Trump campaign chief of staff was arrested, charged with campaign-finance violations in 2016 - Business Insider
Category: News & Politics
Via: jbb • 4 years ago • 73 commentsBy: Darren Samuelsohn, John Cook (Business Insider)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Stephanie Alexander in her 2016 booking photo. Oklahoma County District Attorney
- Stephanie Alexander was named chief of staff of President Trump's reelection campaign on Tuesday.
- In 2016, Alexander — then named Stephanie Milligan — was arrested in Oklahoma and charged with conspiracy to violate state campaign-finance laws. The charges were later dropped, and the case was expunged last month at Alexander's request.
- Prosecutors alleged that Alexander and several coconspirators illegally coordinated the efforts of a "dark-money" independent group with the campaign of a GOP candidate for Oklahoma superintendent of public instruction.
- The case relied in part on texts and emails recovered from Alexander's then-boyfriend, Chad Alexander, who was charged with possession of cocaine in 2014, according to court records. The two are now married.
- Prosecutors dropped the case against Stephanie Alexander without explanation in 2017, saying that the investigation would continue.
- The Trump campaign says Alexander is "a campaign professional and continues to be a valued member of the team."
- Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
The newly promoted chief of staff for Donald Trump's presidential campaign was arrested in Oklahoma in 2016 and charged with conspiracy to violate state election laws after police seized her then-boyfriend's phone in a cocaine bust, Insider has learned.
Stephanie Alexander, previously the Trump campaign's Midwest political director, was bumped up to chief of staff Tuesday in a campaign shake-up. Before she joined the Trump campaign, Alexander was active in state GOP politics in Oklahoma, where charges filed in 2016 alleged that she participated in a conspiracy to illegally coordinate dark money in a 2014 race for state superintendent of public instruction.
Alexander pleaded not guilty, and the state dropped the charges in 2017 without explanation. Last month, a state judge granted Alexander's request to both expunge and seal the court records on the case.
When she was asked for comment about the 4-year-old case, Trump campaign spokeswoman Erin Perrine defended the president's new 2020 chief of staff. "Stephanie Alexander is a campaign professional and continues to be a valued member of the team," she said.
An alleged conspiracy to conceal dark-money donors
The 2014 state-superintendent race pitted two Republicans against each other in the primary: challenger Joy Hofmeister and incumbent Janet Barresi. Alexander and her boyfriend at the time, political consultant Chad Alexander — the pair have since married — both worked to establish an apparently independent advocacy organization called Oklahomans for Public School Excellence (OPSE) that raised money from anonymous donors and ran a $300,000 ad barrage attacking Barresi during the campaign.
But according to criminal information filed against Alexander and four people suspected of being coconspirators just days before the 2016 presidential election by the office of Oklahoma County District Attorney David Prater, OPSE was a front organization designed to conceal "a conspiracy to commit campaign contribution violations and illegal coordination" between Hofmeister and dark-money donors.
It is illegal in Oklahoma for donors to give more than $5,000 to a campaign, and independent groups that raise larger amounts are banned from coordinating with campaigns.
The information, which used Alexander's name at the time, Stephanie Milligan, cited text messages and emails in accusing Alexander, Hofmeister, and others of secretly coordinating OPSE's activities with the Hofmeister campaign.
A cocaine arrest provides a break in the case
Chad Alexander was charged with possession of cocaine in 2014. Oklahoma County District Attorney
State prosecutors got a break in the case in May 2014 when Chad Alexander, who previously served as the chairman of the Oklahoma Republican Party, was arrested on a cocaine-possession charge while driving his Mercedes in Oklahoma City. Police seized his cellphones and computer and found texts and emails showing communications between Alexander, Hofmeister, and others. Prosecutors alleged the conversations showed them plotting a dark-money strategy to run ads against Barresi.
After the cocaine arrest, Stephanie Alexander took over Chad Alexander's role at OPSE. Hofmeister won the election.
Chad Alexander later pleaded guilty to felony cocaine possession. He did not respond to messages seeking comment.
At the time of her arrest in November 2016, Stephanie Alexander was already serving as a battleground campaign official on the Trump presidential campaign. According to court records, Alexander refused to sit for an interview with investigators but offered to answer written questions from the state prosecutors.
She faced up to 10 years in jail on three felony counts. But Prater, the district attorney, abruptly withdrew all charges in the case in August 2017.
Why was the case dismissed? 'I have my suspicions,' retired investigator says.
At the time, Prater told local news outlets the case was not over and that the charges had been withdrawn only temporarily "pending further investigation."
"We're not done," he told the website NonDoc. "We've had information come to us over the last several months regarding one or more of the defendants that we need to follow up on before we take the case to preliminary hearing."
But the case was never refiled.
A spokesman for Prater did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Gary Eastland, who was the chief investigator on the Hofmeister-Alexander case in Prater's office, said in an interview that he remained befuddled as to why the charges were never refiled.
"That's a damn good question," said Eastland, who retired from the district attorney's office in April 2017 about four months before the state filed for the case to be dismissed. "I have my suspicions."
Alexander was a 'co-debtor' in her husband's recent bankruptcy, which erased more than $250,000 in debt to the IRS
The Hofmeister affair wasn't the only time that Chad and Stephanie Alexander ended up in court: Chad Alexander filed for bankruptcy in Oklahoma in November, according to court records. Stephanie Alexander is listed in filings as a "co-debtor." Among the debts that were discharged when Alexander exited bankruptcy in March: $262,576 in unpaid taxes to the IRS and $50,406 in unpaid taxes to the Oklahoma Tax Commission.
Alexander's promotion on the Trump campaign came as part of a wider realignment of key staffers working to win four more years for the president. Effective Tuesday, Bill Stepien, a former White House political director, became deputy campaign manager, while Alexander took on the role of chief of staff.
A press release from Trump's reelection team announcing the job changes noted Alexander's experience as the Midwest regional political director for Trump Victory, a joint operation between the president's campaign and the Republican National Committee. It also referenced her work as a GOP consultant and fundraiser to both state and federal candidates, as well as corporations, nonprofits, and political action committees.
Alexander cited her role as a member of the president's political efforts "since the beginning" and highlighted the 2020 effort than includes a thousand paid staffers and more than 1 million trained volunteers.
"I am proud to take a larger role in that machine," she said.
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You can always know what the damn gop is up to by whatever the gop accuse the Democrats of doing..
And as I always hear around here: "Where is the conviction?"
The case is still "under investigation". It is a political hot potato in Oklahoma. It is unresolved.
negated by all the hours of service she had previously performed on the local republican community.
On her knees no doubt.
her local cell number spelled out slurpee ...
The case was sidelined due to political pressure but Oklahoma County prosecutors still maintain that it remains "under investigation". The whole thing stinks! I have read all about it for years.
It says the case continues to be investigated!
Fill in the blanks...
... speaking of fascist with multiple accounts...
but, but, but...
... it's always somebody else's fault, isn't it ...
Aren't you the one that had at least 2 accounts? You should know that's against the rules. Unless, of course, the rules don't apply to you.
And this is ticketed in 3...2...1...
No worries TG, it's the majority of my comments that get deleted. Alleged taunting, alleged trolling, alleged COC violations. Trumpturd supporters? Not so much.
All his supporters go running and whining and crying to Perrie for every comment I make, every single comment.
I see someone flagged your comment though. Gee, I wonder who?
I knew somebody would flag it
It wasn't me...
I knew it wasn't
While the rules may apply the consequences don't.
2016? Hell, check out the Trump money laundering machine now. Bet there's a lot of Russian money in there--Saudi too.
And what is the latest on the NRA. It's been quiet for to long. Something going on there?
I guess Trump hired Alexander for her experience...
and talents?
Talents? Well, not with her makeup anyway...
Those talents must be 'under the table'
MJL-3 always gigged her about her makeup...
Interesting. MJL was my first 'friend' on the old Newsvine.
She had a lot of losses and was dealing with health issues last I heard. I need to call her...
MJL-3 and Driftwood were mortal enemies.
Have not heard from MJL-3 since Newsvine.
Must add that Cornhuskers for Palin--CH4P--is still around though---in the state of chameleon.
Oh look, she's a member here at NT.
That's "Driftwood".
Being the Deputy Campaign Director of a United States Presidential Reelection Campaign.is a historic and public position. She is Number Two! Can you believe it? People have every right to know who is really pulling the strings behind the scenes. I expect that she was hired specifically for her expertise with internet politics and social media. She is already infamous online...
she always has been. I wonder if she ever sent her teenage daughter to get that autographed picture from ted nugent, like I suggested several years ago.
She was always trying to find some angle to accuse members on NV of being paedophiles. So, it is no surprise that is a common tactic of the current Trump campaign and of QANON which I am sure is somehow related to her online activities and cohorts Braveheart aka traevarB. Remember that shit?
yup. I took out 3 or 4 of them as reregs with my ted the ped commentary on a Keith Olbermann seed. she was the prime reason for lots of dick blisters among the fascist right on NV.
I think it is kind of big news that an infamous rereg internet troll runs Trump's campaign...
Holy shitindiddles. I forgot about that mess.
seems so...
I found her twitter. she posted like 5mins ago....
too busy for us little people... LOL
Moved on, finally, to bigger and better things.
Or, not...
She was especially known for maintaining multiple accounts and pretending to be multiple persons at one once. One time Sally at NV busted her for running about a dozen different accounts simultaneously. She was using them to collapse liberal articles all by herself by flagging them from all the different accounts she managed. It was quite the scandal.
I bet that wasn't even driftwood. Not her actual picture I mean.
Idk. She was also known here as "Addicted-to-me".
Such an inflated sense of herself. I remember how much I didn't care for her or her multiple identities.
And Nell Quickly...
I remember someone from NV, maybe Nixie or Trixie, or something like that, who tried to dox me. Found out what my work computer IP address was and reported me to my IT people.
Used to have a site called Liberal Heretic, along with some other nasty NV troll, who I tried to troll as much as possible, but it was a really crappy site, didn't have much going for it.
Nasty bitch.
Exactly what I thought when I saw this article.
She once posted pictures from her wedding trip.
Milligan's marriage to Chad Alexander failed quickly although she still goes by Alexander.
Apparently cocaine and alcohol played a part...
drifty kicked chad to the curb after she met his coke dealer.
She is a see you next tuesday...i remember her from NV...she had so many parachute accounts. She is a revolting human being
I think driftwood used that photo but it's not really her.
For all we know driftwood could be a 60 year old gray haired man
I think that's true for a lot of posters on NV. I remember hearing about some other members about certain posters who were nowhere near who/what they claimed to be. That is true on any internet site I guess.
I don't put my real picture up here because I can only imagine the insults right now. Granted it would be only certain posters who would be so low to insult me about certain things, but I don't want to give them any ammunition.
I recall when NJ Person and Ron W started a public campaign to get Angry Left fired by organizing a campaign of crank calls to his workplace and professional governing board.
They were Drifty's main acolytes on NV.
The picture is of Stephanie Alexander formerly Mulligan, Trump's Deputy Reelection Chief...
I remember that now! Yet certain posters blame us decent folks for the cesspool NV became.
I thought I recognized that photo! That's not really her, is it? Driftwood?
it probably wouldn't matter after her legion of NV acolytes worked up a chub ...
wish I would've gotten a free lunch every time she got banned on NV ...
I would be 800 pounds and so would you...but probably not
For more from Stephanie Alexander see her Twitter.
Trump would probably hire a Mafia don if it would help him get elected.
He is pretty much scraping the bottom of the barrel if he is hiring infamous internet trolls with personal, legal and substance abuse problems. The corp of professional rightwing campaign managers have already been though the Trump mill or just want to get past this nightmare with their careers intact...
And unindicted. There'll be a political postmortem.
And then there is this...
Trump and Milligan - Alexander go way back
And, there is more...
https://www.reddit.com/r/WhitePeopleTwitter/comments/gyixns/if_youre_planning_on_stealing_another_election/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share
Is it too much to ask that seeds be sourced with a website that doesn't require a freakin' password?
I wanted to look at the article itself but it requires a membership and I ain't falling for the "free membership pass"
Which site? Business Insider does not require any passwords or memberships. The link takes me directly to the story with no paywall or anything...
It's quite annoying when I try to go to the twitter links, I'm asked to verify my e-mail address. Can't you all just post the info. without the link?
That is probably doable. I did not run into any paywalls or signins on the links provided.