Category: News

Despite the ongoing controversy, NCGOP Chairman Hasan Harnett continues to work for ALL the Republicans of North Carolina.  On Monday he traveled to Raleigh to do just that.

At the Legislative Office Building

Visiting the nice young ladies at the information desk.

Sharing a smile with Linda P. Johnson (R), District 83, Cabarrus

Discussing politics with Lee Teague, Executive Director of NC Public Charter Schools Association

And, as much as we might wish it wasn’t so, the current controversy undeniably remains an item of Party business.  Chairman Harnett visited WRAL for an interview with Laura Leslie, Capitol Bureau Chief.

From The Daily Haymaker:
Remember that crowd at NCGOP HQ belly-aching about chairman Hasan Harnett taking party business public?  Well, that same crew that has been beating on Harnett about THAT has issued yet another press release.   The drivebys this morning are painting it as “new” allegations.  But, after perusing it, it appears to me to be simply the SoS.  Judge for yourself: 

[…] The North Carolina Republican Party (NCGOP) today released new details on a planned website attack that would have resulted in NCGOP party funds being diverted into non-Party accounts controlled by Chairman Harnett. These results include sworn testimony implicating the elected volunteer Chairman of the State Republican Party.

The Party commended and thanked the eastern North Carolina computer professional who blew the whistle on apparent unethical and potentially illegal behavior by NCGOP Chairman Hasan Harnett.

According to sworn statements, multiple interviews, text messages and phone records obtained by the NCGOP, Mr. Harnett took initial steps to damage and crash the NCGOP’s 2016 State Convention website and replace it with a new website.

Additionally, the sworn testimony indicated the new website would have altered convention prices set by the Central Committee to prices the Chairman wanted. The most concerning revelation from the sworn testimony showed the new website would have collected funds outside of the Party’s controls. The scheme, if fully implemented, would violate a wide range of state, federal and elections laws. […]

Okay, we’ve BEEN getting this from you.  Is there any evidence or substantiation yet — from something more credible than Dallas Woodhouse-engineered leaks?  I have people bringing me stuff all the time alleging criminal misconduct against THIS or THAT person.  I always tell people — if you HAVE evidence of a crime, take it to law enforcement.  MORE: 

Dr. Ken Robol of Greenville, North Carolina contacted a fellow Republican asking for assistance in making contact with the NCGOP, after Robol’s offer to help access the administrative functions of NCGOP websites turned into a request for illegal conduct by Mr. Harnett. Sworn testimony from Dr. Robol indicates Mr. Harnett asked and encouraged Robol to sabotage the party’s 2016 convention website and replace it with a new website with an alternative and unapproved fundraising system.

To be clear, our evidence indicates Dr. Robol was the first to make contact with Mr. Harnett. He did make an offer to help access the administrative functions of the website because he believed the Party and the Chairman had a technical problem that needed to be resolved.

Our evidence indicates it was Mr. Harnett that turned the conversation from “accessing” the website to using “brute force” to crash it. The evidence also indicates Harnett asked Dr. Robol to create a separate website with alternative fundraising mechanisms.[…]

Really?  Well, how does THAT mesh with this screenshot from a discussion between Harnett and Robol?

“Mr. Chairman …. I can help you to hack your website to get into the site.”  Hmmm.  The mutineers are admitting that Robol made the first contact with Harnett.  If THAT is true, and the screenshot is accurate, you may have a case of a party activist (Robol) initiating a conspiracy to commit criminal activity.   MORE: 

We also know from phone and text records that the Chairman aggressively continued to contact Dr. Robol, which is believed to be in an effort to advance these problematic actions. There is no evidence in the messages that Mr. Harnett thought better of the scheme and tried to call it off.

It should be noted, that if Mr. Harnett believed Dr. Robol was up to something he should not have been, he had a duty to warn Party staff and officers, something he did not do.

The investigation also revealed that Mr. Harnett’s official Party e-mail address, hasan.harnett@ncgop.org, had been used to create an alternative “EVENTBRITE” account/page. EVENTBRITE is the system the Party uses to sell tickets to its convention and other events. The steps taken to set up the new EVENTBRITE account were made several weeks before the convention price issue arose. This is one of the reasons the Central Committee ordered the closure of this email account.

“Dr. Robol contacted other members of the Party because he was made extremely uncomfortable by the Chairman’s request. He was aware that if he did nothing, others might be contacted who did not share his scruples. Dr. Robol was very courageous in coming forward,” said Thomas A. Stark, General Counsel of the North Carolina Republican Party

STILL looking for a crime on Harnett’s part.  Setting up an Eventbrite account is NOT a crime.  (At least it wasn’t the last time I checked.)

[…] On March 8, 2016, Dr. Robol reached out to Chairman Harnett about accessing the administrative functions of the Party website. Dr. Robol read conversations on social media claiming Chairman Harnett had been wrongfully locked out of the Party’s website. At the time, Dr. Robol believed he would be helping the Party by restoring the control of its website to the authorized person. In Facebook messages, Dr. Robol used the term “hack” to describe accessing the administrative functions of the website. Testimony from Dr. Robol makes clear he used the term “hack” to refer to regaining access to the administrative functions of the website.

Sections 9-14 of Dr. Kenneth Robol’s Affidavit:

9. Mr. Harnett requested that I look at the security of the website; I informed him that I had done so. I advised him that the website was set up on Go-Daddy.com. I told him there were three ways to get in.
10. The first was through the password, which we did not have access to.
11. The second, was through the File Manager. My SQL open source database. I told Mr. Harnett that if he could get the Accounting Manager on the phone to designate me as authorized to deal with the website, I could get in and restore access. Mr. Harnett then told me that “Accounting is against me.” I then suggested we call the Executive Director. Mr. Harnett also said no because the Executive Director was also against him.
12. The third method possible that I told him about was a brute force attack. I told Mr. Harnett that, while I had never done one personally, this could crash or damage the website. It would destabilize the site and likely crash it.

Sooooooo.  Robol introduced the concept of a “brute force” attack on the site.  Again, this is looking like the wrong person is being investigated for possible criminal activity. MORE: 

[…]
13. Mr. Harnett then told me that he preferred to do a brute force attack. He then turned the conversation to his campaign promise that he would lower the $90.00 fee and asked me to help him set up an alternative website.The purpose of this website would be to sell tickets to the North Carolina State Party Convention directly from that website for $45.00, raise the money from the sale of these tickets, and then go back to the Party.
14. At this point I told him to let me know what he wanted me to do, and the conversation concluded.

“Despite insinuations otherwise, Dr. Robol called Chairman Harnett entirely on his own accord. He was responding in good faith to statements made by Chairman Harnett and his supporters,” said Mr. Stark. “It was entirely Chairman Harnett’s own initiative to ask Dr. Robol to crash the Party website and set up a competing website to divert funds away from the Party. Further, it was entirely Chairman Harnett’s own initiative to place follow up phone calls and text messages to Dr. Robol, including while the sworn statement was being obtained.”

Dr. Robol’s sworn statement concluded:

“I am concerned that if I do not assist Mr. Harnett in breaching the North Carolina Republican Party website, and setting up an alternative website, he will find another IT professional to do so.”

STILL not seeing a crime on Harnett’s part.  So Hasan was going to use this alternate web site to raise money to give back to the party?   WHERE. IS.THE.CRIME?

Stark’s participation in group texts with anti-Harnett plotters, and Robol’s close personal relationship with the woman who introduced the censure resolution against Harnett, AND the serious discrepancies between the documented evidence and the claims of the plotters, make this whole thing highly suspect.

How much does a signed affadavit mean outside of a formal judicial proceeding or law enforcement probe?  What is the penalty for lying? People lie under oath all the time. (I’ve encountered more than my fair share of those types.)  There’s no judge here to throw anyone in jail for perjury.

Again, if you have evidence of a crime — take it to law enforcement. Right  now, these people are setting the state party up for further embarrassment and a big-time slander suit from Harnett against the party and plotters.

#SSDD: NCGOP mutineers STILL beating that dead horse

From The Daily Haymaker:

Leaders of two of the largest, most active Tea Party organizations have issued releases announcing their intention to protest at the NCGOP 2nd congressional district meeting in Sanford on Saturday, April 9.  Moore Tea Citizens and the Asheville Tea Party issued the following statement:

[…] It has been very obvious from the moment of Mr. Harnett’s election at the 2015 State Convention, that the Central Committee has been highly displeased that their establishment insider candidate, endorsed by Governor McCrory, Senators Richard Burr and Thom Tillis, was not the choice of the GOP base.

Conversely, The GOP party members who elected Mr. Harnett are not at all pleased with the NCGOP Central Committee for their non-transparent, secretive tactics thwarting Chairman Harnett attempts to be successful. These tactics include: denying him access to NCGOP headquarters, his email account, and false accusations of hacking the website.

The grassroots support for Chairman Harnett is based in his Conservative credentials and relationship with his GOP constituents. The grassroots contend that neither has been embraced by the party establishment elites.

The NCGOP war on the grassroots has also gained much media attention in both state and national news outlets such as The Wall Street Journal. This ‘rift’ has even caught the attention of talk show host Rush Limbaugh. If this is not resolved, it has the potential of damaging the outcome of our general elections in November.

 

[…]Liberty loving citizens who refuse to sit down, and shut up, please join us to support NCGOP Chairman Hasan Harnett. Chairman Harnett is a fine man and Patriot. He does not deserve this treatment from NCGOP party elites whose only interest is to protect their power, not represent WE THE PEOPLE.

Come and join the many so together we make a difference.

*GOP District Convention 2 check-in starts at noon and the Convention begins at 2 pm. If you belong to District 2 and are attending the Convention: The cost for attending the Convention is $20 for those who pre-register and $25 for anyone who registers on the day of the Convention. In order to pre-register, go to http://ncgop2.com. Click on the “Register here” box appearing on the left side of the screen. At the next screen click on the green “get tickets” box. Pre-registration ends on April 4th.[…]

The 2nd congressional district is chaired by Joyce “Ma” Cotten, who —with the aid of her daughter Kim Cotten-West, chairman of the 3rd congressional district GOP — has led the attack on NCGOP chairman Hasan Harnett.

Sources tell us that, in addition to activists from the Asheville area and Moore County,  we can expect to see participants in the protest from the Triad, The Triangle, and coastal region of North Carolina.

Tea Party groups targeting Ma Cotten

We have quoted NCGOP Executive Committee member and former Lee County Commissioner Jim Womack before in this article.  We’re glad to hear that he’s still with us.

I wanted you all to know I am TOTALLY opposed to signing any such petitions and that I still completely support our Chairman.  If any of you have any reservations about Hasan, please let me know.  I’d like the opportunity to explain why I think it is imperative we give him the most vigorous assistance we can muster.  No one, including Hasan Harnett himself, is claiming that Hasan hasn’t made some errors of omission and commission- we all do from time to time.  But, it is patently clear from Cumbie’s letter that the Central Committee has been colluding and plotting to disenfranchise and get rid of Hasan for many weeks.   

If anyone needs to be let go, then it should be the Central Committee members who are overstepping their authority as laid out in the Plan of Organization, without first getting a nod of approval from the Executive Committee that put them where they are.  We elected Hasan Harnett as Chairman and now the Central Committee is plotting and conspiring to oust him.  I take that as a direct affront and insult to the Executive Committee and all active Republicans, statewide.     

 

Until someone produces hard evidence Hasan has broken the laws of the state of North Carolina, or until he is indicted for breaking the law, we shouldtreat him with the dignity and support he so desperately needs in doing his job for all of us.  I will continue to ask for the resignation from the Central Committee for anyone who colluded, conspired, or secretly coordinated to suspend Hasan’s email accounts, to prevent Hasan from having access to state GOP files and data, or to remove Hasan from his elected office.

Warm Regards

Jim Womack

We have been told many times that NCGOP Chairman Hasan Harnett’s email account had to be disabled because of some nebulous “security threat”.

NC4Hasan.com has cast significant doubt on that claim in this article.  When we did so, we promised there would be more to come.  Here is what may be only the first installment of additional information on that topic.

Note:  This article contains links to recorded audio.  We have edited these – one to remove from the recording time the Chairman spent on hold, and another that represents a key moment in the conversation.  No further editing, such as to change the actual content or meaning of the recordings was done.  A copy of the recording as we received it has been linked to at the end of the article.

On March 9, when the Chairman discovered that he could not access his email he placed a phone call to Computer Plumber, the firm that manages NCGOP’s email.  The Chairman spoke to Linda, who answered the phone.

The Chairman inquired as to why his email account was not available. After waiting on hold, he was told this:

The Chairman was told:

We would need you to call Greg (Greg Fornshell, NCGOP Staff Accountant) and talk to Greg about that, because he had us suspend your account yesterday.

When the Chairman asked Linda if she knew the reason that the account was disabled, she replied:

I don’t. We only do what he says, so you would need to uh, if he will contact us and tell us, we will, you know we’ll do whatever he says.  Just following instructions.

Hmmm… seems to me that if there was some sort of security threat, Linda might have known about that.  Furthermore, had the account been disabled due a security threat, it is more likely that it would have been done by the firm that manages IT resources for NCGOP, rather than by the staff accountant.

Here is the entire conversation, edited only to save you from having to endure too much of the music on hold.

Please note that we do not intend to in any way malign Linda or anyone else at Computer Plumber.  We’re sure they didn’t ask to become part of this drama.

Edit: We also have no intent to impugn the character of Greg Fornshell, NCGOP Staff Accountant.  As an employee of NCGOP, we suspect he was just doing as he was told.

For those who want every last second of the recording, here it is:

Rather than post the entire story here, I’m going to just quote portions and respond.  A link to the original News & Observer story is below.

Harnett says the state convention delegate election in May is part of the reason why members of the party’s Central Committee are trying to oust him. If no presidential candidate enters the July national convention with enough delegates to be nominated on the first ballot, many delegates would then be free to support any candidate on subsequent ballots.

Harnett said he’s concerned that establishment forces might try to elect delegates for Donald Trump and Ted Cruz who won’t support them after the first ballot.

“There are grave implications that are going to take place based on who the delegates are,” he said.

On March 20, the Central Committee took a vote of “no confidence” in Harnett, cut him off from party email and banned him from the GOP’s Raleigh headquarters. But as the smaller of the party’s two governing bodies, the Central Committee doesn’t have the power to remove the chairman.

Which I am sure is just one of the reasons the Chairman has such broad support from the grass roots.

The rift between Harnett and Executive Director Dallas Woodhouse first became public earlier this month when Harnett’s email account was shut off amid what Woodhouse described as a “security” problem.

We have started to provide evidence that the story about the “security problem” is a lie, and will continue to do so.  Read more here.

(Garry) Terry said the party has hired armed security guards to keep staffers “safe” at the Hillsborough Street headquarters since Harnett was banned from the building.

Really?  Armed security guards?  On one hand they claim not enough money has been raised, and on the other, they hire armed security guards?

The party’s attorney, Tom Stark, said he’s been investigating allegations that Harnett ordered someone to hack into the party website to change details about the June convention. Stark said he has not finished the probe yet but has found evidence that “suggested that there’s someone out there that meant to cause damage” to the website.

http://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/state-politics/article69105917.html