The $2 Million Cover-Up: Why OKGOP Leadership is Using "Swatting" and Courtroom Games to Hide the Truth
By Al Gerhart, Plaintiff
Yesterday, a major attempt to bring transparency to the Oklahoma Republican Party was met with a sudden, "behind-closed-doors" dismissal. Judge Amy Palumbo issued an email ruling striking our case— the day before the first hearing on the amended petition--not because the facts were wrong, but based on a mundane conversation that was completely misrepresented to the Court. Ex parte which is not allowed in court.
I have just filed a Motion to Reconsider to correct the record and force the truth into the light. Here is what every Republican delegate, donor, and State Committee member needs to know:
1. The "Hail Mary" Lie
The Judge’s office staff claimed I admitted my filings were a "Hail Mary." This is false. I was at the courthouse to file a mandatory legal response to stop a cover-up. What I had said was that the filing was likely late because I had just learned of the option of filing a Plaintiff’s Rule 13(d) Affidavit and Notice of Transmutation Pursuant to 12 O.S. §2012(B). What the heck is that? Warning, dry stuff ahead, skip down four to six paragraphs if you are in a hurry.
A 13(D) affidavit states that discovery is needed before 100% proof can be submitted to the court. You have to specify the information you are looking to get, where it is located, and how it helps prove the truth. Everyone knows that you get discovery in a lawsuit..... The transmutation, is simple if someone files a motion to dismiss and they include evidence or any information outside the "four corners" of the petition, of if the target of the motion to dismiss replies with evidence or exhibits, the motion to dismiss automatically transforms into a motion for summary judgment that guarantees discovery is allowed. The operative word in the statute is "shall", not "may". It is mandatory.
So handing it off I mentioned it was late filed, the hearing was the next day, but judges have discretion to hear late filings in the interest of justice, just don't do it often. Or, you make an oral motion at the hearing the next day and it has to be heard. Somehow, the filing of the motion was turned into a "hail Mary" desperate attempt to stop from losing the next day and I never intended to infer that and I didn't state that.
Along with that transmutation notice, I filed a two page brief stating the many defects of the Motion to Dismiss:
1. Failure to State Specific Grounds (District Court Rule 4(b)), gotta be specific. They were not.
2. Failure to Separately State Omissions (12 O.S. § 2012(B)) gotta be specific, "shall" deny the motion if they don't list the ommissions one by one. They wrote a narrative, were not specific.
3. Improper Reliance on Extrinsic Evidence Because the Defendants have filed extensive outside materials but failed to provide the specificity required by § 2012(B), their motion is procedurally "fatally flawed."
After these defects were pointed out, the judge had no option other than to dismiss the GOP's motion to dismiss due to the motion not conforming to the Court Rules or it automatically became a motion for summary judgment after discovery was held. There was a third filing, two pages, the Notice of Supplemental Authority which was nothing more than four new cases on Derivative Action Lawsuits, case law that supported the right of ANY member of the GOP to file a lawsuit on the Party's behalf to force leadership to conform with the bylaws or act in the best interest of the Party. Think corporation with a rogue president that is wasting corporate assets; the "corporation" is sued, but as soon as possible the corporation flips and becomes the plaintiff, the one that is suing the rogue executives.... In the lawsuit I had asked the Court to grant discovery and flip the Party over to my side as I was the only one trying to recover hundreds of thousands of dollars in wasted and embezzled funds.
The leadership of the GOP and a judge is trying to use a friendly chat with a clerk to silence a multi-million dollar scandal. We’ve filed a formal objection to stop this hearsay from becoming part of the official record.
2. Your Money is Paying for Their Mistakes
While leadership tells you the Party is thriving, your donations are being funneled into a massive financial hole:
$43,081.60: Proven embezzlement by a former chairman that current leadership refused to recover.
$2,000,000: A massive reporting discrepancy found by the FEC.
$7,250 per Month: The "burn rate" currently being paid out of the GOP treasury to cover an FEC fine—money that should be going to elect Republicans.
The $200,000.00 Penalty: If a single payment is missed, that fine jumps to $300,000.
3. "Swatting" and Identity Fraud: The "Ward Hendrix" Conspiracy
When Major Hendrix (a retired combat veteran) tried to blow the whistle on Bennett's stolen valor scandal a few years earlier, the response was terrifying. A fraudulent suicide report was filed against him using the fake identity "Ward Hendrix"—an alias created within the Bennett administration to weaponize law enforcement against a witness. They swatted him......We have the police reports and the VA Suicide Hot Line intake report to prove it came from Bennett's office. They put a fake suicide report into his VA medical record.
Things heated up again around the time that Bennett had taken over the GOP, which I had recruited him to run back in August of 2020. Anyone that says otherwise, I have recordings to prove it. Somehow Leslie Nessmith found out about the stolen valor or the embezzlement in mid summer 2021 and became terrified that I would find out and harm Bennett. I wouldn't have, I would have advised him to resign to avoid harming the Party and those that supported him. If he refused, you damn right I would have done something.
The $43,000.00 in embezzled money popped up among many other scandals and all of this led to a Facebook post by Leslie Nessmith around the middle of July in 2021 where she claimed she, Bennett, and Bob Dani agreed that I had to be driven out of the Party to protect Bennett..... his longest time supporter who spent 12 years keeping him in office and protecting both him and his family. I would be told, "Al, we want to do this on our own this year, you are too much of a lighting rod." "Okay John, holler if you need me." Then a month later the desperate phone call came in, his family was being beaten up by the trolls. Sooner Tea Party to the rescue, the donors and activists pitched in, we printed a pallet of newspapers that Bennett's supporters would wrap and deliver to most of the houses in the county. The trolls then focused on attacking me.
All this led to the horrific libel attack, posted initially by Brian Graham, with the libel info delivered to Graham by John Greening, picked up by the likes of Najaves and Moto and the abolitionists. That libel case is all but won, Graham admitted to it in court, his Facebook data revealed Greening's involvement, but it took years to get both men into court. Back in 2024 the Timmons court called the libel malicious, of a personal nature, not politics and said that Graham better be ready to go to trial unless I filed a summary judgment. Graham had refused to answer the discovery, which is deemed admitted as to the questions asked after a few weeks, paving the way for a summary judgment at any point due to that and the admission that he knew the info was mostly false and he was silly enough to say that on Facebook too.
Greening as a co conspirator, finally got dragged into court last month and we have a hearing in May to see if he can escape. Not likely, their private Facebook post said the libel materials were basically retaliation for articles critical of Leslie Nessmith. "medicine" and I better sit down and take it. The problem, Navejes (spelling?) the abolitionist, meanwhile posted the same info on The Oklahoma Constitution Facebook group and his personal and abolitionist pages while a chairman of a House Congressional District. .... a GOP official spreading libel, nails the GOP to the wall and there are a dozen chunks of evidence backing that up. If others get tied to the libel.... game over for the Party unless they cut a deal and agree to root out the bad actors.
4. The "Institutional Blockade"
Under the law (12 O.S. § 2023.1), a judge cannot dismiss a Derivative Action Lawsuit like this without notifying the members. Why? Because I am suing on your behalf to get your money back. I am protecting MY rights too but at some point the Party itself takes over and does the majority of the work.
Leadership hid this lawsuit from the State Committee (the actual client) for years. An honest judge would have the lawyer's law license for doing such a thing.
They used "off-book" Yahoo email accounts and Facebook to collude and bypass official records.
Current administration even removed precinct officers in sudden elections, posting meeting notices at a gas station, a Dollar General store, who told them the notice would be removed immediately, and at a very old historical graveyard. Three notices, less than a half page of typed paper, no letterhead, no email notices, to prevent you from showing up and making sure THEIR people took over or the precinct offices were vacant. Don't believe me? Next story will have a video of Karen Hardin, what appears to be her husband, and another Wagoner County GOP leader admitting where they posted the three tiny notices.
5. The Bylaw Architect Speaks
David Van, one of the many primary drafters of our OKGOP Bylaws over decades, has filed an Amicus Brief supporting this case. He confirms what we’ve said all along: the Chairman does not have the power to write checks at will or hide legal actions from the State Committee. But, two weeks after filing the amicus brief, the judge dismisses the lawsuit illegally without notice to the GOP members or even notifying David Van. In such a case, David Van was a friend to the court, advising the court about how the bylaws worked, he is entitled to have a say, to speak at hearings, as he was then a party to the lawsuit that must be heard.
What Happens Next?
The "rogue executives" are hoping this goes away quietly. They want the Judge to sign an order that ignores the police reports, the FEC fines, and the collusion. They want to collect a $16,000 judgment that got against me in 2022 that is tainted by fraud upon the court. An email from a close supporter of Ferate accused Ferate of collusion with the judge in my case, to "cheat me" and the Ferate Yahoo email account of Chickasaw Warrior has the Cherokee Maiden's email as a recovery email address.....we all got the emails when Ferate was trying to survive as Chairman. The another fraud upon the court was hiding the lawsuit from the ruling entity of the Party for four years. The Party did not get to choose if they fought back and broke their fiduciary duties or did the right thing and fixed the problems. That is illegal, the lawyer can lose his law license over that.
If my motion to reconsider survives and a hearing is held, the court literally has to hold discovery and at some point a hearing to view the evidence. So far, the GOP lawyers have refused to show any proof that the State Committee, the ruling entity of the Party outside a convention, hired them to defend the lawsuit or even knew about the lawsuit. You cannot represent an organization in a lawsuit without their being aware of it, and that includes an informed consent, they must know all the details and risks involved. And guess what? If the interests between the rogue executives and the Party itself are considerable, the attorney is prohibited from representing both parties. And the Party is prohibited from defending a rogue executive that is spending Party money on lawyers to defend his own illegal acts. And every single other officer in the leadership and every single State Committee person is prohibited from supporting anything that is against the interests of the organization and is contrary to its bylaws. The GOP literally cannot be a part of this lawsuit if they choose to protect Bennett or Linch who are fighting to hide the lawsuit from the State Committee, they were obligated back in 2021 to investigate the allegations, deal with them, and do the right thing to avoid legal exposure and risk and damaging the Party's reputation. They did not.
The good news. That fiduciary duty that each officer of the GOP and each State Committee person carries, they have an obligation and right to hold the administration responsible and recover the money. David Mclain spent $43,000 after he was no longer Chairman? He has to pay that back to the Party or go to jail. John Bennett refused to collect the financial records from Mclain's treasurer for 18 months before the guy died. On purpose, to hide the embezzlement perhaps. The Party is not responsible, Bennett is. That led to the $300,000 fine that was negotiated down to $200,0000, if Charity Linch doesn't miss a monthly payment.... The law firm that protected Bennett instead of going after the embezzlement and knew the bylaws did not allow them to be hired without the State Committee agreeing to fight the lawsuit? Their deep pockets are wide open for the GOP and remember, the State Committee could not ever defend a rogue officer working against the interests of the Party.
All told, around $365,000 is owed or has been spent since the Mclain administration, not counting the legal fees they incurred and haven't paid. Another point, Mclain is alleged to be the person that illegally signed us up for the $50,000 per convention soft ware that printed our fancy badges and ID at the convention, without the legal right to do so. A convention that used to cost $30,000 ballooned up to over $80,000 after that and we still sit for hours while the time is wasted so they can avoid the tough votes.
Five years at $50,000, add $250,000 to that $365,000 of waste.
I am calling on every State Committee member to demand a full Treasurer's Report and to call for an immediate State Committee meeting so they can be briefed on the details and how they can go from "nominal" defendant to the lead plaintiff. A lawyer will take this case on commission due to the deep pockets of a crooked law firm that has no defense of hijacking a client and keeping them in the dark. Ask Charity Linch and the Central Committee:
Why is our money paying for an FEC fine caused by a failure to audit?
Who authorized the "Ward Hendrix" identity to harass a combat veteran? Just Bennett?
Why has the State Committee never voted on the hiring of lawyers to fight this transparency or to do the right thing and settle by fixing some bylaws and taking control of the Party? I do not want GOP money. I want to recover over a half million for the GOP and hold all elected officers accountable.
The truth is in the docket. The evidence is filed. We will not be silenced by a hallway conversation or a "closed door" email. If we cannot get the judge to follow the law, we will go for the second appeal all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court if needed. A Federal 1983 lawsuit is being considered too.
