Media accused of burying scandal involving Lincoln Project co-founder
Fox News contributor Joe Concha breaks down media bias involving Twitter employee donations and the Lincoln Project.
The Associated Press published a scathing report about the embattled anti-Trump group The Lincoln Project on Thursday, but co-founder Rick Wilson oddly chalked it up to "another hit story from Trump world."
The AP story headlined, "How a leading anti-Trump group ignored a crisis in its ranks," detailed a variety of issues at Wilson’s Lincoln Project. The group recently claimed it was "shocked" last month when sexual harassment allegations surfaced against co-founder John Weaver, but the AP reported that the Lincoln Project was informed of "at least 10 specific allegations" back in June 2020.
"Despite the early warning, the group took no action against Weaver and pressed forward with its high-profile work," the AP reported.
Lincoln Project co-founders Steve Schmidt, Rick Wilson, George Conway and John Weaver.
Weaver, a co-founder of the Lincoln Project, acknowledged last month in a statement to the website Axios that he had sent "inappropriate" messages he "viewed as consensual, mutual conversations at the time."
The Lincoln Project was initially mum after Weaver admitted guilt last month. A spokesperson for the anti-Trump group simply told Axios at the time, "John's statement speaks for itself."
However, The New York Times later ran a bombshell report about 21 young men who accused Weaver of misconduct, including who said he was 14 years old at the time. As a result, the Lincoln Project finally denounced Weaver with a scathing statement and fellow co-founder George Conway was quickly dispatched to MSNBC to declare he "didn't know John very well" despite being business partners.
But the allegations of overlooking online harassment aren’t the only troubling part of the AP’s report.
"The harassment allegations and new revelations about spending practices raise significant questions about the management of one of the highest-profile antagonists of Trump. The revelations threaten the stature of not just the Lincoln Project but the broader coalition of establishment-oriented Republican groups hoping to pool their resources to excise Trump from the party," the AP reported.
The Lincoln Project co-founder Rick Wilson oddly chalked a scathing Associated Press report up to "another hit story from Trump world."
"Since its creation, the Lincoln Project has raised $90 million. 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, according to an analysis of campaign finance disclosures and data from the ad tracking firm Kantar/CMAG," the report continued. "That leaves tens of millions of dollars that went toward expenses like production costs, overhead — and exorbitant consulting fees collected by members of the group."
Attorney Brendan Fischer told the AP that there are now "questions about where the rest of the money ultimately went" because you’d typically "expect to see a major super PAC spend a majority or more of their money on advertisements and that’s not what happened here."
The AP reported that it’s "difficult to tell how much members of the group were paid" because of the group’s strategy to "mask how much money they earned."
Co-founder Steve Schmidt told the AP that his anti-Trump group would "fully comply with the law" and would be "delighted to open its books for audit immediately after the Trump campaign and all affiliated super PACs do so."
On Thursday morning as the story hit, Schmidt’s colleague, fellow co-founder Wilson, took to Twitter with his thoughts on the report.
"Another day, another hit story from Trump world," he wrote. "I know y'all would like to ignore the mounting evidence of Trump ordering a murderous mob to attack the Capitol, but you can't."
"The Associated Press stands by its story," an AP spokesperson told Fox News.
It’s unclear why Wilson feels that the reputable Associated Press is part of whatever he considers "Trump World," but critics quickly mocked his response:
Wilson has maintained in recent weeks that he had no knowledge of the extent of Weaver's predatory behavior, which included sexual overtures to a 14-year-old boy.
"Absolutely not," he responded on Twitter Thursday after a user questioned him on whether the group knew of Weaver's behavior last year.
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Weaver went on medical leave last summer due to a cardiac episode soon after the organization became aware of a New York Post story looking into his inappropriate online behavior.
Fox News; Joseph A. Wulfsohn contributed to this report