Byron York’s Daily Memo: The resistance was great for business

THE RESISTANCE WAS GREAT FOR BUSINESS. The Lincoln Project was founded by a group of rabidly anti-Trump Republican and former Republican consultants. Their attack ads, often tougher than those produced by Democrats, were a huge hit with the rabidly anti-Trump Resistance. The Lincoln Project paired those ads with an aggressive fundraising effort, and the money poured in, mostly in small donations: more than $90 million in all.

Where did the money go? It’s been known for a while that the Lincoln Project directed a lot of the donors’ money to companies that just happened to be controlled by members of the Lincoln Project. A new article from the Associated Press gives more details. “Since its creation, the Lincoln Project has raised $90 million,” the AP’s Steve Peoples and Brian Slodysko report. “But only about a third of the money, roughly $27 million, directly paid for advertisements that aired on broadcast and cable, or appeared online, during the 2020 campaign.”

“The vast majority of the cash was split among consulting firms controlled by its founders,” Peoples and Slodysko continue, “including about $27 million paid to a small firm controlled by [GOP consultant Reed] Galen and another $21 million paid to a boutique firm run by former Lincoln Project member Ron Steslow, campaign finance disclosures show.”

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That doesn’t mean the big bucks went only to Galen and Steslow. “In many cases it’s difficult to tell how much members of the group were paid,” Peoples and Slodysko write. “That’s because the Lincoln Project adopted a strategy, much like the Trump campaign they criticized, to mask how much money they earned.” In other words, there is zero transparency. Lincoln Project co-founder Steve Schmidt told the AP the group “will be delighted to open its books for audit immediately after the Trump campaign and all affiliated super PACs do so.” As the AP suggested, what could be more Trumpian?

What is known is that the windfall of millions in donations came at a time when some Lincoln Project co-founders really needed the money. “The unexpected success of the Lincoln Project has extended a lifeline to some founders who have spent much of the past decade under financial distress,” the AP writes. One of them was John Weaver, the former Republican strategist now in the news over his practice of sending sexually inappropriate messages to young men. “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 owed to the IRS dating back to 2011, records show. A separate case in Texas is still pending over $340,000 back rent his family owes after shuttering a children’s boutique they operated, records show.”

And not just Weaver. In July 2020, the New York Post reported that co-founder Rick Wilson “has an outstanding $389,420 tax lien against his Tallahassee, Florida home, and his bank moved to foreclose on the property in 2016.” The paper also reported that “American Express had taken Wilson to court for his own unpaid $25,729 credit card bill the year before.”

The Lincoln Project also had an ugly split with another co-founder, former New Hampshire Republican Party head Jennifer Horn, who a Project spokesperson said demanded a $250,000 signing bonus and a $40,000-a-month consulting contract. When the Project refused, it said, Horn then publicly quit, citing her horror at the Weaver matter.

Obviously, a $90 million gusher changed things inside the Lincoln Project. Something like that usually does. The Associated Press reports Schmidt “purchased a $1.4 million ‘Mountain Modern’ custom home in Kamas, Utah, with five bedrooms, seven baths and a ‘stunning’ view of the Uinta Mountains.” By the way, you can now buy that very house, which AP says Schmidt is trying to resell for $2.9 million.

All that is separate from the Weaver scandal. Or at least, sort of separate. Lincoln Project members have denied knowing about Weaver’s actions until they were in the news recently. But new evidence discovered by AP casts doubt on that claim, suggesting that Project leaders knew about the Weaver problem but swept it under the rug. And if that happened, it happened at a time last year when the Project was riding high and the money was rolling in. Still, the AP cautions: “There is no evidence that the Lincoln Project buried the allegations against Weaver for business reasons.” The bottom line: more reporting is needed.

The bottom line: It appears the Lincoln Project will continue to be in the news. Of course, it will keep attacking Trump, even as the former president’s time in office recedes into the past. But it might also make news for its continuing troubles, especially if Horn’s departure is any indication. There is still a lot of money to fight over.

For a deeper dive into many of the topics covered in the Daily Memo, please listen to my podcast, The Byron York Show — available on the Ricochet Audio Network and everywhere else podcasts can be found. You can use this link to subscribe.