George Conway, a former leading member of the anti-Trump Lincoln Project, is raising the stakes in calling for the group to be shut down following an investigation that revealed that leaders in the group were reportedly raking in significant profits.
The political operative, who is the husband of former White House counselor Kellyanne Conway, reiterated his call for the political action committee to be disbanded in a tweet on Monday, but he included one caveat.
“@ProjectLincoln should shut down, absent full disclosure of its finances,” he wrote. “As this detailed story shows, there’s simply too much money that hasn’t been accounted for, and, I fear, never will be.”
He shared a report from the New York Times that dug into the “civil war” within the group over financial arrangements and allegations against co-founder John Weaver by young men who said he harassed them — accusations the report said were brought to the attention of the organization as early as January 2020.
LINCOLN PROJECT ORDERS OUTSIDE INVESTIGATION INTO JOHN WEAVER SCANDAL
Conway added later in the Twitter thread that he hopes supporters of the Lincoln Project “continue the fight against Trumpism … in some other way,” directing followers to other groups, such as the Republican Accountability Project and Protect Democracy.
The Lincoln Project is currently fending off two competing controversies threatening the group’s existence. The first is a sexual harassment scandal with Weaver, who admitted to sending “inappropriate” messages to multiple men.
“To the men I made uncomfortable through my messages that I viewed as consensual mutual conversations at the time: I am truly sorry. They were inappropriate, and it was because of my failings that this discomfort was brought on you,” Weaver said in January.
Weaver, who has left the group, previously was a top adviser to Ohio Gov. John Kasich and the late Sen. John McCain.
In February, the Lincoln Project was forced to contend with corruption allegations after it was revealed that the majority of the money the group raised went to companies run by the group’s founders. Over time, $27 million in donations to the group were reportedly directed to Reed Galen’s consulting firm, which was then used to pay Galen and the three other founders of the group, Weaver, Rick Wilson, and Steve Schmidt, millions of dollars in consulting fees.
The Lincoln Project announced that it retained outside counsel to investigate the Weaver scandal while maintaining that its fundraising operation was not in violation of the law.
“We fully comply with the law,” Schmidt said. “The Lincoln Project will be delighted to open its books for audit immediately after the Trump campaign and all affiliated super PACs do so, explaining the cash flow of the nearly $700 million that flowed through their organizations controlled by Brad Parscale and Jared Kushner.”
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Schmidt later stepped down from the group’s board, and it was announced that his position would be filled by a female “as the first step to reform and professionalize the Lincoln Project.”
