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Charlie Neibergall / AP file
U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., speaks at a rally by home-school advocates in March 2011 at the Statehouse in Des Moines, Iowa.
Eight months after Michele Bachmann's 2012 presidential bid ground to a halt in Iowa, her campaign manager there signed a sworn affidavit, pointing his finger at another top staffer in a still-simmering dispute over the misuse of a contact list of home-school family names.
The Sept. 4 affidavit – first reported by the Iowa Republican and obtained Friday by NBC News – was written by Bachmann's Iowa adviser Eric Woolson, and accuses former State Sen. Kent Sorenson of stealing the list from another Bachmann staffer. Sorenson was the campaign’s state chairman at the time.
"We took it," Woolson says Sorenson told him.
The list was the at the center of a flap late in Bachmann's presidential run, when a powerful Iowa home-school network called “NICHE” complained that its collection of contacts for thousands of home-school families had been mined by the campaign and used to expand its fundraising.
At the time, the campaign called the emails a "mistake." The campaign agreed to pay NICHE, a 501c3 nonprofit, several thousand dollars in order to keep the group compliant with federal elections law.
But in his affidavit, Woolson says he approached Sorenson on the same day the fundraising emails were sent, and was told the list had been stolen.
"Kent smiled at me and said, 'Do you want to know how it happened?'" Woolson writes, adding:
I said, "No," and tried to back out of his office.
Kent said, "We took it." Kent said they weren't getting anything from Barb (Heki), so when she stepped out of the office they took it.
Kent said, "We stood watch."
Woolson appears to corroborate the account of the alleged victim, Barb Heki, who last summer filed a lawsuit against Bachmann and other high-ranking staff, including Sorenson and Woolson.
Heki, who was the campaign's Homeschool Coalitions Director and a NICHE member, says she was unjustly blamed for leaking the list and that she and her husband later lost their seats on the group's board. Heki alleged senior staff was aware of what Sorenson had done but allowed her reputation to suffer.
Sorenson has long denied taking the list, saying he helped negotiate the solution with NICHE.
"Nothing new here," he said over text message Friday. "Same story being recycled."
Sorenson later bolted Bachmann's campaign for the Ron Paul team – a high-profile defection that helped cripple her campaign days before the caucuses.
Lawyers for the Bachmann campaign have also disputed Heki's claims.
A court filing this summer called the case a “broad brush, shotgun approach” that “fails to inform Michele Bachmann… and the other named defendants (other than perhaps Kent Sorenson) what they did wrong.”
A Polk County Judge on Jan. 30 denied the defendants' motion to dismiss the suit.
In his affidavit, Woolson says Heki ultimately learned details of the alleged theft from Bachmann herself, during a staff party the day after Bachmann quit the presidential race.
"Barb approached me and said Michele Bachmann told her Kent Sorenson had taken the NICHE list and asked me if it was true," Woolson says. "I nodded yes."
Bachmann's campaign lawyer and congressional office did not immediately respond to a request for a comment.
Woolson's name was dropped from Heki's lawsuit sometime after he signed the affidavit. He declined to comment for this story.
Bachmann dropped out of the presidential race one day after finishing last among the candidates competing in the Jan. 3, 2012, caucuses.
Follow Jamie Novogrod on Twitter at @JamieNBCNews.
Leave a Comment:
where are you if you are standing in a line between behind a illinois governor and in front of a illinois governor ??? PRISON ...
that would be funny if it wern't true
call this whitewater or watergate? whoever said politics/politicians are honest, fair,open, and do not cheat at every opporunity?
So now that one of the Press created darlings, Jesse Jackson Jr., aka Charlatan Junior, gets a plea deal no regular American citizen would ever get, the Press looks for a Republican they can smear to take the heat off their guy. This is more reporting than the Press did on Obama campaign crimes in 5 years!
The hallmark of our Republic was a free Press to prevent the type of dictatorship the Press is now responsible for in turning a blind eye to Obama and his thugs. It is sadly ironic that the very thing that was supposed to protect our Union is now the instrument of its demise. What a surprise that Obama is now going after the Second Amendment, created precisely after the First to insure what is happening now would never happen. Abraham Lincoln must be so proud of what his state has produced! NOT!
having being forced to the peoples repub of illinois i can tell you this is the most corrupt dysfunctional state i have ever lived in. they are so proud of their crooks oops i mean politicians here.
Get over yourself/It is about time that you did.This P.O.T.U.S. of yours,yes he is yours as well as everyone Else's, has in spite of the most ridiculous obstruction, from your parties unpatriotic obstruction,has and is continuing to do a much better job,with better results than your lot have been unable to stop.You would undoubtedly be happier if he was unable to function ,but you do not appear to understand that if your group succeeded you as well as the rest of our nation would pay too large a price for that satisfaction of yours. This is too dangerous a time for race hatred. Don't bother trying to deny that this is your problem.It is too obvious that it is a fact.No one in their right mind would wish for our country to fail that your group so obviously do. Slavery is over. accept that fact.
Copy and Paste!!! Save to favorites!!!
Once again here we are watching the state run media trash a good conservative woman. Michelle Bachmann as with Sarah Palin will experience the full brunt of these hacks (who call themselves journalists) destroying her character at every turn. Where are the questions concerning Benghazi, Hagel, ammo purchased by government departments it goes on and on and on. This is not news, its propaganda!! Why do you think I call it the state run media. If anyone was alive and remembers the gobbly goop that used to come out of pravda and tass during the soviet regime you'd know. Absolutly no difference. Nobody will dare upset the dictator! Standard and Poors lowered our triple A rating last year and the dictator sends his justice department out to punish them. This is insanity! Wake up people....we're losing our republic!
What a crock of @!$%#!
this is the same state run propaganda site that blamed Sarah Palin when gabrielle gifford got shot
One. R.m./ I admit that some people exaggerated in blaming S. Palin part in the G.Gifford Shooting but as she did suggest it, she was fortunate to not be charged with the criminal suggestion.
Now if you could write a detailed account of the Benghazi attack like you have here for a non-important story and reveal the incompetence of the Obama adminstration....something important.....i forgot your part of the criminal empire.
Q54
Just more distraction by the left to keep real issues off the front burner. Nobody cares about Bachman's list.
How can people vote for her,oh well how can people vote for Obama ?Dumb on both sides.
At least you're fair.
it will be relevant when msnbc also run articles critical of democrats....are u even aware of how little credibility your venue has??????
"Little credibility" still suggests they have some and I would argue they have no credibility. None! Zero! Nada!
Msnbc has NEVER run an article critical of any Democrats! Never! They are a clone of Al Jazeera in America. They should have been shut down for preaching treason long ago. The posts on this blog show what happens when too much leftist propaganda is allowed to be broadcast to our young people. Jesse Jr. is as big a crro as his father. Yet protected by Leftist blogs like MSNBC.
Concerned. Why do you bother coming to this site if you disagree with it so vehemently?
ah ... as badly as jon corzine screwed america and jon edwards screwed elizabeth heck might as well throw in clinton raping juanita broaddrick , jennifer flowers and the infamous "I DID NOT HAVE SEXUAL RELATIONS WITH THAT FAT INTERN THAT HAD MY KUM STAIN ON HER DRESS"
This woman should not be allowed to work in a dog pound. She is crazy stupid and not fit for representing the American people.
and the sheeple that voted dumbo into office are smart ?
Wow, to bad the press does not go rabid about all the crap Obama has pulled.
The Benghazi Failure in Chief takes all awards for total incompetence and hiding behind Hillarys' skirt.
To Roy Wilson,
I do recall Ms. Bachman denying she was a witch, I don't recall Obama ever having to deny he is/was a wizard. This woman is more delusional than Palin and that is almost hard to believe....even Fox could not deal with these stupid women. I can't for the life of me, figure out how they were elected for anything.
lizzy brooks....read occasionally..you have the wrong woman (denying shes a witch)
Snakes: every last one of 'em.
BTW, every home-schooling parent I have ever know has been either a religious/political crackpot (usually on the far right) or someone who is at pains to cover for his child's inability to follow rules and get along with others (usually on the far left).
This is starting to get interesting, lets air out the dirty under wear and see who has the most skid marks....................
@ reb:
"You don't think that Obama's dereliction of his duty as the sitting president is just a tad more significant??"
Well I guess if Bush got scot-free for starting an illegal war, condoning serious human rights abuses, trampling on civil liberties and just generally being an all-out douche, we should at least extend the same courtesy to Obama, right? Or is this yet another example of "Repubs can do no wrong"?
Bachmann's picture makes me remember what an idiotic freak she is. She is without doubt, the most deranged, clueless, irrelevant dumbass, sitting in Congress. A perfect example of the republican line up of idiots that simply will not go away. If you want to change your image, get rid of these simpleton tea party scum once and for all. Their presence in the GOP is what has totally eradicated the party's credibility. My God! This is a party whose main spokesmen are an obese radio hack, Karl Rove(who isn't even in the govt) and a TV news channel that deals primarily as an unsubstantiated rumor mill aka Faux News. It is truly a laughing stock of clowns
Hey REB, you can say all you want about the president. Your delusional disrespect for him, and racist remarks!! A huge majority of Americans voted for him, so get used to it, and the rest of you freaking teabaggers.
Mark my word, 2014 is going to finish the job, and I just hope Carl Roves plan to do away with these extremists fails, because all that means is the destruction of the Republican Party.
You know it and I know it!!!
People like that idiot Bachmann and the rest of them will destroy and vanquish a party that once stood for something, and yes I USED TO BE A REPUBLICAN!!!
I strongly recommend for all sane and practical people here to quit arguing with these idiots that spat out remarks about the president or Democrats that does not make any sense. All they are doing is expressing their hatred for losing!!!
Wow, this article is about Michelle Bachmann, not Obama, so many SOUR folks out there who can't seem to stick to the topic.
Funny thing is that I have managed to read the news stories about Jackson, Corzine, and Menendez right here on these vines. So I don't get how that news is being suppressed or overlooked. The news about Bachmann isn't that she had these lists, it is that the lists were stolen and used in an inappropriate manner by her hired staff.
I find it interesting that whenever there is a story that casts a member of the GOP in a bad light, the right wing immediately begins screaming about the "unreported" offenses of Dems, when those offenses have been reported. If one were cynical, one might think that this is an attempt to divert attention from the illegal activities of their own politicians.
There are plenty of criminals on both sides of the aisle. What is encouraging is that they do seem to get caught. What is less encouraging is that they are rarely punished, Jackson and Weiner being a few of the more obvious exceptions.
I think it is positively bizarre that either right or left somehow seem to believe that screaming about the criminal acts of the opposition somehow makes the criminal acts of their own side less significant. Corruption, criminal behavior, or incompetence should be greeted with intolerance and punishment regardless of party affiliation. Accusing people of wrongdoing without evidence or criminal charges should be greeted with equal intolerance, as it is nothing more than political slander.
That's right Ralph 1933264- I used to be a Republican too when the party was respectable.
How does it feel to be the front for everything based on lies, NBC? Your network, as well as MSN, your illegitimate offspring, are the laughing stock of the communications world.
What does it say about you that you keep coming back to MSN if you think they are such a laughing stock of the communications world? Seems like I recently read that NBC is still the most popular news in the country. Could it be you are just a wind bag looking for a fight?
Bachmann: sleaze in a Sunday School dress.
Go away bimbo! Go live in alaska w your bimbo buddy sarah.
The Democrats have been trying to get her since she got into office. She must really scare them for them to target her so much. As far as running against Franken anyone would be better than him. All of us in Fl. would like to thank Mn. for that corrupt voter fraud. By the time they got done with the last count they had more votes than registered voters. I guess it is just like Oh. and you can vote as many times as you like. The main reason the dems do not like Bachman is they are afraid she might get enough votes to take away the gov. check and the welfare from them.
Probably not. Hell, she couldn't even get enough votes from Republicans to stay in the primary race. Michelle is hardly a national threat to anyone except perhaps the Tea Party. She and Rand Paul have done a lot to damage its credibility ~ and that is difficult to do since it had so very little to begin with.