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4/15 superpacMike Snyder, a locally famous ex-anchorman for Dallas-Fort Worth’s NBC station, was running media strategy. Janeé Hill, a motivational speaker, handled outreach.
Randy Hill, Janeé’s husband, was hired to be the PAC’s executive director. Along with his business acumen – Hill once said his peanut transport system moved 80 percent of the nation’s crop – he was well connected. Then-Gov. Rick Perry had appointed him to the state’s emerging technologies committee.
Hill’s father had been Wal-Mart’s chief ethics officer, and was invited to join the PAC’s board. Gary Hill found the PAC’s patron to be “very eccentric.” When they first met, he recalled in an interview, Ken Davis told him the nametag on his sport coat was on the wrong side, ripped it off and fixed it onto the other side. But he joined the board anyway.
Patrick Davis, the group’s senior consultant, had the most political experience among the hires. He served as the political director for the National Republican Senatorial Committee during the 2004 cycle and had helped run dozens of local, state and national campaigns.
Through his lawyer, Davis said he was attracted to the Fort Worth group because the national debt had long been an interest of his. And his style appealed to the oilman. He would often kick off conference calls by leading a prayer, asking for the Lord’s guidance in being responsible stewards of their patron’s money.
But very quickly, fissures appeared.
In his July memo to the board, Randy Hill alleged irregularities in Patrick Davis’ reimbursement requests. He wasn’t turning in receipts, Hill wrote, and some expenses didn’t track, such as a bill for an Iowa hotel stay that had been prepaid and a bill for a plane ticket even though Davis had driven to his destination.
Hill also questioned whether events organized by Davis were all they claimed to be. At an Iowa phone bank, Hill said, a caller admitted they were just “pretending to make phone calls” for the benefit of the campaign’s video cameras.
Hill was particularly concerned about Patrick Davis’ associate. She was combative with the rest of the staff and acting erratically, he said, so he began looking into her past.
Her name was Italia Federici. A decade earlier, Federici figured in the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal, which contributed to the resignation of House Majority Leader Tom Delay and led to the criminal convictions of 21 people, including a House member who admitted taking bribes.
Federici was accused of using her position as head of a conservative environmental advocacy group to serve as intermediary between Abramoff and her friend, Deputy Interior Secretary Steven Griles. Abramoff funneled $500,000 to her group, offered her box seats to NFL games and paid for her meals and parties at his D.C. restaurant. In return, she allegedly exploited her romantic relationship with Griles to get Abramoff inside information and to lobby for his tribal clients.
When she testified before the Senate Indian Affairs committee, North Dakota Democratic Sen. Byron Dorgan accused her of being involved in “one of the most disgusting tales of greed and avarice” and mocked her denial of a quid pro quo: ”I come from a really small town, but I think I can spot a pretty big lie from time to time.”
Federici pleaded guilty in 2007 to tax evasion and obstructing a Senate investigation. She was given probation for her crimes and moved back to Colorado, where she’d lived before Washington.
There, her problems continued. The IRS accused her of being delinquent on more than $250,000, which her lawyer said was the result of a penalty assessed against her in connection with the Abramoff scandal. Her Boulder landlord told ProPublica she kicked her out for not paying several months of rent. “She doesn’t have clear boundaries between truth and fiction,” said the landlord, Diane Dvorin.
Through her attorney, Federici said she was truthful and moved out promptly after not being able to make rent.
In 2012, Federici and Patrick Davis met while working to promote Newt Gingrich’s presidential campaign in Colorado. Davis had moved to Colorado and set up his own consulting firm after finishing his stint at the Republican senatorial committee.
Davis’ work was at times controversial after he left Washington. In 2008 he led a nonprofit that backed the presidential campaign of former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee. It was blasted by other conservatives for allegedly making robo-calls to voters in multiple states that masqueraded as polls and suggested that a rival candidate, Sen. John McCain, “voted to use unborn babies in medical research.” The group was widely denounced, including by Huckabee’s campaign.
While he was working for Vote2ReduceDebt, Davis was also running the campaign of Annette Bosworth, a South Dakota physician making a bid for the Senate. Bosworth, who got 6 percent of the vote in the Republican primary last year, faces trial on a dozen felony counts of perjury and filing false statements in connection with allegedly forged names on nominating petitions.
Before Davis was running Bosworth’s campaign, records show he got paid a consulting fee by a PAC that boosted one of her opponents, a fact Bosworth’s attorney said was never disclosed to her.
Through his attorney, Davis said the relationship was disclosed, and that the calls on behalf of Huckabee were not push polls, but rather educational calls. The attorney said Davis had no knowledge of the alleged crimes committed by Bosworth.
In his July 2014 memo, Randy Hill asked for Davis and Federici to be fired.
The next day, Patrick Davis wrote a memo of his own to the board. In it, he alleged that after a June 5 Vote2ReduceDebt rally, as they drove to the Midland, Texas airport, Hill told him about a secret plan.
At the time, Hill was in talks with television executives to create a reality show about his quest to start a NASCAR racing team. He already had a website billing himself as “The Entrepreneur… Chasing the Dream,” encouraging visitors to follow along as he recruited a driver, sponsors and a spot on the racing circuit. He told colleagues this would be good publicity for the PAC – he’d emblazon his racecars with the Vote2ReduceDebt logo and take them on tour.
But Patrick Davis alleged that Hill took it a step further in their conversation. In order to start filming, Hill said, he needed to get a team together, and that required money he didn’t have. Hill missed his first deadline with NBC, and though he was granted an extension, time was running out.
By Davis’ account, Hill offered him a trade of sorts. He would make Patrick Davis “a character in his reality TV show.” And Patrick Davis would help Hill get $4 million out of the PAC: half a million for PAC promotions, and the rest going toward racing expenses including drivers and pit crews. Ken Davis, recently hospitalized, would be told the money was going towards legitimate get-out-the-vote operations.
In his memo, Patrick Davis wrote that he would never go along with such a scheme because it would have “required lying to Mr. Ken Davis which was something I was not going to do.”
The board and Ken Davis had to decide whom to believe. Patrick Davis warned the leadership that if they sided with Hill, they would risk future disaster. “In other cases where I’ve occasionally been ignored, clients have really created problems for themselves,” he wrote.
For her part, Federici began pressuring Snyder, who was in charge of media strategy, and the PAC’s attorney, Chris Gober, who was looking into the allegations. One evening in July, she sent Gober a barrage of text messages. She demanded he turn over video from a PAC event she believed would play in their favor. He emailed the texts the same evening to Ken Davis.
“SECURE THE EVIDENCE YOU’VE BEEN NOTIFIED FOR A MONTH EXISTS,” Federici texted in all caps, according to the email. “If you think I’m cowed in any way, think again. I will ferociously expose you and anyone else I feel is complicit in destroying documentation about the fleecing (of) this family.”
“Screw with this PAC at your peril…Who do you think you are?… If you want to sue me/us… Do it! Otherwise, do your fucking job and stop being Mike Snyder’s bitch.”
“WTF. I could care less about your Harvard ‘creds,’” she continued, even though the attorney said he didn’t respond. “Do. Your. Job. We asked for docs and recorded material weeks ago. How impotent are you? Or is it criminal. Your choice.”
In an interview, Hill said the reality TV show scam was a figment of Patrick Davis’ imagination, one that Davis fabricated to distract from his own fraud. He said the board decided to side with him, voting to fire Davis and Federici.
But he said he was called into Ken Davis’ office and berated.
“Nobody fires anybody until I tell ‘em to,” the oilman said, according to Hill.
That afternoon, Hill said, Patrick Davis flew in and met privately with Ken Davis. The next day Hill was fired.
Patrick Davis remained and his influence grew. According to records and interviews, he pushed for multiple six-figure payments to organizations run by him or his close associates.
He convinced the PAC to hire a Virginia company called ccAdvertising for calls to voters, at a price of about $230,000, records show. Davis’ attorney, Cleta Mitchell, said that Davis has a “long term business and personal relationship” with the company’s owner. Mitchell declined to respond to questions about whether Davis received personal benefit from the contract.
At least three of the outside companies Davis recommended to Vote2ReduceDebt were run by one of his business associates, Joel Arends, an attorney and political operative based in South Dakota. Davis and Arends have known each other for two decades through various Republican campaigns. Most recently, they had worked together on the South Dakota primary in which their candidate got indicted and blamed Arends for the allegedly falsified filings.Italia Federici testifies during a Senate committee hearing on lobbying by Indian tribes in Nov. 2005. (AP Photo/Yuri Gripas)Hill said that one proposal from Patrick Davis involved a cross-country bus tour using a company linked to Arends that was so obscure it didn’t have a website. On another occasion, Davis pushed for the PAC’s printing services to be handled by Arends. Davis said through his lawyer that he felt Arends would be faster and cheaper than other options.
Vote2ReduceDebt didn’t go with Patrick Davis’ suggestions on either of those jobs, but did heed his advice when choosing who to hire for a $200,000 contract to produce voter rallies. Davis again picked Arends, who ran a company called Red State Productions. Davis’s lawyer said in a statement that Red State “is a skilled political campaign services provider with years of experience and excellent results over many campaigns.”While Arends had worked with campaigns in the past, Red State’s website, which displays photos of big political rallies featuring Republican stars such as Rep. Michelle Bachmann and Newt Gingrich, was created a couple of days before Red State pitched the $200,000 deal to Vote2ReduceDebt, domain registration records show. The company was incorporated in South Dakota a few days after the pitch.
Red State’s events, according to the website, “are widely attended, photographed and reported.” A search of online databases turned up no previous record of payments to Red State Productions by a candidate or political committee. The D.C. number for the company has since been disconnected. The address listed on its website is for a service on Washington’s K Street lobbying corridor that provides mail drops and temporary office space.
Vote2ReduceDebt staffers were not pleased with Red State’s work, according to a lawsuit the super PAC filed in December to get the money back. One of the firm’s main responsibilities was promoting rallies and getting people there. But most of the people who attended their rallies, the PAC alleged, were paid Vote2ReduceDebt staffers, with one rally only drawing seven outsiders.
Arends’ attorney did not respond to questions from ProPublica. His company has sued Vote2ReduceDebt for terminating the contract, and harming its reputation with future clients.
CLETA Mitchell, Davis’ attorney, said the events Red State organized were “very successful,” including one attended by more than 250 people and others that drew volunteers, elected officials and local activists.
Arends and Patrick Davis “are not in business together,” said Mitchell. Asked if Davis received a personal benefit from the work the PAC gave to Arends, Mitchell said: “If there were any business arrangements with any vendors, those arrangements would have been (and were) fully disclosed.”
Another move by Patrick Davis raised questions among some PAC colleagues. He secured payments of about $410,000 from Vote2ReduceDebt – roughly a seventh of the total funds raised by the super PAC - to another PAC, one he and Federici had created in 2013.
Until the payment from Vote2ReduceDebt, their PAC, called Person to Person, had almost no contributions or activities. According to an invoice, other internal records and a person with knowledge of the transactions, the money was paid in expectation of a service: Person to Person would recruit 320 volunteers for door-knocking and phone work in Vote2ReduceDebt’s eight target states.
But Patrick Davis reported the money to the FEC as a contribution, not a fee for service. According to Noble, the former FEC attorney who reviewed the filings for ProPublica, that distinction allowed Person to Person to do whatever it wanted with the money and pay no taxes on it.
Person to Person quickly began spending its windfall. According to federal disclosure records compiled by the OpenSecrets website, more than $115,000 has gone to Red State Productions and Patrick Davis’ consulting company.
In October, Vote2ReduceDebt parted ways with Davis. By then, records show, the super PAC had paid more than $875,000 – almost a third of its total spending – to companies and organizations owned or operated by Davis and Federici or their associates.
Both declined to be interviewed by ProPublica. In a recent interview with a conservative commentator for the Daily Caller, they said they are preparing the Person to Person PAC for the 2016 cycle. The host asked Patrick Davis if he believes that some conservative groups exist not to affect elections but to bilk donors.
“There is a problem, but Person to Person PAC is not participating in the problem,” Davis said.
Federici directed listeners to the group’s website, where they could log on and donate.
Mitchell, Patrick Davis’s lawyer, denied that Davis and Federici falsified reimbursement requests, faked phone banking events or were dishonest with Vote2ReduceDebt staff.
In fact, Mitchell described Federici as a whistleblower who took on dishonest employees within the PAC. She described one instance in which a PAC state director with a suspended license was secretly using one of the group’s employees as a chauffeur for five weeks.
“One lesson Tali learned from the experience of being dragged into the Abramoff mess was to be very cautious and to ask questions,” Mitchell said. “That was in large part what led her to blow the whistle… before a problem was created and funds were misused.”
Mitchell said Patrick Davis still does not understand why Vote2ReduceDebt terminated his consulting contract. “Had Person to Person PAC been allowed to complete the deployment project,” she said, it would have “met and exceeded” its promised volunteer numbers. Mitchell said Patrick Davis was correct in reporting the money as a contribution, and it was Vote2ReduceDebt that reported the payment incorrectly.
The breakdown of his super PAC has left Ken Davis with some ambivalence about entering election politics.
In a brief interview, he declined to discuss the allegations that he had been duped. He did acknowledge that he may have been in over his head and that he’s not sure the group had the impact he desired.
“I’m convinced there’s a lot of people that jumped into politics with the idea that they’re gonna make a change in the world and they’ve found out it ain’t that easy,” Davis said. “Just because you think it’s needed doesn’t mean you can make it happen.”
Help us investigate: Have a tip about campaign finance? Email robert.faturechi@propublica.org.---mojo may 2012Veterans for a Strong America <a target="blank" href="http://www.youtube.com/user/v4sa" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-decoration: none; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">describes itself</a> "a grassroots action organization committed to ensuring that America remains a strong nation by advancing liberty, safeguarding freedom and opposing tyranny." Founded in 2010, the <a href="http://www.veteransforastrongamerica.org/our-causes/" target="blank" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-decoration: none; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">ostensibly nonpartisan</a> group kept a low profile until earlier this week, when it posted a splashy online ad that uses statements from President Barack Obama to suggest that the commander-in-chief boasted about his role in killing Osama bin Laden, dishonoring America's military in the process."Heroes don't politicize their acts of valor," the ad declares amid shots of American soldiers and quotes criticizing Obama's "shameless" and "despicable" attempt to claim credit for bin Laden's death. Not all of those quotes are in context: The video flashes "Obama Spikes the bin Laden Football," a headline from a post in whichMother Jones' Kevin Drum wrote that the bin Laden raid proved Obama's "leadership." <div class="print-content" style="line-height: 1.8em; font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><div id="node-174486" class="node node-type-html node-type-article-full"><div class="node-inner clear-block"><div class="content clear-block"><div class="field field-type-text field-field-short-body"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item odd">Karl Rove <a href="https://twitter.com/#!/karlrove/status/198133691212496899" target="blank">praised the ad on Twitter</a> [3], calling it "powerful," and it rapidly burned up the right-wing blogs. "The swift boating of Obama has begun," <a href="http://www.theatlanticwire.com/politics/2012/05/swift-boating-obama-has-begun/51811/" target="blank">The Atlantic announced</a> [4]. "One thing that's clear from this advertisement, if more current and former SEALs decided to come out of the woodwork in opposition to Obama, it could do real damage to him."Joel Arends, Veterans for a Strong America's founder, chairman, and sole staffer, tells me he's proud of his organization's viral video, even if it's characterized as swift boating. "Yes, it's the swift boating of the president, in the sense of using what's perceived to be his greatest strength and making it his greatest weakness."
It's impossible to know how many of America's 22 million veterans are actually represented by VFSA's political activities. "We don't pretend to speak for all veterans," Arends says. There is no doubt that Arends, a decorated <a target="blank" href="http://ourmilitaryheroes.defense.gov/profiles/arendsJ.html" style="line-height: 1.8em;">Iraq War vet</a> [6] and longtime Army Reserve and National Guard member, cares deeply about his comrades in arms. But there's little evidence that VFSA is more than a dark-money group with connections to the Republican Party, the tea party group Americans for Prosperity, and Islamophobic activists.The 2004 Swift Boat Veterans for Truth campaign featured some ex-sailors (though none had been shipmates of Sen. John Kerry), but for now the VFSA does not have any actual Navy SEALs speaking on its behalf. Arend says he's working on recruiting disgruntled current and recent commandos. "I've been in touch with a number of Navy SEALs and special operators. There is discontent, I believe, among them about Obama's excessive celebration," he says. "We're gonna be rolling some of those folks out soon."</div></div></div><div class="field field-type-text field-field-article-text"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item odd">Arends got his start in politics as a South Dakota Bush-Cheney field director in 2000. He's currently the Republican party head in Lincoln County, South Dakota. Though he doesn't list it <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/in/joelarends" target="blank">on his public résumé</a> [7], around 2006 Arends went to work for Craig Dewey, the state director of Americans for Prosperity, an advocacy outfit that's astroturfed everything from <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2012/01/americans-for-prosperity-paying-tea-partiers-collect-voters-personal-info" target="blank">the tea party</a> [8] and the <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2011/07/koch-americans-prosperity-wisconsin-recall" target="blank">Wisconsin union fight</a> [9] to <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2011/08/koch-brothers-school-segregation-americans-prosperity" target="blank">public school segregation</a> [10]. (AFP's nonprofit 501(c)3 wing is<a href="http://www.kochfacts.com/kf/americans-for-prosperity/" target="blank">chaired by David Koch</a> [11], who founded the Americans for Prosperity Foundation with his brother Charles.)
After leaving AFP, Arends and Dewey went into business starting "grassroots" issue groups whose names tended to overstate their reach. There was <a target="blank" href="http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=106542726045280" style="line-height: 1.8em;">Combat Veterans for Congress</a> [12], a Sarah Palin-endorsed PAC that pushed "fiscally conservative" vets to run for office; the <a target="blank" href="http://www.alliancealert.org/2009/11/10/sd-coalition-for-cures-not-cloning-forms-to-fight-possible-ballot-vote/" style="line-height: 1.8em;">Coalition for Cures Not Cloning</a> [13], set up to combat stem-cell research; and Children Need Parents, a group that succeeded in altering the South Dakota's mom-friendly divorce and custody laws. They also oversaw efforts to roll back EPA regulations, punish businesses that dealt with Iran, and <a target="blank" href="http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2011/02/sd-rep-who-authored-abortion-bill-nixes-sharia-ban" style="line-height: 1.8em;">ban Shariah law in South Dakota</a> [14]. "Our strength is grassroots organizing," Arends explains. "I love bringing people together.""I was consulting with Americans for Prosperity on a state level, helping to connect them with key decision makers," Arends says. Craig Dewey initially denied this to me in a phone conversation. "Joel was never on paid staff at Americans for Prosperity," he said before conceding, "He was an adviser to me."In 2007, Arends became the executive director of Veterans for Freedom (VFF), whose members <a target="blank" href="http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2010/06/kagan-astroturf-military-attackers-gop-senate-supreme-court">fought Obama's Supreme Court nominations</a> [15], coordinated campaigns for right-wing candidates <a target="blank" href="http://www.postonpolitics.com/2010/12/rep-elect-allen-west-taps-beltway-insider-for-chief-of-staff/">like Florida Rep. Allen West</a> [16], and freaked out about the prospect of <a target="blank" href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/james-boyce/can-i-ask-a-dumb-question_1_b_27090.html">Islamic law</a> [17] being implemented in America. Arends' job <a target="blank" href="http://beknowdonow.blogspot.com/2007/08/vets-for-freedom.html">included</a> [18] recruiting vets and flying them, expenses-paid, to Washington, DC, to attend events like the <a target="blank" href="http://thisainthell.us/blog/?p=1472">"Vets Take the Hill" rally</a> [19] with Republican members of Congress and Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) in April 2008.As an "independent" nonprofit, VFF <a target="blank" href="http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2006/06/are-vets-freedom-pr-ploy">tried to downplay</a> [20] its ties to the Bush-Cheney and <a target="blank" href="http://www.salon.com/2008/08/08/embeds/singleton/">McCain-Palin</a> [21] campaign teams. It also <a target="blank" href="http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2010/06/kagan-astroturf-military-attackers-gop-senate-supreme-court">had ties to the Donatelli Group</a> [15], the conservative fundraisers who'd seeded Swift Boat Veterans for Truth in 2004. Arends and most of VFF's leadership have since moved on to lucrative or influential positions in the conservative establishment. "Everybody left VFF happy," he says.
That's a more level-headed analysis than Arends has offered in the past. After VFSA hosted a forum for Newt Gingrich in Florida early in the primary season, Arends <a target="blank" href="http://education-curriculum-reform-government-schools.org/w/2012/03/veterans-group-opposes-cair-schools/" style="line-height: 1.8em;">unloaded to a conservative journalist</a> [25]about how "Islamic Jihadists are infiltrating public schools and the military with their evil message" through the Council on American-Islamic Relations. He continued:More recently, Arends been struggling to roll back what he's called <a target="blank" href="http://my.twonky.com/video?vid=258164032">"the ever-present threat</a> [22], the emerging threat, of sharia doctrine in the United States." He has worked closely with prominent Islamophobe Frank Gaffney, as well as the lesser-known groups <a target="blank" href="http://www.marysproject.com/component/content/article/57-frontpage/243-video.html">Mary's Project</a> [23] and <a target="blank" href="http://theunitedwest.org/">the United West</a> [24]. "The president certainly has reached his hand out to the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt," Arends tells me. "Vets who have been to Iraq and Afghanistan have seen the effects and consequences of what Shariah law allows."<blockquote>I've seen what radical Islam does, I've seen those car bombs…you know what? There are groups like CAIR today who are working to kind of, with this creeping Shariah here in America, who are working to plant the seeds of the Shariah code and Shariah law that finds itself manifested in the Middle East…They're not going to assault us in the streets like they do in Iraq and Afghanistan. But what they are gonna do is they're going to try to infiltrate into our schools, try to get in front of young, impressionable children, and in our public school systems, you're gonna find a welcome audience. You're gonna find some administrators out there, these politically correct teachers and administrators who love to bring these kinds of organizations into the classroom because they think they're being politically correct.</blockquote>Who's funding Vets for a Strong America, and how does it spend its money? There's no way to know. The group is registered as a <a href="http://motherjones.com/politics/2008/02/meet-new-mudslingers" target="blank">501(c)4</a> [26]—a "social welfare" group that can engage in political activities without disclosing its donors. So far, VFSA hasn't released any financial information, and Arends is coy about his group's backers. "We know we have supporters out there," he says. "People like what we're saying, and we're going to continue on, being very vocal with that message."</div></div></div></div></div></div></div><hr class="print-hr" style="height: 1px; border-style: solid; border-color: gray; font-family: 'Times New Roman';" /><div class="print-source_url" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Source URL: <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/05/swift-boat-obama-bin-laden-video">http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/05/swift-boat-obama-bin-laden-video</a></div></div><div></div><div>https://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/lookup2.php?strID=C00521302</div><div>rick berg</div><div>romney</div><div>
</div><div>VETERANS FOR A STRONG AMERICA ACTION GROUP  Location: SIOUX FALLS, SD 57101 Industry: <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/industry.php?txt=Q01&cycle=2014" style="color: rgb(62, 114, 181); text-decoration: none; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Republican/Conservative</a> Treasurer: ARENDS, JOEL MR.  FEC Committee ID: C00521302 (Look up <a href="http://docquery.fec.gov/cgi-bin/fecimg/?C00521302" target="blank" style="color: rgb(62, 114, 181); text-decoration: none; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">actual documents filed</a> at the FEC)</div><div>
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font-size: 14px;" /></li></ul></div></div></div><div class="f slp" style="color: rgb(128, 128, 128);"><a class="fl" href="http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:-uyIyGnFteUJ:www.veteransforastrongamerica.org/tag/joel-arends/+&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px; font-size: 14px;">Joel Arends, Chairman of Veterans for a Strong America appeared with Dana Loesch on The Blaze TV, to discuss VSA's lawsuit against the State Department ...</a></div></div></div></li><li class="g" style="line-height: 1.2; margin: 0px 0px 23px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; list-style: none; font-size: small; font-family: arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="rc" data-hveid="40" style="position: relative;"><h3 class="r" style="font-size: 18px; font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; overflow: hidden; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/veteransforastrongamerica" style="color: rgb(102, 0, 153); 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color: rgb(51, 51, 51); cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px; font-size: 14px;" /></li></ul></div></div></div><div class="f slp" style="color: rgb(128, 128, 128);"><a class="fl" href="https://www.google.com/search?espv=2&biw=1600&bih=775&q=related:https://www.facebook.com/veteransforastrongamerica+joel+arends+veterans+for+a+strong+america&tbo=1&sa=X&ei=ZTc1VY3kDMiMoQS6_oDIBQ&ved=0CC0QHzAC" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px; font-size: 14px;">We intend to hold our government and Hillary Clinton accountable for their actions, or rather lack thereof. - Joel Arends Chairman, Veterans for a Strong America.</a></div></div></div></li><li class="g" style="line-height: 1.2; margin: 0px 0px 23px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; list-style: none; font-size: small; font-family: arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="rc" data-hveid="46" style="position: relative;"><h3 class="r" style="font-size: 18px; font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; overflow: hidden; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/joelarends" style="color: rgb(102, 0, 153); cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">Joel Arends | LinkedIn</a></h3><div class="s" style="max-width: 42em; color: rgb(84, 84, 84); line-height: 18px;"><div class="f kv _SWb" style="color: rgb(128, 128, 128); height: 17px; line-height: 16px; white-space: nowrap;"><cite class="Rm" style="color: rgb(0, 102, 33); font-style: normal; font-size: 14px;">https://www.linkedin.com/in/joelarends</cite></div><div class="f slp" style="color: rgb(128, 128, 128);">Washington D.C. Metro Area - ‎Chairman at Veterans for a Strong America</div>View Joel Arends's professional profile on LinkedIn. LinkedIn is the ... Veterans for a Strong America,; Arends Law, P.C.,; United States Army Reserve. Previous.</div></div></li><li class="g" style="line-height: 1.2; margin: 0px 0px 23px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; list-style: none; font-size: small; font-family: arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="rc" data-hveid="49" style="position: relative;"><h3 class="r" style="font-size: 18px; font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; overflow: hidden; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/lookup2.php?strID=C00521302" style="color: rgb(102, 0, 153); cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">Veterans for a Strong America Summary | OpenSecrets</a></h3><div class="s" style="max-width: 42em; color: rgb(84, 84, 84); line-height: 18px;"><div class="f kv SWb" style="color: rgb(128, 128, 128); height: 17px; line-height: 16px; white-space: nowrap;"><cite class="Rm" style="color: rgb(0, 102, 33); font-style: normal; font-size: 14px;">https://www.opensecrets.org/.../lookup2.ph...</cite><div class="action-menu ab_ctl" style="display: inline; position: relative; margin: 0px 3px; vertical-align: middle; -webkit-user-select: none;"><a class="Fmb ab_button" href="https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#" id="am-b4" aria-label="Result details" aria-expanded="false" aria-haspopup="true" role="button" jsaction="ab.tdd;keydown:ab.hbke;keypress:ab.mskpe" data-ved="0CDMQ7B0wBA" style="border-radius: 0px; cursor: default; font-size: 11px; font-weight: bold; height: 12px; line-height: 27px; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center; -webkit-transition: none; transition: none; -webkit-user-select: none; border: 0px; color: rgb(128, 128, 128); box-shadow: 0px 0px 0px 0px; filter: none; width: 13px; text-decoration: none; display: inline-block; background-image: none;"><span class="mn-dwn-arw" style="border-color: rgb(0, 102, 33) transparent; border-style: solid; border-width: 4px 4px 0px; width: 0px; height: 0px; margin-left: 3px; top: 8.5px; margin-top: -4px; position: absolute; left: 0px;" /></a><div class="action-menu-panel ab_dropdown" role="menu" tabindex="-1" jsaction="keydown:ab.hdke;mouseover:ab.hdhne;mouseout:ab.hdhue" data-ved="0CDQQqR8wBA" style="border: 1px solid rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2); font-size: 13px; padding: 0px; position: absolute; right: auto; top: 12px; z-index: 3; -webkit-transition: opacity 0.218s; transition: opacity 0.218s; -webkit-box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2) 0px 2px 4px; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2) 0px 2px 4px; left: 0px; visibility: hidden; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;"><ul style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px;"><li class="action-menu-item ab_dropdownitem" role="menuitem" style="line-height: 1.2; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; list-style: none; -webkit-user-select: none; cursor: pointer;"><a class="fl" href="http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:5mTS0nlMTA4J:https://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/lookup2.php%3FstrID%3DC00521302+&cd=5&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px; font-size: 14px;" /></li></ul></div></div><div class="crc" style="display: inline-block; position: relative; margin-left: 4px;"><div class="crl" data-async-context="res:4;ri:;site:opensecrets.org" data-async-trigger="cra-4-filled" jsaction="crd.tglpop" data-ved="0CDYQ5CswBA" style="color: rgb(119, 119, 119); cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; font-size: 14px;"><a class="fl" href="http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:5mTS0nlMTA4J:https://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/lookup2.php%3FstrID%3DC00521302+&cd=5&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px; font-size: 14px;">Center for Responsive Politics<span class="Bs" style="border-style: solid; border-width: 4px 4px 0px; width: 0px; height: 0px; top: 8.5px; position: absolute; margin-left: 6px; margin-top: -3px; border-color: rgb(170, 170, 170) transparent !important;" /></a></div></div></div><div class="f slp" style="color: rgb(128, 128, 128);"><a class="fl" href="http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:5mTS0nlMTA4J:https://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/lookup2.php%3FstrID%3DC00521302+&cd=5&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px; font-size: 14px;">VETERANS FOR A STRONG AMERICA ACTION GROUP Location: SIOUX FALLS, SD 57101. Industry: Republican/Conservative Treasurer: ARENDS, JOEL  ...</a></div></div></div></li><li class="g" style="line-height: 1.2; margin: 0px 0px 23px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; list-style: none; font-size: small; font-family: arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="rc" data-hveid="55" style="position: relative;"><h3 class="r" style="font-size: 18px; font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; overflow: hidden; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="http://thinkprogress.org/security/2012/05/06/478820/obama-swift-boat-veterans-for-a-strong-america/" style="color: rgb(102, 0, 153); cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">Veterans for A Strong America: The Group Trying To Swift ...</a></h3><div class="s" style="max-width: 42em; color: rgb(84, 84, 84); line-height: 18px;"><div class="f kv SWb" style="color: rgb(128, 128, 128); height: 17px; line-height: 16px; white-space: nowrap;"><cite class="Rm" style="color: rgb(0, 102, 33); 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color: rgb(51, 51, 51); cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px; font-size: 14px;">May 6, 2012 - Joel Arends, Director of the Veterans for a Strong America ... The group's leader and sole employee, Joel Arends, told Mother Jones, “Yes,  ...</a></div></div></div></li><li class="g" style="line-height: 1.2; margin: 0px 0px 23px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; list-style: none; font-size: small; font-family: arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="rc" data-hveid="63" style="position: relative;"><h3 class="r" style="font-size: 18px; font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; overflow: hidden; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/05/swift-boat-obama-bin-laden-video" style="color: rgb(102, 0, 153); cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">Meet the Astroturfer Planning to Swift Boat Obama | Mother ...</a></h3><div class="s" style="max-width: 42em; color: rgb(84, 84, 84); 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color: rgb(51, 51, 51); cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px; font-size: 14px;">Joel Arends, Chairman of Veterans for a Strong America, discussing their lawsuit against the State Department seeking Hillary Clinton's emails and phone calls.</a></div></div></div></li><li class="g" style="line-height: 1.2; margin: 0px 0px 23px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; list-style: none; font-size: small; font-family: arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="rc" data-hveid="76" style="position: relative;"><h3 class="r" style="font-size: 18px; font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; overflow: hidden; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="http://dailycaller.com/2015/03/05/veterans-group-to-sue-state-department-over-clinton-benghazi-emails-and-phone-logs/" style="color: rgb(102, 0, 153); cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">Veterans Group To Sue State Department | The Daily Caller</a></h3><div class="s" style="max-width: 42em; 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cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px; font-size: 14px;" /></li></ul></div></div></div><div class="f slp" style="color: rgb(128, 128, 128);"><a class="fl" href="http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:g5L2_vaHe0MJ:www.washingtonexaminer.com/vets-group-to-sue-state-department-for-ignoring-clinton-email-telephone-log-foia/article/2561066+&cd=10&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px; font-size: 14px;">Mar 4, 2015 - A veterans group that filed a Freedom of Information Act request for former ... Joel Arends, chairman of Veterans for a Strong America, said his ...</a></div></div></div></li></div><div><a class="fl" href="http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:g5L2_vaHe0MJ:www.washingtonexaminer.com/vets-group-to-sue-state-department-for-ignoring-clinton-email-telephone-log-foia/article/2561066+&cd=10&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us" style="text-decoration: none; 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