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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:
Michelle is not too bright. Marries a gay man who says he can convert gays. Cheats and still comes in dead last. WHAT A LOSER!!!
She is a dumb, dirty, lying, cheating, bitch, that should be in prison.
your talking about hillary like this will get your welfare check revoked
libsdestroyusa, your comment made me laugh, good funny stuff.
This foaming at the mouth tea bagging crazie,parasite tax sucking Useless human who used a FHA loan using crook
She will not be re elected like most of the American Taliban,in 2014 say good bye to this knt
All American tea Taliban govt parasites will be gone bye 2018
obama and rodham murder 6 patriots serving their country. obama wants to kill Americans without due process. but the left wing cool-aid drinking nuts worry about a non-story about Bachman??
Libs....And who did they murder? Havnt heard.
Wrong, it was W who killed 7x 1071 **
** Sept 11, 2001, Afghanistan, Iraq
Ill take Obama's 4 (not 7) over Bush's 7,500
1 Ambassador, an assistant, 2 Marines, They were under attack for 8 hours begging for help. obama and rodham went to bed. have your social worker read you the transcripts of the congressional hearings, because your mslsd network is in the pocket of obama and will not report the news. 2 Border agents. The failed fast and furious the the lib media will not report. i can't wait for the day when all you wackos wake up and wonder what the hell happened to the Country the you all are destroying
the building was engulfed in flames after 2 hours what crack did you smoke? 8 hours my ass.
Yeah that sounds like somebody that works up in higher government for sure.
Money for nothing thats our government. Its engrained for decades through-out
our government.
Libs
One word
Loser
Yeah obama is a loser
Yeah, that's why he LOST last November. Where is Mitt, the winner?
Who's the one who speaks in tongues; Bachmann or Palin?
I think they are both capable but only one has been that close to Satan...
Both are losers,who will go down in history as she males
Bachmman for US senate ,God made,Jesus approved.
you must be joking...
No, just ignorant, Tea Party material. They think the earth is nine thousand years old and the Bible the only document to govern the country.
Definition of lunacy.
We are speaking of a campaign with regards to data mining.....
This is a nat on your @ss.
The data mining going on at the federal government level is ASTRONOMICAL.
Not to leave out large corporations..
TO MUCH Power and mis-use of data....
And we want the feds to be trusted??
RIGHT - High tech PLAGUE - VIRUS.
The personal privacy of the individual(People) is of NO regard at the government level.
We are under cyper attack for a decade
Its been under attack for a decade and the FCC has done a poor job of insuring
that we the people our privacy(in insured) a puppet regime. In the pockets of government and corporations.
The tea Taliban are bible thumping extreemist,that need to be extinct from the earth
Bachmann in 2016,lol
you cannot be serious! If you want a dictator bachmann is it! I'd take the moron palin before I took bachmann to the presidency.
America's biggest losers,,the tea bagger a$$ holes
I would use them both as moving targets,down range with paint balls
Is this right wing mesianic christian lunatic still around?
What name calling, post sound like a bunch of 5th graders at recess. My republican can beat up your democrat ...oh yea my democrat is smarter than your republican .Grow up . Anyway Bachmann who? The only Bachman I know is Bachman Tuner Overdrive and they were on the top ten list but I don't think they ever stole anyone's list.. Great group .
Ok
That's a good neutral statement,but the baggers suck ass
I've said it before and I'll say it again; " I've got to stock up on popcorn and chips. I'll have to fill my frig with beer. I need to fluff up my easy chair. Watching the Grand Old Party self destruct from the inside and do a total melt down is going to be better than watching the Super Bowl." Just look at those comments. It's on it's way and thar ain't goin ta be no half time.
Just
Well that is it for them,they have obstructed themselves out of a job,,it's really time to vote them all out.
By 2020 I assume most of them will be
Currently there is so much corruiption surrounding Obama the media is digging any where they can to devert from the real stories.
Sure Doc its just the RWNJs that feel like the sky is falling on them and the world is ending because they cant beat Obama. In some way its all Obama's fault. But nice try to deflect from the CURRENT topic lol
Yup, you're right. Obama is surrounded by over half of the House and almost half of the Senate, They don't get any more stupid or corrupt than those morons.
Every one knows about the Supreme Court case that is finally going to look at the forged documents that Obama used for his idenity that starts in a couple of weeks oh thats right you would not see that on PMSNBC. But yes its true his stolen SS # to Ah the smell of impeachment Smells like VICTORY!
doc, are you still beating this dead horse? Get a life, pal.
LOL 5 years and you whackos are still on this topic. You all are complete losers and it explains why the GOP cant win elections. Rednecks like you give a bad name to republicans, Reagan and Lincoln are rolling over in their graves right now
No the Supreme Court is
Well get ready for ANOTHER loss since it seems your party cant get nothing right now a days
That smell you think you have, is just a bad cold.
statement released by Judge Scalia himself: "The formal judicial review of the president's birth certificature is to finally put to rest this idiotic idea that current president Barrack Hussein Obama forged his birth certificate and social security number. I can already tell you this review will take less than a week to complete, and though I cannot formally speak on verdicts yet to come, I highly doubt the highest court in the land will find anything suspicious as to the origins of President Obama. In my opinion, this is one of the greatest wastes of the Supreme Court's time since the Roe v. Wade trial."
You GOP pinheads are deluded.
Hey doc,
Get ready for Hillary
Hahahahahahahahahahaha
Well Pinetta probably put her in jail he confirmed she is a lying BITCH but at this point what difference does it make that four American brothers died right!
funny iraq didn't seem to bother you neo con's...what was the death 5 ,6
While the Wicked Witch has left the scene pieces of her straw broom have been left behind. Good luck Michelle, you'll need it.
It's so sickly amusing to think there are idiots out there who revere self-serving morons like bachmann and palin. If they every become the majority (think opposition to Roe/Wade) we will truly be living in an idiocracy.