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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:
This is sheer, 100%, grade A BULL!! Obama is elected (not once but twice) without ever proving he was born in the United States of America and the entire "buddy-boy-system" wants to worry about whether Michelle Bachmann, who could have always done a better job than Barrack and his wife-of-the-fat-butt, combined.
Not only that, Bachmann does more, before breakfast, than Obama has done in four years, in the White House!!
You sad little loser. Please, get a life. Even if it involves a unicorn and a call girl!
http://youtu.be/tdbt-sx5MDc
Damn you, your post made me barf up my burrito!
And it stinks almost as bad as the GOP/TEA/Dumb FUX News party!!!
Funny how Trump presented the same exact "short form"version to sue Maher that he swore was not legit from Obama.
By the way if you bothered to read or click the link a republican publication broke this story.
If we just stop talking about Bachman, she'll go away and the nightmare will finally be over.
Marcus tried to "Pray her sane", but gave up and got his nails done.
Michell's husband when she is away from home on business trips
http://youtu.be/tdbt-sx5MDc
Yes this lady is terrible she dislikes killing of babies, way out of touch with the liberal created whores. Only children that can be used for political gains are to be loved. That is if they are killed by a another liberal love Prozac. Yes hand out Prozac and wait for murder brilliant liberals. Next lets ban spoons fat people are helpless. If only idiot liberal ladies could just abort fat babies. Al Gores oops I meant big oil cable network brainwashed me to think this way.
oh i cant wait to rape your wife..then we will be related..you can call me the baby'sdaddy..and i can call you..Conservative man
Thats right my sperm will die out darn it
will either way it was gods plan huh
Amazing how incoherent the dumb FUX NEWS fans sound these days. No wonder people like Bachman, Palin, Beck, Huckabee, Hannity, etc. seem like brilliant leaders one should agree with...
yes remember that girl from California..18 years later children by the raper...must of been God's plan..
Maybe Bachmann should start a new Coffee Party.
How did I know when I clicked comments I would see a bunch of deflecting. The same people who cry about every little thing about Obama. Now that the shoe is on the other foot it is somehow Obama's fault. Or better yet well Obama did this that or the other thing. What does that have to do with this if Obama did or did not do something else it does not change this one bit. Do you let off a person who kills somebody because someone else across town killed 2??? Wrong is wrong,
I know it is tough to accept but this is what politicians do anymore. Not just democrats, or just republicans, ALL of them. They just got you foolish sheep so busy fuming about the other side, so they can try to hide their bs.
Now that's a post I can relate to.
Another extremist on the right judging everyone else but not herself. The republicans vote for her just because she is pretty. Never mind the fact that she is a consummate liar that damages the credibility of this country.
Eww really? I would not hit that if i could use someone else's to do it.
Thank you Andrew. You really shed a lot of light on a long standing debate. You've answered a puzzling question: Just how dumb can you get with only a brainwashed public education? Like Obama says, the sky is the limit. Congratulations.
the Governor of California..and the Governor MB..
http://youtu.be/xnBk4MPNtoQ
This just happen ........this is not old news I hope..........................I'm glad to see that the "tolerant left" don't resort to name calling or character assassination to get their point across......
This just happen ........this is not old news I hope..........................I'm glad to see that the "tolerant left" don't resort to name calling or character assassination to get their point across......
Really? You did not even read it, the whole point is you read before you comment.
If you click the link they posted it first on the 7th. They hid that all the way in the second paragraph.
She is terrible because she accused innocent people of being associated with terror groups. People in her own party turned on her for that one. Ruining peoples lives for politcal gain makes her a terrible person and a dangerous one.
You can see it in her eyes she snapped a long time ago.
This just happen ........this is not old news I hope..........................I'm glad to see that the "tolerant left" don't resort to name calling or character assassination to get their point across......
RICK!!!! I am a REpubblikin lik you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!THE Left is nawt tawlerent!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hussane O. kan tern my babyz gay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hussane O. uzez HIS MUslm brane raiz to tern us GAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
One more time in English please.
President Obama uses his Muslim brain rays to turn us gay!*
*This will be soon proven by either Bachmann or Trump.
Some say woman overall are smarter than men. To disprove this theory just put Bachmann side by side with Palin.
BACHMAN kan pray away THE GAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!That makes hir so SMART!!!!!!!?!!!!!;!!!!!!!!!
http://youtu.be/8lD4FdqkS70
I was always under the impression that Rep. Buchmann as a bit of narcissistic homophobic, but this cements that she is a criminal should these charges be proven in a court of law. I would certainly hope that the Speaker of the House will/would call for her resignation from House, at some point. Or she will in all likely hood be either expelled or taken out in hand cuffs. Either way, she ca NOT escape the punishment that she deserves. BTW, it seems that some of us can not resist their over whelming desire to continue on bringing Pres. Obama into every topic. Mr. Obama had absolutely NOTHING to do with "Whack-o" Buchmann's actions. This she screwed up all on her own.
Politicians never get punished for anything they do, not gonna change now. I dunno if its the money, or that there are so many willing to follow them all blindly just because they thing a certain politician is on "their side".
quit bringing up obama your just as bad as oreily or hanity for doing so-get a life
so another crooked republican, this time a women all the same
They need more pretty women for those reality prison shows.
Though her husband may enjoy prison more then she would pass tha soap please
maybe so, her and sarah would be nice
INVESTIGATING????? REALLY????? How about YOU and all the other msm investigate YOUR president and his cronies murdering Americans at Bengazi, drones. How about his failed presidency, ignorance of how many states are in the USA and the constitution that gives us rights as citizens. I could go on but, you know, YOU SUCK!
Superfluous punctuation is inversely proportional to intellect.
LOL plenty of people believe Bush let 9/11 happen so he can go after Sadam for putting a bounty on his daddy's head. But thats as much of a load of BS as your post is.
do low lifes as you really exist? what does our president have to do with this, hate to tell you this but the klan is dead and gone
Did you bother to read or did you quit before the second paragraph? A republican publication broke this story. But even if all you say is true how does that in anyway effect this? Wrong is wrong, stop being a sheep, all politicians are crooked. They got you in such a fury pointing at the other side so they can float their own bs.
there are 57 U.S. territories, so obama is not entirely incorrect. Virgin islands, guam, puerto rico, D.C., and others. Just get a clue he was actually correct and simply considered them all states and of equal value.
More backstabbing, and he said she said, political in fighting and muck slinging. It feeds the haters and trolls who live on this like the sewer bacteria that live on human waste. They inject it straight and unstrained into their reptilian veins. Come troll display your hateful green bile below.
why is it the gop finally get a few women and they turn out bad? why? they are hurting bad enough guess they still believe in a thurmond copin a feel thats what they think of women really, a sex object not worthy of the men
The main stream media will not tell you anything negative about Obama and their worried about a list of non-schooled children??? GIVE ME A BREAK!
More superfluous punctuation. It's "they're" and "mainstream" and why are you screaming?
what does obama have to do with this tata? are you so dim witted you must blame him for anything-get a life!
Wow a little uninformed a republican publication broke this story. If you had read it instead of seeing bachman in the title and immediately coming down here to deflect to Obama. You would have found out it is hidden all the way in the second paragraph.
And regardless of what you think Obama did that does not write her a pass. Would you be ok if when something Obama did came up, they said "oh well Bachman did this other thing wrong too" Of course not, wake up and smell the coffee. politicians are crooked, republican and democrat alike.
Bachmann is a parasite. Taxes paid by producers have made her wealthy and she has introduced nearly no legislation that passes. In other words, she gets money for nothing.
hey shes exciting doesnt follow the norm and is worth watching-face it shes the best the tea party has and what it's all about
She's McCarthy with a vagina, but married to a gay guy rather than best buds with a gay guy.
plus a romney who doesnt work and gets rich off the stock market whats the difference at least she shows up when called to, a romney doesnt
holly no one knows who mc carthy is anymore even before my day are you like 80 years old or more?
She doesn't show up to serve. She shows up to attract attention. She's akin to a Kardashian.
she still shows up thats a plus
She is total bat @!$%# I like the way conservatives thinks it ok to point fingers til it comes back at them. How about a conservative elect president that got thousand young man and women killed are wounded in a war base off of nothing but lies and not go to jail for it. Are how about burying this nation in a cesspool just short of a depression but yet you have the nerve to cry about a president that is putting this nation back on it feet. Guess you just can't fix stupid
You can always fix stupid. Simply kill it and set an example for those who CAN be changed.
You are stupid if you think the a$$hole in the White House is fixing the Country, he's a murdering racist who wants to destroy the USA. read his book or get your social worker to read it to you
libsdestroy=Klansman
I've read obama's book cover to cover twice. He's far from racist. If anything he's an intellectual elitist who stresses people should have respect for their roots and not take it for granted and take part in culutral elitism or complacency. He's far from a racist.
but rick you know cuttin taxes for the top to zero and ending all entitlements such as social security and nedicare will fix everything dont you?
She is a plus alright b. Despite being a dipicable human being she is a plus in corporate biatchis.