made within the organization long before leaders acknowledged them publicly in late January. Those with knowledge spoke on the condition of anonymity to disclose private communications.
Last June, someone who worked for the Lincoln Project payroll sent an email to Steslow, one of the organization’s co-founders, reporting numerous cases of sexual harassment involving Weaver that spanned several years. Although the AP did not see the email, its contents were confirmed by four people who saw it directly.
Schmidt did not confirm the existence of the email, saying only that if one existed, it was not shared with anyone on the board or leadership of the organization.
But several people familiar with the situation say Steslow immediately submitted the email to Galen, who helped manage day-to-day operations at the time, and Matthew Sanderson, the Lincoln Project’s legal counsel. Steslow also encouraged his colleagues to remove Weaver from the organization.
Those allegations and others were discussed during subsequent phone calls with organization leaders in June and August, and employees were assured that the alleged incidents would be investigated. Weaver went on sick leave in August, but as the presidential campaign entered the summer and fall, there was no formal solution.
The Washington Blade reported details of another series of internal communications over the summer earlier this week, which revealed that Lincoln Project leaders were aware of allegations against Weaver and are preparing to respond to media reports.
The allegations against Weaver followed a similar pattern in which the 61-year-old married father of two allegedly sent private messages to young gay men on Twitter. They often started with job references before moving on to things like their personal looks, exercise routines, and favorite sexual positions.
Last year, at least two employees of the Lincoln Project were targeted, including an intern who graduated from law school and a communications officer. There is no allegation of physical contact.
Conway, one of the group’s co-founders, said on Thursday that he had received nothing of value for his work at the Lincoln Project, and denied taking note of last summer’s internal discussions.
“No one ever told me that these complaints were made to the Lincoln project, and the first I ever heard that Weaver might have done anything questionable were rumors I heard long after the election, and long after I quit active involvement at the organization, ”Conway wrote on Twitter.
Peoples reported from New York.