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UPDATED: NOM Hands Over Donor List From Maine Campaign Against Same-Sex Marriage – Details

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NOM, having exhausted nearly all legal options, has finally filed its list of donors whose contributions helped the anti-gay group fight a 2009 same-sex marriage campaign in Maine.

In 2009 the Maine state legislature passed a bill allowing same-sex couples to marry, and it was signed into law. Christian conservatives were furious, just months earlier having won marriage bans in California (Prop 8) and Florida.

NOM, the National Organization For Marriage, was still relatively new, but the anti-gay group went into action and campaigned heavily for the law to be placed before the people of Maine. It was, and voters overturned the legislation even before it had gone into effect.

That campaign against same-sex marriage cost NOM over $2 million, but the organization, headed at the time by Maggie Gallagher, refused to obey Maine election laws by filing its list of donors. For years, NOM has battled the State of Maine, and each time, NOM has lost.

Finally, the Supreme Court of the State of Maine, after an ethics committee fined the group $50,000, ordered them several weeks ago to hand over their list of donors.

Late Friday, NOM finally obeyed the court’s order and filed the list.

What it reveals is stunning, but consistent with other revelations journalists have discovered about the formerly well-funded group.

A handful of donors contribute the vast, vast majority of NOM’s funds.

For the fight in Maine, only six donors are listed, totaling just over $2 million, according to the Maine Sun Journal. The list can be viewed here.

One donor, Sean Fieler, a New York City resident who is also the chairman of the Chiaroscuro Foundation, donated over half the group’s funds for the Maine fight: $1.25 million.

Other donors include the Knights of Columbus ($140,000), two out of state individuals who each gave $300,000, and only one Maine resident, who gave $50,000.

Fieler’s Chiaroscuro Foundation claims if offers “the poor healthcare and educational opportunities that they need to thrive. We offer the saving grace of Jesus to all while defending everyone’s unalienable right to exercise the religion of their own choosing.”

It does not mention marriage, but on its website it states Fieler is also the Chairman of the American Principles Project, which was co-founded by NOM co-founder Robert P. George. Fieler is also a member of the board of Witherspoon Institute, which funded and directed the anti-gay parenting “study” by Mark Regnerus, which NCRM and many others have thoroughly debunked. Fieler is also on the board of the very anti-gay Manhattan Institute, which calls for anarchy in the face of government supported civil rights, including same-sex marriage and abortion.

UPDATE I: 2:09 PM EDT –
“The crooks & liars at the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) got caught money laundering $2 million in the Maine gay marriage election,” Fred Karger, one of NOM’s greatest critics, told NCRM exclusively via an email conversation. “I am honored to have filed the original complaint against NOM nearly six years ago and traveled to Augusta four times to testify against NOM before the Maine Ethics Commission.”

“Kudos to Jonathan Wayne, its Executive Director, Assistant Attorney General Phyllis Gardiner and their offices for their six years of hard work beating NOM at every turn. Great to see NOM pay a record $50,500 fine and spend millions more in attorney’s fees. Today is a great day for truth and transparency in elections,” Karger, founder of the group Rights Equal Rights, adds.

 

This is a breaking news story and will be updated. 

 

Image: Screenshot via UStream/NOM

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News

Trump Appears to Think Jeb Bush Was President: ‘He Got Us Into the Middle East’

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14 hours ago

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September 25, 2023

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During a rally in South Carolina on Monday, Donald Trump appeared to confuse former Florida GOP Governor Jeb Bush with his brother, former President George W. Bush, while bragging to supporters how he beat him.

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“You know what he was…He got us into the Middle East,” Trump claimed, wrongly. “How did that work out?”

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The ex-president went on to continue denigrating Jeb Bush, accusing him of bringing his mother to campaign with him.

“Remember,” Trump said, “he brought his mother, his wonderful mother who’s 94 years old and it was pouring and they’re wheeling her around and it’s raining and horrible. I said, ‘Who would do that your mother, 94 years old. How desperate are you to win?”

Media Matters’ Craig Harrington, commenting on Trump’s latest gaffe, observed: “In the past two weeks, Donald Trump has:

– Warned that Joe Biden might start ‘World War 2’
– Confused his 2016 election opponent (Hillary Clinton) with former President Barack Obama
– Confused his 2016 primary opponent (Jeb Bush) with former President George W. Bush.”

Watch the video below or at this link.

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15 hours ago

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September 25, 2023

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The Fulton County Superior Court judge presiding over Georgia’s RICO, conspiracy, and election interference case against Donald Trump on Monday afternoon ordered the identities and images of all jurors and prospective jurors to remain secret, ordering they may only be referred to by a number.

“No person shall videotape, photograph, draw in a realistic or otherwise identifiable manner, or otherwise record images, statements, or conversations of jurors/prospective jurors in any manner” that would violate a Superior Court rule, Judge Scott McAfee ordered, “except that the jury foreperson’s announcement of the verdict or questions to the judge may be audio recorded.”

“Jurors or prospective jurors shall be identified by number only in court filings or in open court,” he added.

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Judge McAfee also ordered no juror’s or prospective juror’s identity, “including names, addresses, telephone numbers, or identifying employment information” may be revealed.

MSNBC’s Katie Phang posted the order, and added: “Another important part of the Order: no responses from juror questionnaires or notes about jury selection shall be disclosed, unless permitted by the Court.”

Judge McAfee’s order comes after Donald Trump’s weekend of attacks on his former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley. Trump strongly suggested he should be executed for treason. Trump also strongly suggested he would target Comcast, NBC News, and MSNBC if he wins the 2024 presidential election.

Responding to the news, MSNBC’s Medhi Hasan observed, “We have just normalized the fact that the former president, and GOP presidential frontrunner, is basically a mob boss.”

 

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‘Isn’t Glock a Good Gun?’ Trump Asks Before Saying He Is Buying One – Campaign Forced to Deny He Did

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16 hours ago

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September 25, 2023

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During a photo shoot at a South Carolina gun shop, Donald Trump posed with and then said he wanted to buy a Glock, asking if it is “a good gun.”

Some say it might be illegal to sell a gun to anyone under criminal indictment, and if he took the gun with him that too might be illegal. It was not clear if, despite saying he would, he actually bought the firearm. The Trump campaign initially said he had, although later backtracked on its claim, and deleted the social media post saying he had.

In the photo op (video below,) Trump posed with several people, including the Republican Attorney General of South Carolina, Alan Wilson, who has held that elected position since 2011.

“Trump’s spokesman announced that Trump bought a Glock today in South Carolina. He even posted video,” wrote former Chicago Tribune editor Mark Jacob. “If Trump took the gun with him, that’s a federal crime since he’s under indictment. There’s also a law against selling a gun to someone under federal indictment like Trump.”

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Reuters’ crime and justice reporter Brad Heath posted the federal laws that might apply, as well as Trump’s campaign spokesperson’s clip of the ex-president’s remarks, and his spokesperson saying, “President Trump purchases a @GLOCKInc in South Carolina!”

CNN analyst Stephen Gutowski, who writes about gun policy, added, “It would be a crime for him to actually buy this gun because he’s under felony indictment. Did he actually go through with this purchase?”

“People under felony indictments can’t ‘receive’ new firearms. That also means you can’t buy them,” he also wrote.

MSNBC anchor and legal contributor Katie Phang wrote, “I don’t know if he actually bought the gun. At least it didn’t happen in this video. Also, the Attorney General of South Carolina is in this video. Is he watching Trump commit a crime?”

But some pointed to a federal judge in Texas’ ruling from last year. Reuters reported, a “federal law prohibiting people under felony indictment from buying firearms is unconstitutional.”

Watch the video below or at this link.

 

 

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