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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.
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More distraction tactics as Jesse Jr. and the latest Benghazi Hearing has been very uncomfortable for this adminstration. Panetta's testimony was revealing of the failure to act by the Benghazi Bungler in Chief with Jesse Jr. another example of his Chicago style politics. Melendez is about to be raked over the coals for his naughty escapade in the Dominincan Republic.
liberalism: moochers electing looters to steal from producers
@philly....I am not a politician, nor do I run for public office....WTF are you talking about?? ....odd
I'm not surprised, this woman tops the republican list of fruit cakes, I can't wait to see the list of incompetent republicans running in 2016. Duhhhhhhh
The Republicans have already started to comprise there list, there Saviour is going to be Rubio, I cant stop laughing. Rubio is one of the biggest criminals in the Republican party, if you do not believe me, GOOGLE, Rubio scandals, it is not only hilarious, but it is criminal. It is only a matter of time that he gets the same treatment as Jesse Jr. Both are criminals. There are approximately ten pages of different scandals that Rubio is involved in.
By the next election, demo's will be glad to get a Republican in.
VLGiL - I guess your sleeping pill is still effecting your brain, sleep it off.
philly, you have been on ignore for months.
vlgil..yeah you tea nuts seem to ignore smart people
Yet you still comment, go figure.
I know it's hard to accept that your President is a failure and it will only get worse. Unemployment went up to 7.9%, GDP is at minus and it doesn't get up to 5%, we will get worse every year. By Jan. of next year over 7 million people will lost their health care, others will be taxed and some will have to pay a lot.
Yeah right, that's why President Obama won two terms, the right wing lies and scare mode didn't work out to well. I wouldn't get in to the failures of a president, republicans don't like it if you mention Dubya they get amnesia.
Who??
The republicans and democrats both suffer from whacked out extremists who have more influence than they should because the average American is content to sit on their behind on election day as long as they have money in their pocket. Bachmann on the other hand represents one of the more dangerous forms of corrupt extremism, the very kind of thing that motivates people like Al do whatever it takes to win because it's all in the name of GOD and country right? Al did a bit too much meth back in the day.
It's strange Minnesota keeps on electing this retarded woman to congress, it must be the intelligent factor. I hope everyone has a fine day, I'm going to church to thank the lord for Obama, considering the alternatives.
Dan. Either the People in Minnesota are stupid or smart. They probably keep electing her so that she spends most of her time out of the state. They probably also hope that she will get caught up in one of her Criminal acts and be put away for a while. Maybe the people in Minnesota are smarter than we think.
Now who would dare to suggest that any republican would steal or cheat, this is the party of family value and morals, Bachmann queen of the tea party steal, cheat, mislead or misquote NEVER, NO NEVER!
The cat in the hat and MB
http://youtu.be/SwXLvn2sd6I
Excuse me, kev. president question mark is getting to be
funto watch. Actually more like a excruciatingly ridiculous fool, with his circumvention of the constitution regarding drone strikes against American citizens, without due process of law. How is that snow keeping your koolaid cold? well good, there's some more fun 4ward ya...one who flew over the Koo Koo's nest..i seen this before
LOL...I have never seen so many right wing whiners in my life. They just can't handle the fact that the GOP is imploding and they don't know what to do. So they just do what they always do...Lash out at anyone different than them or try and misdirect the conversations to "other" things. This is why the right wing is going over the cliff of irrelevance.
Bali Bob
I really do not care at this point where he was born bob. However since were on the subject of lineage Barack is partially of Egyptian bloodlines and blood is thicker than water Mr. bali bob so hence Given his actions and propensity for acting like a dictatorial ruler rather than a elected representative, President question mark will lie, cheat and steal Americas soul for many Years even after his reign as supreme ruler till he is entombed in a sarcophagus?
Also, Barack Hussein Obama Jr. in reality is of higher percentage Caucasoid than Negroid "just the facts mam" which in today's world really makes discernible difference only to those who hold a bigoted inference against people of racial backgrounds differing from their own. Personally myself I prefer to feel we all are red on the inside, and it's what is in the soul and mind rather than the pigment of skin tone that matters. But that's just me being human. be human people Bob Marley asked "Could You Be Loved?"
Gooday?
BTW It's "Just the facts Ma'am.". " Barack is partially of Egyptian bloodlines" lol and I'm sure you can provide a link to this information? No?
Once again this is called misdirection. Don't talk about what their GOP leaders are doing just throw a bunch of Bull@!$%# out and hope something sticks to the wall. Pathetic.
Ok, so somehow long ago their campaign includes the names of a bunch of home schooling families in its spam fund raising emails... just like every other political candidate in the free world. Then some low level campaign dolt in Iowa gets called on the carpet and told its not legal to target a non profit. She gets canned, and the campaign agrees to pay back a couple of thousand dollars (such huge money) to the non profit to set the thing straight and move on. Then they all start getting mad at each other playing the blame game on the inside like a few rotten little children, its the Iowa campaign people for one of 20 primary candidates. One says the head guy "kept watch" while another stole this "list" right off the desk of the person they were talking to because, hey, she wouldn't notice that the list she was trying to illegally sell them was missing off the top of her desk...and they are going to do this and risk everything to raise a thousand dollars. So, now more than a year later, after the courts and campaign officials had all ruled it was a dead and non issue.... here comes the woman who "alleges" that all this happened because she is broke (go read) and wants to make a quick buck. So, she writes this fine affidavit riddled with poor grammar, broken lines of thought and time lines, and not even edited for spelling so she can get in the news and on NBC and the talk show circuit. But of course, when this guy who she is pointing the finger at decided he just had to tell her he committed a crime... and being the perfect upstanding person she said "No, I do not want to hear about it".... he chased her around the party telling her anyway because he.... just had to do it. And then, not only that.... the candidate was running around telling everyone she bumped into how wonderful it was that they had committed the $1000 campaign crime because she just couldn't hold it in either. And now, here comes the civil court case for dollars... and the judge has to allow it.... so now all this "alleged" and "assumptive" behavior is out their for NBC to take their shot at another Republican. A thousand dollars.... really?
@convinientliesyoublieve,
Baraka may be half caucasian but leans mostly Arab with very little African and uses ebonics when advantageous. A chameleon at heart and a non stop marathon politician.
And President of the United States of America. You forgot that one Tad. ; )
GFI would you rather they NOT report this crime?
MJ... go read some factual information from almost a year and a half ago... was investigated fully.... money was more than returned.... no crime. Done with. This goof lady is broke and in bankruptcy... she is going after civil court to try and get a pay day for herself..... Read....
The most extremist power any political leader can assert is the power to target his own citizens for execution without any charges or due process, far from any battlefield. The Obama administration has not only asserted exactly that power in theory, but has exercised it in practice. In September 2011, it killed US citizen Anwar Awlaki in a drone strike in Yemen, along with US citizen Samir Khan, and then, in circumstances that are still unexplained, two weeks later killed Awlaki's 16-year-old American son Abdulrahman with a separate drone strike in Yemen. Bad boys? yes probably, deserving execution under US law? We will never know, due to the fact, due process was circumvented by the executive department.
Right or wrong in out come, certainly UN-constitutional at the very least? YES.
I'm concerned about the President's use of drones too, Lies, this might be the only thing we have ever sort of agreed on. You are aware that the Democrats in congress are coming down much harder on the President on this than the Republicans are? Yup, attacking their own President over principles, morals, something non-existent in the republican party.
Oh, yes, your fantasies of Obama incompetency is the real story and Backmann' STEALING a contact list is just diversionary tactics.
You RepubliCons are such dirt, such scumbags.
ELTigre....do you really believe that all republicans are "dirt, such scumbags"? I'm curious...how would you describe all democrats?
Those crazy republicans, risking everything to steal a list of a couple hundred names so they can illegally target those people for a thousand dollars of contributions. And right off the top of the desk of the lady trying to sell them the list while she went to the bathroom.... And then run around making sure to tell everyone what they did! Maybe they should have just paid the $20 and a couple ears of corn up front. You Obama / NBC nuts, sometimes you are just too funny in your cognitive reasoning.
Hey, how come not one NBC article about the Obama "latino" favorite Democratic Senator who was using all YOUR tax money to fly around the world having sex with little kiddies? Seems like that would be a great story.... but no, the $1000 two year old Iowa primary name list flap that was investigated over a year ago and settled until some broke woman writes an "affidavit" herself and goes on the talk show circuit to make a few bucks... that is much more relevant.
Bachmann= Inbred, Cornfed, Brain dead.
I still can't believe that Bachmann is still in office ! And still looking for support from the ghost of Joe McCarty and his commie hunting staff !
Ya'all seem to be very narrow-minded...You seem to believe either: Dems good-GOP bad or GOP good, Dems bad. I don't see that neither of them are worth a damn. Yet you fools keep voting them into office and then you whine that nothing ever changes. What a bunch of Bozos.
Hey - I didn't vote Bachmann into office. You need to seek out some retarded Minnesotans to discuss that with.
Roy, what would the alternative be? Not voting?
Hey Roy from WA
"I don't see that neither of them are worth a damn." ??
gosh, we may be Bozos, but at least we can write English with correct grammer. Geez, my guess is you can only speak one language, at least you could learn to speak it (or at least write it) correctly.
Surprised? Not - Bachmann is a hypocrite; she never held a job that was not funded by the taxpayers yet she screams about taxpayer monies being misspent. Her gay husband takes medicare and medicaid dollars but she screams against those two programs. And now that self-righteous ultra religious woman breaks one of the 10 commandments by stealing and feels no remorse. True family values. And no I am not a liberal, I am an independent that is liberal on social issues and conservative on financial issues but I am quickly getting turned off by the stupid people in the GOP.
GOP 2016 ticket:
Palin for President
Bachmann as the VP
Its a real winner and they both demonstrate and talk the Tea Party line, insane speech based on their thinking and no real study or research. They have all the answers in their mind that will fix all the problems of the world.
I'm sorry was that for POTUS or MILF porn??
"No Wire hangers" Bachmann reminds me of the Crazy Lady down the street my mother always warned us kids about. When any kid in the neighborhood walked past her house, she would scream at them from her second story window and start throwing teaspoons at them. After the kids ran away she would send her niece down to the street to get the teaspoons. She must have had a bucket of them inside her window.
Bachmann is just your typical beach that thinks she is above the law. All she is, is a teabag hag. Actually not a bit different from a republican hag. All worthless. I say vote them all out of politics in 2014 and 2016. We can definately do better...
Here we go agin, an article about this crazy cretin Bachmann, and check out the repub fringe, all they can talk about is Obama (and Al Franken)! And, they are saying the same thing over and over and over again. Perseveration (look it up, repubs) is a sign of brain injury, guys. I know, if your uncomfortable with the subject, change it, and, the mainstay of the conservative, if you say things often enough, loud enough, and with enough vitriol, they become true (at least to FOX watchers).
BG,
A big difference. Bachman is an incompetent that is not the POTUS. Obama is an incompetent, irresponsible community oraganizer that somehow convinced the low informed, non accountable voter (LINAV) to put him in office. In short, Bachman makes for good comedy fodder while Obama has done irreperable real damage to this country. With the latest drone assassination memo coming out, the US position in the world has plunged even lower.
Such a shame
Truth Conveyer:
yes, the US position isn't nearly as good as it was under shrub, I'll give you that. He rallied the entire world behind us, what with the manufactured war in Iraq that has cost 100,000 of innocent lives, and several trillion dollars, his give away to the rich, costing this country several trillion more.
Fact is, Obama is so much better of a president than your little double digit IQ daddy's boy, that there simply is no comparison. The stock market has doubled, unemployement is down over 25%, we are all but out of Iraq, we are respected by the world again (by the way, I spend a great deal of my time in other countries, when is the last time you spent any significant time abroad to actually know what the world perspective is?). That would be World perspective, not FOX perspective (believe it or not, the world does not end with FOX news). But, hey, I don't want to confuse a "truth conveyer" with the facts.
BG, BG, poor BG.
Typical of a LINAV making assumptions of ones politcial leanings, travels and whether I supported a long time ago POTUS. Only in your world can you justify state sponsored assassination as a good thing. I gotta tell you, it blows the mind that Gitmo is still open under this administration.
If you think we are better off now than during the Bush adminstration years, than so be it. However, I think deep down and you are honest with yourself, then you know better. Seriously. Drone assassintations and you are ok with that? Wow!
The biggest threat to this country is our mounting debt which Obama has contributed more than all of the previous POTUS's combined. And somehow you think he has done a good job? Unemployment is still through the roof and you think he has done a good job? You do live in LINAV land for sure. LOLOLOLOL.
I appreciate you beleiving I get my news from FOX. That being said, say hello to Maddow and ODonnel for me.
Best Regards,
A Person Smarter Than You
Truth
Actually, again, sorry to confuse you with the facts, but:
A: it was only 4+ years ago, not all that long, really
B: Your absolutely wrong that "Obama has contributed more than all of the previous POTUS's combined" Where the hell are you getting your facts? Oh wait, I know, FAUX news. the fact is, Shrub's contribution to the national debt as a percentage of what he started with is over 100,000X greater than Obamas. He started with a surplus, and left us with over 11T in debt, Obama has increased that to 16T, less than a 60% increase (most of which were by actually instituting Bush's policies), do the math (someone as smart as you can do percentages, can't you?)
C: I am ashamed of the drone program, are you ashamed of Iraq? Gitmo? Tax cuts for the only people who didn't need them? Sponsered terrorism? Erosion of our privacy unseen in generations? Creating a new name for people (enemy combatant) to circumvent the Geneva Convention? Embarrasing us in the entire international eyes.
By the way, you never answered my question, how much time have you actually spent outside of the US? How could you possibly know how we are viewed by the world? If you did, you would know that, without exception, we are seen in a better light now than under Duh-bu.
BG,
The Blame Bush and Cheney thing is so juvenile. It speaks to the incompetent leadership of Obama in that all he seems to do is blame others for the problems. Yet, he has chosen not to lead the country in fixing the problems. In fact, he has divided this country perhaps beyond repair. He is the master of the politics of envy. I cannot comprehend why people like you get so up in arms about rich people. They pay for most of the services the rest of us recieved from the government and for some reason they are demonized. Makes zero sense.
Sorry that you refuse to hold Obama accountable for the debt debacle that led to the US first ever downgrade by the S&P, but those are the facts. I have nothing against the guy personally. But when one objectively looks at his performance, he has been poor at best and a complete failure at worst.
BTW, my job is international in scope and I can assure you that I have a worldly view of our position.
LINAV's simply overlook the facts. Geez....