Conspiracy to Illegally Conduct MIGOP Business
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Dear Precinct Delegates,
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Any claims that I have been removed as chair are false.

Malinda Pego, Matt Deperno, Bree Moggenberg, and others have conspired to illegally undermine the entire state committee and 2,100 precinct delegates who voted in a fair election on February 18, 2023.

These individuals:

1. On 12/2/23, submitted a special meeting request, requesting that a 12/27 meeting occur with Hassan Nehme to chair the meeting and Ann DeLise as the secretary, which is not compliant per MIGOP bylaws and contained agenda items that needed previous requirements satisfied before becoming legitimate agenda items. These individuals knew that the special meeting request contained agenda items and other meeting requests that violated MIGOP bylaws. Therefore invalidating their meeting request. The policy chair and I informed them that the meeting request was invalid for the above reasons.
2. On 12/31/23, Bree Moggenberg emailed State Committee members, claiming a special State Committee meeting would be held 1/6/24 at 1 pm.
3. The State Committee was again informed that this meeting request was invalid because the proper procedure to remove anyone or amend MIGOP bylaws had yet to be followed. Additionally, a new special meeting request has yet to be submitted.
4. Malinda Pego and others in the media began falsely claiming the 1/6 meeting was legitimate, citing the 12/2 request that contained demands that violated MIGOP bylaws.
5. According to those who organized the 1/6 gathering to conduct business as the Michigan Republican Party illegally. The proceedings were to begin at 1 pm.
6. I was informed that Malinda Pego was chairing this illegitimate meeting that roughly 40 state committee members attended, which was announced to begin at 1 pm.
7. As should be expected, a majority of State Committee members did not attend this gathering as they were informed that this meeting did not comply with Michigan Republican Party bylaws.
8. Some individuals who did not attend the illegitimate meeting had proxies assigned by district chairs who conspired in this plot.
9. That’s when roughly 55 people, only approximately 40, are actual State Committee members at this illegitimate meeting chaired by Malinda Pego, who amended the bylaws to lower the threshold to remove people to 60 percent. None of the proper process mandated by the bylaws to amend the bylaws was followed.
10. At 1:49 pm, the secretary received an email from Matt Deperno claiming that 54 State Committee members had signed a petition to vote to remove Dan Hartman, the legitimacy of these signatures HAVE NOT been verified by the MIGOP Secretary.
11. Then, it was reported that roughly 40 people took a vote with a secret ballot to claim that I was no longer chair. They also claimed to remove other State Committee members, such as Dr. Phil O’Halloran, Lori Skibo, and Braden Giacobazzi.
12. Immediately, these conspirators had the media lined up to fraudulently claim that I was removed as chair.
13. With our children’s future and everything at stake, these individuals are now jeopardizing our chances of winning in 2024. They do not care.
14. The Grassroots spoke as to who they wanted their chair to be the counterfeit- conservatives who are co-conspirators with Democrats will do anything, including breaking the law, to get their power back.
15. Not only is their conduct unlawful, but swift and appropriate action will be taken.

‍Why did we accept a loan to pay the speaking fee of our keynote speaker at the Mackinac Leadership Conference in September?
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As many of you know, our keynote speaker, the actor Jim Caviezel, was the star of one of the highest grossing movies of all time, The Passion of the Christ. He was just coming off the blockbuster nationwide movie Sound of Freedom which dealt with the problem of child sex trafficking. Fees for nationally-recognized speakers are not cheap, but Jim Caviezel was WORTH the money, and he delivered. No only did he draw many Republicans who wouldn't have otherwise attended, he also provided for thousands in additional revenues from add-on appearances.
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My authority as Chair allows me to put on events. If an event has certain expenses, as executive, I am authorized to pay for them with any method I see fit, even entering into a loan agreement to do so. Under the bylaws, the Chair does not necessarily have to bring the expenses or the method of raising funds to a vote by the State Committee. The previous Chair, Ron Weiser, also took out very sizable loans (and entered into lawsuits) without votes from the State Committee.
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After the announcement that Jim Caviezel would be our keynote speaker, we saw an influx of new ticket sales which resulted in a shortage of rooms available! In other words, we sold out the event! After paying all fees, including the full repayment of the loan, we cleared $28,000 in net profits.