More to the story.
Remember Matt Shea who was featured in one of our round up’s of stupid people behaving badly?
He is the Washington state Republican legislator who was running for reelection when it was leaked he wrote a “manifesto” titled, “Biblical Basis for War,” and it was turned over to the FBI by a local Sheriff, Ozzie Knezovich, who believed “Shea was dangerous,” according to local KHQ-06 report.
[Full report]
Shea also hosts a radio show on what is called American Christian Network (ACN) called “Patriot Radio.” [Hold this thought.]
Local reports at the time called it, “a radical Christian call to arms, outlining 14 steps for seizing power and what to do afterward in explicit detail. It calls for an end to abortions, an end to same-sex marriage, and if enemies do not yield and everyone obey biblical law, all males will be killed.”
Shea “defended” the paper, calling is a “part of a “sermon” and “taken out of context as a call for violence,” adding, “First of all, it was a summary of a series of sermons on biblical war in the Old Testament as part of a larger discussion on the history of warfare.”
Sheriff Knezovic said, the Washington Spokesman-Review reported, “The document Mr. Shea wrote is not a Sunday school project or an academic study. It is a ‘how to’ manual consistent with the ideology and operating philosophy of the Christian Identity/Aryan Nations movement and the Redoubt movement of the 1990s.”
Knezovich said he had obtained the document and other materials on a flash drive about six weeks ago.
“I gave it straight to the FBI,” he said.
The document caused a stir online Tuesday when it was shared by a Nine Mile Falls man, Tanner Rowe, who said he had obtained it in August from a person close to Shea. The document’s metadata shows it was created by a Matthew Shea, though Shea does not say in his video whether he was the sole author.
Rowe and other sources said the document resembles the work of the Marble Community Fellowship, a Stevens County congregation that is said to practice a strain of fundamentalist Christianity known as dominionism.
The Spokesman-Review; Oct 31 2018
According to KGQ, after reaching out “to the FBI and Joint Terrorism Task Force about the manifesto, they confirmed they were actively reviewing the manifesto for investigative leads.”
When speaking at a “gun-rights rally” in August, in Spokane, Shea “criticized” the press and journalists in a speech, including those covering the event, calling them “those dirty, godless, hateful people.”
The Seattle Times reported Shea has long had a “contentious relationship” with those who report on him.
But this time the situation is unique: Shea is one of eight lawmakers appointed to a task force to figure out how the Washington Legislature should keep and disclose public records.
That task force comes as the state Legislature faces a lawsuit brought by news organizations — including The Associated Press and The Seattle Times — questioning its long-claimed exemption from Washington’s Public Records Act.
The Seattle Times; Aug 20 2018
Shea is one of four Republican state representatives who, “regularly blocks journalists and constituents from his public social media accounts.”
On November 7, Shea won reelection with 58.3 percent of the vote against the Democrat challenger Ted Cummings for the Washington’s state legislative District 4 in Spokane Valley.
On December 11, KHQ-06 reported Matt Shea may have “run afoul of Washington state’s campaign finance law.”
The Washington state’s Public Disclosure Commission (PDC), a 5-member state government agency and regulatory board which enforces the state’s campaign finance laws and regulates “candidates, campaigns, and lobbyists,” confirmed two complaints were filed against Shea, one on November 19th and another on December 3rd, involving Shea’s use of surplus funds from his election account.
Under Washington law, candidates may use their surplus funds in one of five ways: make reimbursements for campaign expenses; refund the money to their contributors; donate the money to the state treasury; give the surplus to their political party; or, the cash can be donated to a state-registered charity.
But according to these complaints – none of the organizations that received money from Shea are registered charities with the state of Washington.
KHQ-06
Arron Jarvis, a campaign staffer for the Democrat candidate Ted Cummings, filed a complaint on November 19 alleging Shea violated the state’s campaign finance law for surplus funds by using the funds “to pay for his radio broadcasts and purchase advertising on Redoubt News.”
According to the SPLC, Jarvis alleges Shea used the funds “to purchase $12,000 for radio broadcasts on the American Christian Network, $1,750 in advertising with the Redoubt News website and $2,248 for broadcast equipment.”
On December 3, Walter Smith, an attorney in Olympia, filed a complaint alleging “Shea’s surplus campaign account made a $3,500 donation to a group called Americans for America which is based in Centennial, Colorado. The other donation in question was a $2,000 donation to Citizens for Free Speech a nonprofit group based in Mesa, Arizona.”
Shea has until December 19 and December 20, respectively, to respond to the complaints. The PDC “has the authority to asses $10,000 per violation,” and “can also refer a case to the Attorney General’s Office, which is able to seek higher penalties in court.”
For more details read, Embattled Washington Rep. Matt Shea is skirting state law to funnel campaign funds to far-right groups.
On A Side Note (Opinion)
Ironically enough, irony, no doubt that completely escapes Shea, he writes in his “manifesto” under “10. Rules of War,” that there will be “No idolatry or occultism” in his terms of ‘Must surrender on terms of justice and righteousness.”
If you get a chance, read the SPLC piece. Among many other details, they discuss the minority Rs in the state’s legislature had already “striped Shea of his party leadership role as caucus chair” last month, possibly indicating it could be, after 7 years, “a clear signal that Republican leaders have had enough of Shea’s divisive actions and inflammatory statements and intend to marginalize his political power.”
With the allegations and investigations now hanging over Shea’s head any ‘prospect” Shea had for ‘ranking member on legislative committees,” are also in jeopardy.
Stay tuned. We’ll continue to keep an eye on this one.