Exposing the Corruption of the "Family Values" Party
Todd Poole was the Executive Director of the North Carolina Republican Party and later went to work for several Republican officials. In 2019, he was working for U. S. Rep. Ted Budd when he was arrested for domestic violence and charged with assault. The charge was dismissed when the woman withdrew her complaint.
Jerod Prunty, aide to Louisiana Republican congressman Clay Higgins, was arrested for pandering along with eight other people in a trafficking case in Lafayette Parish. The trafficking operation was centered around five massage parlors. His roommate Pingjuan Xia was indicted as a co-conspirator and it is believed that Prunty introduced her to rich and influential men who then patronized her “massage parlors” that were staffed with immigrants forced to service clients.
David Sorenson was a Trump Administration speechwriter. Previously he worked for Maine Governor LePage. He was forced to resign when his ex-wife Jessica Corbett came forward with allegations of emotional and physical abuse.
Clint Reed was the Arkansas Republican Party director before he was hired by Sen. Mark Rubio as his Chief of Staff for sexual misconduct. Rubio was made aware of the misconduct, did an investigation with his general counsel, found there were some threats of withholding employment benefits and improper conduct between a supervisor and subordinates. Reed was fired the next day.
Kenny West was the Chief of Staff for Rep. Mark Meadows of California. He had originally run against Meadows in the primary in 2012 but didn’t raise much money and lost. When Meadows won the general election, West became his Chief of Staff. He made the women who worked in Meadows office uncomfortable, staring at them, talking about their clothing and appearance, and insisting they hold his hand while he prayed for them. This created a dilemma as the person they were required to report sexual harassment allegations to was the person who sexually harassed them.
Failor was included in the sexual harassment lawsuit that entangled so many Iowa Republicans. He was the person she tried to report working conditions to but she believed he was unreceptive. He began criticizing her work after she made her earlier reports of on-the-job harassment. Another personal also reported problems and he did nothing about it.
After Anderson won the lawsuit, there was an internal investigation that was secret, though they claimed the investigation showed “no provable harassment.” It was a cover job.
Jim Friedrich was an analyst working for Iowa Senate Republicans on oversight issues until he resigned in 2017 after his sexual harassment cost taxpayers $2.2 million. In 2013, Kirsten Anderson, at the time a Republican Caucus communications director, submitted a memo about how sexual harassment created a hostile workplace. She was fired seven hours after she submitted the memo.
Travis Brauer worked for Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin. While on the job, he attended a legislative meeting. Seated on the floor because the room was packed, he was seen taking upskirt photos of a woman. She reported it to the Oklahoma Highway Patrol which was desultory in its response. She also wrote a letter to Governor Fallin. By the time the man was questioned, he had deleted the pictures though his search history showed he had recently researched how to permanently delete photos. He was charged with submitting false testimony and destroying evidence. After two years of legal wrangling, he pled guilty and was given 80 hours of community service.
James “Dub” Maines was was Texas Representative Joe Barton’s deputy district director. That position is one that involves working with the public to help them with different government agencies. It’s a constituent service position. If you’re curious, here is a job description. He was arrested in 2013 when AOL noticed he was emailing child sexual exploitation material from his personal AOL account to his house.gov work e-mail. They let the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children know and the DOJ began investigating. They reported that he had been receiving child pornography since 2004.
Rory A. Koch was a Republican staffer in the Minnesota House of Representatives. In 2010, he was running for Ramsey County Board when he was arrested and charged with twelve counts of possessing child pornography. He received 25% of the vote. The child-porn investigation was not public knowledge.
The Minnesota Crimes Against Children Task Force were tipped off that someone with the screen name Chadwhite73 was likely disseminating child exploitation materials. AOL identified the account as belonging to Rory Koch and his home was searched. He acknowledged receiving it but claimed he could not delete it. There were 68 images on his computer.
Koch was convicted and sentenced to five years.