Election security ‘expert’ scammed fire victims, Christians; fans still bought her a Tesla | Opinion

Well, it seems I may touched a nerve among conspiracy theorists across the country with my column last week on an upcoming Kansas legislative hearing on election security, that’s scheduled to give a platform to QAnon supporters and other “Stop the Steal” fringie flakes.

I’ve heard from folks from California to New York to Florida that I’ve got it all wrong, especially as my comments addressed one Tore Maras, a popular QAnon podcaster who’s scheduled to testify in Topeka during a two-day hearing of the 2023 Special Committee on Elections, Sept. 28 and 29.

It seems I just didn’t understand the overwhelming brilliance of Ms. Maras, who has at various times claimed to have been a Naval Intelligence officer, international intelligence contractor, a cryptolinguist, a medical researcher and a physician, among other things.

Writes one of my fans: “As you are exposed for being an enemy of America, an enemy of Freedom and as an agent of those seeking to destroy America and Freedom — you will look back on your defamatory articles such as this particular article and wish you had not lied to your readers. You will regret the day you decided to work for PRAVDA and disseminate propaganda.”

And there’s this gem: “ If you haven’t seen the election fraud evidence, you just aren’t looking or just don’t care. Again nice research dickhead.” It was signed by a person identifying themself as “Patriot, Q enthusiast, election denier, domestic terrorist.”

And this: “In case you hadn’t had a chance to look into the background of some of the ‘so-called’ Q Anon ‘Flakes’; one of them rigged 45 elections in various countries on behalf of the Federal Government before becoming a whistleblower. The last election she rigged was Ukraine in 2014. Tore Maras also has the ‘receipts’ for the 2020 election. Unlike your article her testimony is not based on opinion.”

Spent donated money at Walmart, body wax salon

I usually respond to such readers individually, but sometimes it makes more sense to address them collectively through this column.

My response is this: I am prince of Nigeria insert name here and have a large amount of money that I wish to share with you, if you would help me to transfer my funds out of my country.

If they’re gullible enough to fall for Maras’ patriot act, they’d probably fall for that too.

In my earlier column, I told you about how Maras had run for secretary of state of Ohio on the strength of a petition containing suspiciously incomplete addresses and mismatched signatures, which her lawyer argued didn’t matter — and so much for the sanctity and security of our elections.

But that’s not the half of it.

Maras, aka Terpsichore Maras-Lindeman and a host of other aliases, is a serial grifter who was found by a North Dakota court to have defrauded donors who gave to an online campaign she set up ostensibly to raise funds for victims of an apartment-house fire. The displaced resident never saw a dime of that donated money.

She followed that up with fund-raisers for “A Magic City Christmas,” a purported benefit concert for Minot-area homeless shelters featuring Christian entertainers Corey Feldman, Jason Crabb and Kaya Jones. Promoting the concert, she falsely claimed support from a local bank and the city government. She spent the proceeds at stores including Cash Wise, Walmart and Target and a local body-waxing salon, according to court documents.

“To give the false impression to consumers that her fundraising efforts had more support than they actually did, Lindeman recorded an ‘offline’ donation that was, in reality, ‘donated’ by Lindeman herself, a practice known as ‘astroturfing’ or ‘sockpuppetry,’” said the judgment, which ordered her to pay about $25,000 in fines and legal costs.

‘Created an entirely fake online persona’

Now, you may be thinking that with a history of astroturfing and sockpuppetry, she’d probably fit right in at the Kansas Legislature.

But as they say in infomercials, “Wait, there’s more!!!”

“Defendant, using various social media websites, created an entirely fake online persona,” the judgment said. “For example, Defendant falsely claimed to be a 22-year veteran of Naval Intelligence and a Purple Heart recipient. She also falsely claimed she was operating a medical laboratory (ML Labs) and that she was a doctor, among other false educational and employment accomplishments.”

But wait, there’s more!!!

Election denying has proven to be a gold mine — far more lucrative than bilking fire victims or would-be Christmas concertgoers. Through GoFundMe, fans of her “Tore Says” podcast donated more than $100,000 to buy her a new Tesla, and another GoFundMe collected more than $12,000 to buy her daughter a car for her sweet 16.

But wait, there’s even more!!!

Maras or Lindeman, or whatever her name is this week, was outed on Christmas Eve 2020 by The Washington Post as one of the supposed secret expert witnesses cited by lawyer Sidney Powell — a onetime President Donald Trump adviser — who filed lawsuits in multiple states seeking to overturn the 2020 election. Powell was more recently seen having her mug shot taken in jail, one of Trump’s co-defendants in a criminal racketeering case over efforts to overthrow the will of the voters in Georgia.

As I wrote in my first column, Maras (or Lindeman) is only the most prominent of the conspiracy theorists who’ve been granted more than two hours to address Kansas legislators under the banner of the Liberty Lions League.

There’s also Greg Shuey, leader of the Kansas Liberty Lions and self-taught election “expert,” who’s peddled a bizarre QAnon theory that the 2020 election was stolen via satellite from the U.S. Embassy in Rome, with assistance from the Vatican.

There’s Mark Cook, Lions’ IT guru, who was named in a lawsuit by the Colorado secretary of state last year, alleging he and another man helped a county election official make illegal copies of voting data.

There’s Thad Snider, a Lions’ “investigator” and “subject matter expert,” and someone named Bernie Rieter, qualifications unknown.

Shawnee Republican Sen. Mike Thompson, the chairman of the Election Committee and convener of the hearing, said he only became aware of the potential problems with his witnesses on Friday and that he’s checking into it to get their side of the story.

But this is not his first dance with the Liberty Lions.

The senator was a featured panelist in a convention of election deniers co-sponsored by them last year. Shuey and Snider also spoke at the confab.

Thompson should know better. Kansas voters deserve better.

Here’s hoping Thompson does the right thing and slams the brakes on this travesty of a legislative hearing, before this gets really embarrassing.