Although the agency reveals up in marketing campaign finance experiences with an deal with in downtown Tempe, its workplace doorways are emblazoned as an alternative with the identify of one other firm: Lincoln Technique Group, a GOP consulting agency. The person behind that firm has an outsized popularity in politics, even supposing he has up to now stayed under the radar in his work for the West marketing campaign.
Nathan Sproul, Lincoln Technique Group’s founder and a longtime Republican operative, has a historical past of working for the Republican Nationwide Committee and the Trump marketing campaign. A few of his corporations have additionally confronted fraud allegations over the course of 15 years, resulting in investigations in a handful of states, a Federal Election Fee investigation, prices in opposition to a handful of former staff and a messy breakup with the RNC. Sproul, although, has at all times emerged unscathed legally and neither he nor his corporations has ever confronted prices. He says his newest firm — referred to as Fortified Consulting — was fashioned to assist impartial campaigns.
“Like its candidate, KANYE 2020 transcends conventional partisan labels and alliances to advertise its imaginative and prescient of making a tradition of life,” Sproul mentioned in a press release to CNN. “We’re proud to function a member of Kanye West’s crew as a result of we imagine voters deserve decisions within the upcoming election.”
The Trump marketing campaign has denied it has any involvement in West’s presidential bid. West has urged he’ll soldier on though the thousands and thousands of {dollars} he has dumped into the race has up to now managed to get him on the poll in simply 12 states. Mathematically, the rap famous person can not win the presidency. He’s on the poll, nonetheless, in battlegrounds similar to Minnesota, Iowa and Colorado.
“I am operating as a result of I used to be hit with the concept to run in 2020,” West mentioned in a latest interview on the “Cannon’s Class” podcast. “Now, the result is as much as God.”
West, by way of his consultant, didn’t reply to a request for remark.
This election cycle, allegations have emerged throughout the nation of the West marketing campaign submitting pretend signatures, duping voters into signing petitions supporting West or, in an occasion in Wyoming, telling voters {that a} signature for West would take votes away from Biden.
Sproul’s agency has been handsomely compensated by the West marketing campaign for its key function in poll entry work, however public data don’t reveal which companies are working for West wherein states. Not one of the complaints popping up round West’s marketing campaign have been instantly linked to Sproul or his firm, although they’re the form of claims Sproul has confronted earlier than in his lengthy historical past working for Republicans.
Sproul denounced the scrutiny his companies have repeatedly confronted throughout election cycles, saying, “Each 4 years our efforts on behalf of presidential campaigns are subjected to a predictable sequence of scurrilous and defamatory political assaults designed to attain low cost political factors.”
Mired in controversy
Proof of Sproul’s previous standing as a well-connected Republican political operative is on show within the foyer of his second-floor workplace suite in downtown Tempe. It is within the type of a framed letter on White Home stationary from a prime adviser to President George W. Bush.
“Thanks for the recommendation and friendship you’ve so generously given me throughout my years right here,” Karl Rove, a key determine within the Bush White Home, wrote to Sproul in 2007. “I respect your generosity, candor and kindness.”
Over the previous three a long time, Sproul’s corporations have hauled in thousands and thousands for voter registration, polling and political consulting.
It is the form of behind-the-scenes work that may make or break campaigns. However Sproul has now and again discovered himself within the highlight — and never for good causes.
In 2004, Sproul’s companies — previous to Fortified and Lincoln Technique — confronted allegations that, whereas operating voter registration drives, they destroyed Democrats’ registrations and cast registration playing cards. The complaints set off investigations in Arizona, Nevada and Oregon, in response to information experiences, authorities paperwork and CNN interviews.
In Oregon, Sproul and Associates was the topic of a voter registration fraud investigation by state and federal authorities. The investigation delved into dozens of alleged improprieties, together with a declare by a girl who mentioned she and her husband crammed out registration playing cards on the similar time — him as Republican; her as Democrat — however that solely he acquired a poll within the mail. Investigators traced the husband’s registration again to a subcontractor for Sproul’s firm however discovered no proof that the employee registered the spouse.
“There may be, nonetheless, no proof indicating what occurred to the registration card or establishing affirmatively that [the worker] knowingly or deliberately discarded or destroyed it,” in response to the report.
Sproul’s agency was cleared of any wrongdoing, in response to an 11-page letter by a lawyer with the Oregon Division of Justice, which additionally notes that the investigating businesses in different states “closed their investigations with no legal prosecution.”
However Erik Wasmann, the lawyer in cost in Oregon, cautioned that the widespread apply of paying registration employees by way of a “bounty” system versus an hourly fee created an incentive for potential fraud and abuse.
Underneath the bounty system, a Sproul subcontractor mentioned she was solely paid to register Republican voters and people of different affiliations who mentioned they might vote for Bush for president, the letter acknowledged.
The system, Wasmann wrote, supplied an incentive for falsifying registration info with a purpose to receives a commission, and for discarding correct playing cards that would not lead to cost because of the voter’s political affiliation.
Eight years later, Sproul got here beneath scrutiny once more, this time in Florida. Elections officers in Palm Seashore County flagged greater than 100 suspicious voter registration kinds linked to a Sproul firm referred to as Strategic Allied Consulting, in response to press experiences. Probably problematic kinds related to the agency have been found quickly after in a number of different Florida counties, in response to press experiences and data from the Florida investigation.
The Republican Social gathering of Florida, which paid one in every of Sproul’s companies — Strategic Allied Consulting– $1.three million to register and prove voters, filed a grievance in opposition to the corporate with the state Division of Elections.
A number of employees have been charged with crimes, together with a Palm Seashore County man accused of fraudulently registering a string of household, mates and associates who later informed investigators their registrations have been bogus. All three admitted wrongdoing. Two acquired probation and one was sentenced to 10 days in county jail, data present.
The Florida Division of Regulation Enforcement cleared Sproul and his firm of any wrongdoing, in response to an FDLE report summarizing the investigation.
“This investigation revealed no proof of a conspiracy between SAC staff and administration to commit voter registration fraud,” states the FDLE report. “All staff of SAC have been supplied with coaching on Florida regulation regarding voter registrations, and the investigation decided that these staff recognized as probably having accomplished fraudulent voter registration functions did so independently and of their very own volition.”
On the time, Sproul additionally had contracts with the RNC and Mitt Romney’s presidential marketing campaign. Each dropped Sproul’s agency. Then-RNC spokesman Sean Spicer mentioned on the time, “We’ve zero tolerance for allegations of impropriety.”
When the late Rep. Elijah Cummings — the highest Democrat on the Home Oversight Committee on the time — referred to as on Sproul to submit paperwork and reply questions earlier than Congress, Sproul refused.
The Palm Seashore Publish reported on the time that Sproul gave the impression to be taking the scrutiny in stride.
“Sadly, the system we’ve got in place would not lend itself to folks studying the reality. Not when screaming and lies get far more information protection,” Sproul informed the Palm Seashore Publish.
Sproul informed CNN this week that every time his corporations have come beneath authorized scrutiny, “We’ve constantly cooperated with authorities to deal with these false prices and each investigation has proven that allegations in opposition to the management of Lincoln Technique Group are utterly with out advantage.”
Quick ahead 4 years and Sproul’s crew was again in lockstep with the RNC.
In 2016, the Trump marketing campaign shelled out $600,000 to one in every of Sproul’s corporations for door-knocking companies, the marketing campaign mentioned on the time. The RNC paid the corporate some $1.2 million, in response to press experiences on the time.
Sproul’s creation of Fortified within the waning months of the 2020 presidential marketing campaign just isn’t the primary time he fashioned a brand new firm on the 11th hour.
Strategic Allied Consulting, the corporate investigated in Florida, was fashioned in Virginia 5 months earlier than the 2012 presidential election. Sproul informed the Los Angeles Instances again then that he was requested by the Republican Nationwide Committee to kind a brand new firm with a brand new identify to keep away from being linked to earlier dangerous publicity. An RNC spokesman informed the paper that he “had no information of Sproul’s assertion that the RNC wished to hide his id” in response to the article.
This time round an advanced paper path hyperlinks Sproul’s new agency in with present enterprise.
FEC data present Fortified’s deal with in Tempe is identical deal with as Lincoln Technique. However there are not any enterprise data for Fortified on file in Arizona. As a substitute, it was created in Virginia and lists its “principal workplace deal with” as one which traces again to a mailbox service in Alexandria, Virginia. Sproul’s identify is nowhere to be discovered within the paperwork accessible on Virginia’s State Company Fee web site. Moderately, the “organizer” is listed as an individual CNN decided is a subordinate in one other of Sproul’s corporations. The contact info on file on the mailbox service is the private e-mail deal with of one other Sproul worker.
Executives of Lincoln Technique Group acknowledged that Fortified is a completely owned subsidiary of Sproul’s Lincoln Technique Group, as is famous within the wonderful print on its web site www.fortifiedconsulting.org. They mentioned the choice to create a subsidiary beneath a distinct identify was finished purely for enterprise causes and had nothing to do with desirous to keep away from dangerous publicity.
Meantime, Fortified seems poised to rake in much more money from the billionaire rapper. The marketing campaign owed the corporate one other $1.2 million, in response to a belated marketing campaign finance report filed in September.
Allegations of bait and change
West’s marketing campaign has courted controversy since he jumped within the race in July.
The billionaire trend and music mogul has been a vocal Trump supporter, visiting the President within the Oval Workplace and donning a Make America Nice Once more hat, which contributed to suspicions that his marketing campaign was little greater than a spoiler to help the President’s reelection effort. His insistence on staying within the race, though he has no probability of profitable, has cemented that view.
Critics declare that West, who mentioned he has been identified with bipolar dysfunction, is being taken benefit of by Republican operatives. The dysfunction may cause swings between mania and despair and West has mentioned he doesn’t take common remedy for it.
Virtually, West’s late begin set off a scramble to get him on the poll. Poll entry is an advanced state-by-state course of with necessities similar to submitting charges or amassing a set variety of signatures from voters saying they’d like the choice to vote for the candidate.
Petition gathering can also be an imperfect enterprise. Campaigns rent consulting corporations who usually flip to contractors to do the precise signature-gathering, which may make it troublesome to find out whether or not dangerous practices are the results of a rogue subcontractor or a top-down technique.
Within the case of West’s marketing campaign, public paperwork don’t reveal which consulting companies are working wherein states. Folks conversant in the marketing campaign acknowledged that Fortified was concerned in poll entry effort throughout a number of states and the scale of funds to Sproul’s agency point out it has performed a key function in West’s efforts. Sproul, meantime, declined to record the states the place his agency took the lead.
He did, although, insist that the allegations in opposition to the West marketing campaign have been trumped up by Democrats.
“They’re so intimidated by Mr. West’s candidacy that they’re keen to go to nice lengths to dam a outstanding African American candidate from even showing on the poll,” Sproul mentioned in his assertion to CNN. “That is an affront to our democracy and will concern anyone who values free and truthful elections.”
Poll entry points are generally surrounded by authorized challenges, however election legal professionals mentioned they have been struck by how widespread the circumstances of the West marketing campaign’s sloppy — and in some circumstances probably fraudulent — paperwork gave the impression to be.
“To place it mildly, the petition was a catastrophe,” mentioned Scott Salmon, a New Jersey lawyer with expertise in election regulation.
Salmon filed an objection to West’s try to seem on the poll and famous points with a whole lot of signatures on his petition. Some weren’t really residents of the state. And there have been giant teams of signatures that each one appeared in the identical distinct handwriting, Salmon mentioned.
“I opened it to a random web page, and I famous that half of the signatures on the web page, above the ‘i’ was like a little bit circle,” Salmon mentioned. “I do not know one person who does that a lot much less 10 folks in a row who occur to stay subsequent door to one another.”
West ended up withdrawing his try to seem on the poll and a decide dominated that, as a result of deficiencies in his paperwork, he would not have certified.
An individual conversant in the West marketing campaign mentioned Fortified was not answerable for the poll effort in New Jersey.
In Virginia, a decide booted West off the poll after deciding that various oaths the marketing campaign had collected from folks promising to symbolize West within the Electoral School, “have been obtained by improper, fraudulent and/or deceptive means.”
In a single grievance, Virginia voter David Pincus mentioned signature collectors approached him asking him to signal a petition to ban West from the poll.
“The person assured me that the petition was to maintain Kanye West off the poll and even joked that West ought to stick with music, not run for political workplace,” in response to Pincus’ written declaration.
In actuality, it was a petition to permit West on the poll and to conform to function an elector, in response to Pincus’ declaration. “I used to be outraged that there could be two folks in my neighborhood aggressively inquiring for signatures beneath false pretenses,” Pincus wrote.
In Wyoming, signature-gatherers requested voters to signal petitions to “take votes” away from Biden, saying the petition would assist Trump, in response to reporters from the Casper Star-Tribune.
In Wisconsin, one voter mentioned they have been informed that they have been signing a petition to “assist growing minority illustration,” in response to a grievance filed there. Bait-and-switch allegations have additionally popped in Arizona and Kentucky, in response to native information experiences.
“We require complete coaching for all of our workers, topic our work to a rigorous verification course of and have a zero tolerance coverage for any worker violation of our requirements to make sure that we’re at all times following native, state and federal legal guidelines,” Sproul mentioned within the assertion to CNN.
Teamwork
Whereas Sproul’s agency has performed an vital function in poll entry operations, different companies have labored alongside it.
A California agency referred to as Let the Voters Determine additionally labored on poll entry points for the West marketing campaign in a number of states. The agency’s founder, Mark Jacoby, has additionally confronted previous allegations of fraud.
Again in 2008, Jacoby was arrested and charged with 4 felonies associated to voter registration fraud. He ended up pleading responsible to a lesser misdemeanor voter registration fraud cost.
Jacoby caught the eye of authorities that election cycle due to the signature gathering work his then-company, Younger Political Majors, was doing. The corporate’s work registering voters on behalf of the California Republican Social gathering sparked a sequence of complaints. Voters mentioned employees for Jacoby’s agency had tricked them into registering as Republicans by telling them they have been really signing petitions for harsher penalties for youngster molesters, in response to press experiences on the time.
Representatives for Jacoby have repeatedly insisted his misdemeanor plea just isn’t related to his political work.
“Kanye West employed Let the Voters Determine as a result of it’s an industry-leading, skilled signature gathering firm, with a popularity for having the ability to ship on brief timelines,” Mark Jacoby mentioned in a press release to CNN. “Mark Jacoby has greater than twenty years of expertise qualifying poll initiatives, referenda and candidates all through the nation. He has overseen the gathering of tens of thousands and thousands of signatures for political candidates and points on each side of the aisle through the years.”
Jacoby’s agency didn’t carry out work for the West marketing campaign in New Jersey or Wyoming, nor did it work on the electors effort in Virginia, in response to a consultant for Jacoby. Not one of the allegations of fraud surrounding the West marketing campaign have been instantly tied to Jacoby or his agency.
‘God has made unreal issues occur’
West has not been oblivious to the controversy surrounding his no-shot candidacy.
“The primary query is inaccurate as I’m already on some ballots,” West informed the Instances. He didn’t seem to instantly deal with the query of exploitation.
The musician has devoted little time to any form of conventional presidential marketing campaign after his South Carolina kickoff occasion morphed into an erratic and emotional speech. After the looks, his spouse, Kim Kardashian West, famous that her husband was residing with bipolar dysfunction and requested the general public for “compassion and empathy.”
In an interview on the “Cannon’s Class” podcast, West mentioned he and others with psychological diseases are discriminated in opposition to.
“It is a superpower,” West mentioned. “I am not even gonna let y’all inform me it is an sickness as a result of I am seeing the reality within a phony world.”
Two folks conversant in West’s marketing campaign effort mentioned his 2020 marketing campaign might merely be a take a look at run for a future presidential bid.
“Effectively, God has made unreal issues occur,” West mentioned on the podcast, when requested if his 2020 presidential hopes have been reasonable.
West added, “I shall be president sooner or later in our lifetimes.”
