LNC Special Investigatory Committee Report

Jessi Cowart

Jessi Cowart

Vice Chair
Hi all,

I am writing this post in my capacity as your Region 3 South Alternate on the LNC. You'll recall that at our LPTexas SLEC meeting in Waco (May 3), I'd indicated that the Special Investigatory Committee would be presenting their report at the LNC meeting later that month in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

As you likely know, that was postponed, but the LNC met last night to review and adopt the report. I thought it appropriate to provide you with an update on that now rather than waiting until our August SLEC meeting. Below I've provided the key points, along with the verbiage of the resolutions the LNC passed last night.

Where can I view the report?
You can review the report here: https://lpedia.org/wiki/File:Special_Investigatory_Committee_Report.pdf

Resolution #1
"Whereas the Special Investigatory Committee finds that former Chair Angela McArdle violated her fiduciary duty to the Libertarian Party by concealing conflicts of interest and misusing donor funds, be it hereby resolved that the Libertarian National Committee deems Angela McArdle unfit to serve on the Libertarian National Committee, as an affiliate leader or as a candidate representing the Libertarian Party.

Be it further resolved that the Libertarian National Committee encourages the Bylaws Committee to review and propose bylaws changes that would codify the handling of members found to have engaged in financial malfeasance and/or other egregious actions."

Resolution #2
"Whereas the Special Investigatory Committee finds that former Chair Angela McArdle financially benefitted from her deception of the Libertarian National Committee,

And whereas the Libertarian National Committee is unlikely to recover the full amount of misappropriated funds without incurring costs above that which was misappropriated,

Be it resolved that the Libertarian National Committee shall explore fundraising and/or pro bono legal counsel to pursue the recovery of funds, under any legal procedures available, as outlined in this report and any supplemental report(s) produced by the Special Investigatory Committee."

Anything else I should know?
Yes. The Special Investigatory Committee will also be looking in to convention and credit card expenses (hence the reference to "any supplemental report(s)" in Resolution #2). For your reference, the verbiage of the motion that was passed to that effect is below:

Understanding that the Special Investigatory Committee (SIC) focused primarily on Freedom Calls, LLC, Swing Vote Strategists, LLC and various conflicts of interest for this report, I move that the SIC be directed to prepare a supplemental report, which may be made public at the direction of the Libertarian National Committee, reviewing past convention expenses and credit card expenses.
 
@Jessi Cowart thank you for communicating this.

The SIC clearly did a tremendous amount of work, and I appreciate the effort that went into producing this report. Having worked in quality process control, I have a general idea of just how much time and attention that requires—and it’s a lot. The harder part, though, is remaining impartial. I believe this report demonstrates that balance clearly and effectively.

I also want to thank @Paul Darr for his leadership as Chair of the SIC. How he finds time to do all he does leads me to believe he’s invented a way to add hours to the day. Joking aside, these committees are rarely fun—they're full of political potholes. It takes strong leadership to navigate all of that and still deliver a report this thorough. Please pass along my respects to the entire SIC for their dedication and objectivity.

Having skimmed over the report last night, I found the findings troubling and indicative of significant governance failures. That said, I recognize that attempting to recoup the losses may cost more than we could ever recover. Instead, I recommend we treat this as a hard-earned lesson—and apply those lessons at every level of our organization, from county affiliates to the national committee. The old Russian saying, “Trust, but verify,” seems especially fitting here.
 
And how should they prevent anything like this from happening in the future? Is the Bylaws Committee considering implementing checks-and-balances? Or are they just hoping the delegates will elect someone who won't steal from them?
 
Thank you @Jessi Cowart for the update, and thank you @Paul Darr for all the hard work in the investigation.

As of me reading the released report last night, I, Nolan Schmidt, the Senate District 21 SLEC rep, highly condemn the actions of my senate district's constituents Angela McArdle and Austin Padgett for their actions as described in the LNC's Special Investigatory Committee Report.
 
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