{"id":80044,"date":"2017-08-06T09:08:52","date_gmt":"2017-08-06T13:08:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/?p=80044"},"modified":"2017-08-06T09:16:34","modified_gmt":"2017-08-06T13:16:34","slug":"fraud-gop-sued-by-republican-donor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/?p=80044","title":{"rendered":"FRAUD: GOP Sued By Republican Donor"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n
\n

Republican donor from Virginia Beach sues GOP, accusing the party of fraud over failed Obamacare repeal<\/h1>\n

By Bill Bartel and Scott Daugherty
\nThe Virginian-Pilot\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Bob Heghmann, a retired attorney in Virginia Beach is so incensed Republicans couldn\u2019t repeal the Affordable Care Act that he\u2019s suing the GOP for fraud and racketeering. Steve Earley | The Virginian-Pilot<\/p><\/div>\n

A retired attorney in Virginia Beach is so incensed that Republicans couldn\u2019t repeal the Affordable Care Act that he\u2019s suing to get political donations back, accusing the GOP of fraud and racketeering.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n

Bob Heghmann, 70, filed a lawsuit Thursday in U.S. District Court, saying the national and Virginia Republican parties and some GOP leaders raised millions of dollars in campaign funds while knowing they weren\u2019t going to be able to overturn the law also known as Obamacare.<\/p>\n

The GOP \u201chas been engaged in a pattern of Racketeering which involves massive fraud perpetrated on Republican voters and contributors as well as some Independents and Democrats,\u201d the suit said. Racketeering, perhaps better known for use in prosecuting organized crime, involves a pattern of illegal behavior by a specific group.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit lists as defendants the Republican National Committee and Virginia\u2019s two national GOP committee members, Morton Blackwell and Cynthia Dunbar, as well as the Republican Party of Virginia and state party Chairman John Whitbeck.<\/p>\n

In an email, Blackwell dismissed Heghmann\u2019s complaint as a \u201cfrivolous, nuisance suit that should be thrown out of court by any judge.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a separate email Dunbar sent to Blackwell that was forwarded to The Virginian-Pilot, Dunbar referred to it as \u201cridiculous.\u201d<\/p>\n

But at the same time, both said they understood where Heghmann was coming from. Blackwell said the suit is a \u201csign of conservative anger that the Republican-controlled Congress has not yet repealed and replaced Obamacare.\u201d<\/p>\n

He argued that \u201cprogressives\u201d had taken over the Democratic Party and seemed to lament that \u201cconservatives\u201d had not yet taken over the Republican Party.<\/p>\n

\u201cToo few conservatives are willing to invest their time, talent, and money and personally participate inside the Republican Party,\u201d Blackwell said. \u201cA Republican majority will mean a conservative majority if and when a sufficient number of conservatives figure out why the success of their principles depends on their personal involvement in local, state and national Republican Party committees and in party nomination contests.\u201d<\/p>\n

A spokesman for the state party did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

Heghmann\u2019s suit comes a week after the Senate failed by one vote to approve a bill to repeal the ACA.<\/p>\n

It argues that the national GOP raised more than $735 million and Virginia\u2019s party more than $20 million from 2009 to 2016 in large part by promising to repeal the Affordable Care Act.<\/p>\n

Heghmann said he has standing to sue the GOP because has been a contributor. Federal Election Commission records show he gave a total of $875 to New Hampshire\u2019s GOP, but no donations were noted for the national party or Virginia. He was a Granite State resident for more than a decade \u2013 and a Trump campaign volunteer there \u2013 before moving to the Beach last year.<\/p>\n

He wants the party to either return campaign contributions to donors or exert pressure on Republican legislators to repeal the law under threat of losing GOP financial support. He acknowledged that members of the House of Representatives and Senate cannot be sued for failing to abide by campaign promises but argued that political parties don\u2019t have the same protections.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\u201cIf the candidates don\u2019t deliver, it\u2019s incumbent on the RNC to go to the candidate and say, \u2018You can\u2019t do this,\u2019 \u201d Heghmann said before filing the suit, referring to the Republican National Committee.<\/p>\n

Heghmann\u2019s suit contends that Republicans knew the GOP wouldn\u2019t be able to repeal the health care law after President Barack Obama\u2019s re-election in November 2012 but continued to raise money on the promise it would.<\/p>\n

As evidence, he pointed to comments by then-House Speaker John Boehner just after Obama\u2019s re-election.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s pretty clear that the president was re-elected. Obamacare is the law of the land,\u201d the Ohio Republican said when asked if the GOP-controlled House would push again for a repeal of the 2010 health care law. \u201cThere certainly may be parts of it we believe need to be changed. Maybe we\u2019ll do that. No decisions at this point.\u201d<\/p>\n

Heghmann\u2019s suit states: \u201cIn 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

The \u201cpattern of racketeering\u201d extended to the party\u2019s response to Trump\u2019s candidacy, his suit states. The GOP units raised money to push the health care repeal or Trump\u2019s promises but \u201cnever intended to implement the Trump Agenda or fulfill the promises of the Republican Platform.<\/p>\n

___
\nhttp:\/\/pilotonline.com\/news\/government\/politics\/virginia\/republican-donor-from-virginia-beach-sues-gop-accusing-the-party\/article_f7e5e7ec-f6ad-5d09-90d5-29774701b0c2.html<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Republican donor from Virginia Beach sues GOP, accusing the party of fraud over failed Obamacare repeal<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-80044","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80044","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=80044"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80044\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=80044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=80044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=80044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}