Statement from the Leadership of 6th District Grassroots Conservatives July 6 2018

For the first time in recent memory a group of Establishment Republicans have decided to weaponize the federal government to damage their opponents in an intraparty contest by calling down on past officers of the 6th District Committee and the Committee as a whole the weight of the Federal Election Commission(FEC).

This is an outrage on every level. Even more despicable than the fact that the complaints were intentionally filed with the FEC in time to do maximum political damage but too early to be settled before the District convention this spring is the fact that those filing the complaints decided that it was acceptable to destroy people who were not even on the ballot at the convention in the process.

Two past 6th District Treasurers have been targeted. These individuals served without pay in a position requiring careful effort and untold hours. Their job is thankless by definition and the thanks they get from fellow Republicans is to be forced to defend themselves against a federal investigation.

This should infuriate all decent people on the face of it, doubly so those who claim to have the interests of the party at heart.

In a Machiavellian twist, those of us who are attempting to protect the innocent are being targeted and viciously attacked as trying to weaken the party. They are making many claims about us that are untrue. Here are some of the facts:

1. The Sixth District Committee recently voted to set aside funds for the Committee’s own legal defense. We provided NO money for the legal defense of any candidate for Congress including Cynthia Dunbar, in fact we specifically excluded recent candidates from the package.
2. We voted to set aside up to $30,000.00 as a reserve to provide for the Committee’s legal defense until these frivolous complaints before the FEC are resolved. That money will not be spent unless it is needed to fight these frivolous charges.
3. Those who are attacking us for defending innocent volunteers of the Republican Party refuse to put forward any plan to provide for their defense. Instead of presenting an alternate plan for the defense of the committee they resort to social media to attack us and demand that we drop the defense of the innocent. They have shown complete unwillingness to engage us in a serious discussion of plans to defend the committee and its officers.  Furthermore they are defending those who launched these vicious allegations.
4. Ironically many of the people who are now saying there is no serious threat posed by the FEC investigation were crowing when the complaints were originally filed that the complaints proved corruption and wrongdoing on an impressive scale. This is wildly inconsistent.
5. Though we believe that these complaints that have been filed are baseless, anyone who has been a target of a federal investigation knows that the trouble, expense and difficulty involved can be crushing. If we reward our volunteers by calling the power of the federal government down on them, then refuse to defend them no reasonable person will be willing to serve in a position of responsibility in the party. It is a supreme irony that many who regularly complain about the party often becoming a circular firing squad have taken the concept to a whole new level themselves.
6. We will not leave Republican volunteers defenseless in the face of false charges. This is what we are being asked to do, even condemned for not doing. This is morally reprehensible.
7. One grassroots conservative reached out to one of our vocal critics on the committee in an effort to work out an end to the impasse.  The two had agreed that one would contact the Republican Party of Virginia (RPV) and ask RPV to agree in writing to pay for the defense of the unpaid volunteers serving on the Sixth District GOP Committee. Instead, our critic reneged on his word and attacked the grassroots conservatives in a public forum instead. This is indefensible and sadly typical of the tactics we face.  
8. Even though we have repeatedly contacted RPV, they have not agreed to pay for the attorneys of either the unpaid volunteers or the Committee, which was also named in the FEC complaints. Furthermore, RPV leadership is undergoing a change, we don’t even know who will be at the helm, let alone that they will undertake the committee’s defense. We cannot afford to leave the district committee or the targeted individuals without protection in a time of uncertainty.

To help us counter the unrelenting attacks we face, we ask that you post this rebuttal on your social media page and email it to your friends. We ask that you contact Sixth District Committee Chair Jennifer Brown and insist that she stop attacking your duly-elected leaders and representatives, and that she stop fighting our efforts to defend the committee that she is supposed to be leading and allow us to focus on ensuring that Ben Cline is our next Congressman and that Corey Stewart defeats Tim Kaine. If she will demonstrate any willingness to defend the committee she can help bring the matter to a successful conclusion rather than further dividing us.

And each time you see a member of the GOP Establishment attack your duly elected Unit Chair or State Central Committee member – ask them why it’s OK for some Republicans to use the power of the federal government against unpaid volunteers who have given untold time and effort to the Republican Party and why their outrage is so misplaced.