So, this 70 year-old guy named Bob Heghmann filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court yesterday against “the Republican National Committe and Virginia’s two national GOP committee members, Morton Blackwell and Cynthia Dunbar, as well as the Republican Party of Virginia and state party Chairman John Whitbeck.” He accused them all of engaging in a fraudulent pattern of racketeering for the purpose of duping Republican voters out of their hard-earned cash with false promises. His complaint estimates that “the national GOP raised more than $735 million and Virginia’s party more than $20 million from 2009 to 2016 in large part by promising to repeal the Affordable Care Act.” But, he claims, they knew damn well from at least 2012 that it would never happen:
Heghmann’s suit contends that Republicans knew the GOP wouldn’t be able to repeal the health care law after President Barack Obama’s re-election in November 2012, but continued to raise money on the promise it would.
As evidence, he pointed to comments by then-House Speaker John Boehner just after Obama’s re-election.
“It’s pretty clear that the president was re-elected. Obamacare is the law of the land,” the Ohio Republican said when asked if the GOP-controlled House would push again for a repeal of the 2010 health care law. “There certainly may be parts of it we believe need to be changed. Maybe we’ll do that. No decisions at this point.”
Heghmann’s suit states: “In making this statement Speaker Boehner was sending a message to House Republicans and others that Repeal was not going to happen. He was trying to put the issue to rest. … Nevertheless, the Republican Party continued to use the mails, wires and interstate commerce to solicit donations and votes to secure House and Senate majorities and ultimately the Presidency.
“Now that the Republican Party has won the House, the Senate and the Presidency the effort it is making to Repeal and Replace Obamacare is itself a Fraud upon Republican Voters and Donors.”
The “pattern of racketeering” extended to the party’s response to Trump’s candidacy, his suit states. The GOP units raised money to push the health care repeal or Trump’s promises but “never intended to implement the Trump Agenda or fulfill the promises of the Republican Platform.”
The guy most definitely has a point. I think this suit is hilarious. He knows that he’s holding a bill of goods and he’s got some decent ideas about who might be held responsible. Unfortunately for him and so many like him, he’ll soon become familiar with the term caveat emptor.
