Pro-Trump donor sues group promising to expose election fraud

[jayem]

"A pro-Trump group that promised to challenge the Nov. 3 election results and expose fraud was sued by a North Carolina money manager who donated $2.5 million to the cause but says he didn’t get his money’s worth.

The group is True the Vote, Inc. 4 lawsuits were filed, but all were dropped. Eshelman was offered $1 million not to sue them. You'd think someone that wealthy wouldn't fall for a scam that could never deliver.

Fred Eshelman, founder of Eshelman Ventures LLC, wants his money back, saying he “regularly and repeatedly” asked for updates on the project but his “requests were consistently met with vague responses, platitudes, and empty promises,” according to the lawsuit filed Wednesday in Houston federal court." (Emphasis mine)

That sure sounds exactly like Donald Trump.

Pro-Trump Group Donor Sues Over Failure to Expose Election Fraud

 

[Tom 1]

You'd think someone that wealthy wouldn't fall for a scam that could never deliver.

The bar has been set at ground level.

 

[MIDutch]

So there are people out in the world coming up with scams based on conservative Republican voter fraud delusions about the 2020 election.

How ironic is that?

 

[loveofourlord]

So there are people out in the world coming up with scams based on conservative Republican voter fraud delusions about the 2020 election.

How ironic is that?

to be fair the biggest scammer is trump, most of the money is going to pay for his stuff.

 

[Whyayeman]

The losers are squabbling amongst themselves. They are going to law against each other.

How entertaining!

 

[essentialsaltes]

WaPo looks in-depth at the lawsuit and filings.

Documents that have surfaced in Eshelman’s litigation, along with interviews, show how True the Vote’s private assurances that it was on the cusp of revealing illegal election schemes repeatedly fizzled as the group’s focus shifted from one allegation to the next.

Eshelman also alleges that True the Vote directed much of his money to people or businesses connected to the group’s president, Catherine Engelbrecht.

Eshelman’s Nov. 5 donation was easily the biggest gift True the Vote had ever received, according to a person familiar with its operations, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss matters in litigation. True the Vote had never raised more than $1.8 million in a single year, its tax returns show.

The suits, filed by Bopp, said True the Vote would use “sophisticated and groundbreaking programs” to show that enough illegal votes had been cast — by noncitizens, felons, fake voters and others — to swing the election to Biden. “This evidence will be shortly forthcoming,” each complaint said.

Bopp, whose firm received a retainer of $500,000 for its work on the lawsuits, told The Post that there was “tons of evidence” of voter fraud but that it was “anecdotal, circumstantial.”

Engelbrecht’s Validate the Vote plan ... budgeted $1.75 million for “data and research” work ... to be led by ... OPSEC Group LLC.

Records show that OPSEC had been formed less than two months earlier in Alabama by Gregg Phillips, a former True the Vote board member...

Phillips, 60, and Engelbrecht are business partners in a health-care company. Eshelman alleges in a legal filing — without providing evidence — that the two are also lovers.

Heckman, the veteran [Senator] Graham consultant, said he listened to a pair of conference-call presentations from Engelbrecht and Phillips but came away so unimpressed that he never even mentioned the effort to Graham. “I was asked to determine whether there was any legitimate evidence there,” he told The Post. “My conclusion was there wasn’t.”

The following day, Bopp decided to abandon all four of True the Vote’s lawsuits, concluding that without the [Trump] campaign’s involvement the suits had little chance of advancing before the election was to be certified in December.

Bopp told Eshelman about the decision that day, during a tense phone call.

Eshelman was furious, according to court documents and interviews.

On Nov. 17, he sent Engelbrecht an email demanding the return of his money. True the Vote offered on Nov. 23 to return $1 million to settle the matter. Eshelman filed his first lawsuit two days later, saying the group had failed to provide an accounting of how the remainder of his money had been spent.

 

[Whyayeman]

It sounds familiar. Allegations but no evidence.

If wishes were horses beggars would ride, as my mother used to say. these are not actually beggars, but rich men trying to defeat democratic process.

 

[essentialsaltes]

True the Vote Raised Millions to Combat Voter Fraud—But No One Really Knows Where the Money Went

Article is TL;DR for some transparent grifting, but in case anyone out there is interested.

 

[dqhall]

"A pro-Trump group that promised to challenge the Nov. 3 election results and expose fraud was sued by a North Carolina money manager who donated $2.5 million to the cause but says he didn’t get his money’s worth.

The group is True the Vote, Inc. 4 lawsuits were filed, but all were dropped. Eshelman was offered $1 million not to sue them. You'd think someone that wealthy wouldn't fall for a scam that could never deliver.

Fred Eshelman, founder of Eshelman Ventures LLC, wants his money back, saying he “regularly and repeatedly” asked for updates on the project but his “requests were consistently met with vague responses, platitudes, and empty promises,” according to the lawsuit filed Wednesday in Houston federal court." (Emphasis mine)

That sure sounds exactly like Donald Trump.

Pro-Trump Group Donor Sues Over Failure to Expose Election Fraud

Former Trump advisor Steve Bannon asked for money to build a border wall. Bannon stole from the funds. He was arrested.
Steve Bannon Charged With Misusing Donations For Trump's Border Wall

 

[TLK Valentine]

Former Trump advisor Steve Bannon asked for money to build a border wall. Bannon stole from the funds. He was arrested.
Steve Bannon Charged With Misusing Donations For Trump's Border Wall

... and pardoned by Donald.

Steve Bannon pardon: Trump pardons Steve Bannon as one of his final acts in office - CNNPolitics

...which just goes to show that nobody in the administration gave a rat's whisker about what happened to its base.