Thread by @jenvanlaar

🧵 Here we go. Memo sent by Christine Toretti, Chair of the RNC's Standing Budget Committee, to the 168 members of the RNC regarding my story. It's inaccurate and defamatory and I wasn't going to share it but since others who aren't in the 168 have shared parts of it, I am going to defend myself. First, they never sent me FEC filings, and they didn't try to "reason" with me. They tried to bully and gaslight me and have me chasing squirrels to distract from publishing - to buy time. It worked for about, ah, 12 hours, until I satisfied myself that they weren't acting in good faith. (P.S. there is some new info in this thread too)

1st, check out what’s completely missing from the RNC's rebuttal memo: GOTV texting! Wonder why. 🤔

And, since we’re talking about investing in activities that win elections, the DNC spent $883,333 on Canvassing during the time period. Nothing for RNC, though they will probably claim they did it through transfers to state parties. fec.gov/data/disbursem…

Interesting thing about transfers to state parties for particular purposes. They will be under that spending category, like when the DNC gives state parties $ for data services subscriptions or software. (You can look at a spreadsheet of all DNC expenses for the time period here - the 1st sheet is a pivot table) docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d…

But let's not forget the purpose of my piece. I 1st examined where RNC spent money THEN also compared to some categories of DNC spending. Why only some categories? As I researched and saw amounts that I thought were excessive I wanted to see how they lined up with DNC. Perhaps it was just industry standard. So when I saw big discrepancies in some categories, to me that was newsworthy.

Yes, there are comparisons, but that’s not the whole point. Republicans also need to look at the expenditures and see if they are something we want to spend $ on, REGARDLESS of what Democrats spend.

On the RNC side they subtracted out money from “management consulting” that they now say is data consulting AND some other random amounts that they haven't explained to me - yet accuse me of selectively including amounts as "Management Consulting." As I told them REPEATEDLY and as was LINKED IN MY ARTICLE the amount is EXACTLY what THEY reported to the FEC as "Management Consulting." It’s not what *I* decided to count there. Then they added ALL of the DNC’s consulting expenses IN TOTAL on the DNC side. Completely deceitful.
fec.gov/data/disbursem…

The RNC *now* says that DCP Data Consulting and Red Spark Strategy were actually providing data consulting. The RNC uses numerous categories of "consulting" in their FEC report, including "political strategy," but they included it there.

They also told me that Cairncross (COO of RNC under Reince Priebus) was helping w/RNC 2024 convention and debates, although they're ALREADY spending $550,000/yr in salary to people in charge of the convention.

They also say BMO Consulting, run by WinRed Treasurer Benjamin Ottenhoff, does compliance - but didn't say why that wasn't included in the $6M they paid for "Legal and Compliance Services."

Thinking of WinRed makes me think of fundraising and... did you know RNC paid over $6.4M in "List Acquisition" in this time period? fec.gov/data/disbursem…

Back to the consulting thing. They added $600,000 to "Media Booking Consultants" with no explanation of how they got that number. In addition, while I reported $116,341.27 for that category, the RNC spent a total of $817,224.40 for "Media Services/Consulting."

Also interesting - Haven Consulting received the amount listed JUST SINCE AUGUST. So, $15,000 a month. And the RNC refused to answer my question about who owns it. The $ goes to a very large home in an exclusive neighborhood in Rye, NY.

Flowers. They claim that I “missed” $17,000 in flowers that were some kind of joint expense with the Biden campaign. I did not - I wasn't counting joint expenses.
But, for sake of argument, if one WANTED to count those they should ALSO count the $44,415 to Bella Flora Design in TX for flowers for a fundraiser, which wasn't counted in my chart. So, you can make the flower total for the RNC $114,510 if that’s how they want to count it …

That Helen Olivia Flowers place in Alexandria sure has some nice arrangements.fec.gov/data/disbursem…

The RNC rebuttal memo adds $1,000,000 to their voter file maintenance total, claiming that the $ they paid Data Trust is for that. I'm sure some portion of it is but Data Trust does more than just that. And then you have to go back and look at the $2,258,315.76 the DNC transferred to state parties for "Data services subscription. And, if Data Trust does this for the RNC and all state parties, what's the point of the other $40,000 expenditure?? Bottom line is that on the pure voter file maintenance category, DNC spent a lot more. fec.gov/data/disbursem…

This is what they say about GOTV texting. Again, if they were, they're not outlined as GOTV texting as they should be in a transfer to a state party, so, who knows. Maybe the bookkeeping is just off, or maybe that is spin. This is still a problem.

Just putting this in there because I don't think this helps them the way they think it does. Anyone who works in an office or whose kid works in a place needing "work" clothes (i.e., "physical" work clothes) 🙋🏻‍♀️knows this. And why wouldn't staffers know who their operations staff people are?? Strange.

Limos. The RNC memo, I guess, includes the whole $61,800 amount the DNC paid for "transportation" as limos even though $30,000 of that is directly to Uber and Lyft 😅 and doesn't cite where they got the other $$. They also insinuate that the DNC hides their travel expenses in another FEC account. Well, here's the link to the expenditures in that account for the relevant time frame and... that's not what it says. At all. Per diems, advance logistics services, car rental - things RNC pays for other categories of their own report. Oh, and here's an "actual limousine" the RNC paid for.

If the RNC wants to be really transparent, they can release the itemized statements from their Savoya account for the time period. Then we can ALL see EXACTLY what was paid for.
fec.gov/data/disbursem…

I found it interesting that the DNC uses a total of 200 categories, making it easier to isolate various expenses, and the RNC uses 96. YMMV...

I might have missed a point or two but anything further will have to wait until I get back home. Heading out of Vegas now. For full transparency, here's the entire memo from the RNC. And please forgive any typos in this thread; y'all are smart enough to figure out what I'm saying.

🚨📷 AAAND I'm back!! Just about to go on
@DLoesch's show, but got BIG info from a tipster last night about "Jackson Consulting Group" in the RNC's Management Consulting category. I thought it was somewhat legit because the company website was all about feel-good executive coaching, etc. HOWEVER... The "Tinna Jackson" who runs it is none other than Earnestine Jackson, the former COO of the RNC! She buried that work on her LinkedIn by referencing it as "National Political Committee" and when you look at her job JUST PRIOR to that as being with "Equal Justice Works." AND it gets better. E. Tinna Jackson's last biweekly paycheck with the RNC was $8,584.09 on 4/13/23. Jackson Consulting Group's first payment from the RNC for consulting was on 4/21/23 for $20,183.65. Links for documentation in next tweet

Earnestine Jackson's pay data fec.gov/data/disbursem…

Jackson Consulting Group's pay data fec.gov/data/disbursem…

🚨 MORE frivolous RNC spending: Why was the RNC paying between $4-$5,000 a month for almost 3 years for a luxury apartment at the 10K/One Hill South complex near Navy Yard/Capitol Waterfront in DC? For whom?

Interestingly, RNC spent $100,000+ in "Catering/Food & Beverage" from its "fundraising" account at restaurants/bars/bakeries w/in a 1-mi radius of that building btwn 10/22 and 11/23. Nearly 600 transactions, averaging $185. But some transactions were just for an espresso... that's a 1.4 transaction/day average. How is that possible when they ALSO spent an additional $120,000 +in larger catering costs for fundraising in that time frame?? This Google map has each transaction counted in my calculation listed.

google.com/maps/d/viewer?…

And I found out that "strategic comms and crisis management" consulting firm Haven Strategies - run by 2 ABC News vets, one of whom was an intern in the Clinton White House, was paid $78K by the RNC btwn Aug and Nov 2023 to consult on the primary debates. fec.gov/data/disbursem…

I missed Daily Mail's report last year that the apartment was for Ronna - still I ask why?? She's paid an astronomical amount already and she's allegedly not in DC much. (which makes me wonder WHO the food & bev charges are for) She doesn't need a 2-br apartment paid for by donors.

I've heard some criticism from McDaniel's supporters that they believe I have some vendetta against Ronna. I do not. I'm sure she's a perfectly pleasant person. This isn't personal, and my motive isn't to hurt her. My motive is winning elections - and respecting the grassroots volunteers and small donors. I have been active in politics since joining a Republican Women's Federated club in Dunn, NC in 1998, have worked on underdog campaigns (and won a big one) and I'm currently a CAGOP delegate. I want to see how our resources are used. That's the motive.