"Over drinks, she says, the two began to hatch an idea for an issue campaign that would promote science and reason."
1/31/14, "Hillary Clinton, Richard Branson, and the 25-Year-Old Wunderkind Dems Fell For," National Journal, Daniel Libit
"When Rory McCarron started Invest Again, people joined him in droves. Then everything fell apart."
"There's no better way to travel to Davos than on
somebody else's Gulfstream. And that's how the Democratic operatives
involved in Invest Again thought they were going to fly: They were going
to go to Switzerland on a private plane owned by the heirs of the
Goodrich tire fortune. They were going to meet with Bill and Hillary
Clinton, and with Richard Branson, the Virgin Atlantic founder, who had
supposedly pledged $12 million in seed money for their new organization.
Invest
Again: It was a progressive organizer's dream. People quit good jobs to
join the staff. Major Democratic strategy firms—Bully Pulpit, a
digital media shop founded by Obama campaign alumni; NGP VAN, which
supplied software for President Obama's 2012 campaign; Fitzgibbon Media,
whose client roster includes MoveOn.org, NARAL, and Julian
Assange—signed on to create an issue campaign promoting science and
science research, some with contracts worth hundreds of thousands of
dollars apiece. Bruce Kieloch, the Democratic fundraiser, and Kimball
Stroud, the D.C. event guru, both deeply tapped into the world of
high-net-worth Washington Democrats, had joined up as consultants.
There
was a proposed budget of $30 million over the first 18 months,
according to a draft of a campaign plan, with $4 million for staff
alone.
And
it was largely the brainchild of a 25-year-old wunderkind named Rory
McCarron. Over the course of a few months, McCarron had turned a
cocktail-napkin idea into a serious multimillion-dollar operation. It
was impressive, and he was impressive: whip-smart and knowledgeable
enough to make people want to join his cause, and likable and earnest
enough to make people want to offer him a place to crash.
Not that he should have needed one, say some of those
who worked with him, because he often mentioned his wealth and
connections. They say McCarron told them that he had a trust fund of $60
million, and recall him talking at length about his close ties to
Hillary Clinton: that he was a key member of her campaign and her team
at the State Department; that they spoke almost weekly. He was said to
refer to her as "Mama H."
"Ninety
percent of his conversation was about Hillary Clinton and how close
they were," says Erica Payne, a progressive activist and the president
of the Agenda Project, who says she met McCarron on three separate
occasions. "Actually, about 60 percent was about how close they were and
the other 40 percent was about how much money he had."
But
now, just a few months after the launch of Invest Again, several
involved parties are coming forward claiming to be victims of deceit by
the young man they once believed to be a star in the organizing world.
They say they're not sure what to believe now, other than that the
organization's resources and connections seem to be largely fabricated.
McCarron, for his part, is fighting back vigorously, saying he is the
victim of a smear campaign. He pins most of the blame on Kieloch, the
fundraiser, and the first in the group to openly raise questions about
McCarron's background.
However
this ultimately shakes out, it appears that Invest Again, a campaign
and organization that flashed onto the Washington landscape with a bang,
will be headed toward a similarly hair-trigger extinction. Lawyers are
now involved, lawsuits are being threatened. Simply put, it's a mess.
What follows is the kind of story that makes you say, "How could this happen in Washington?" and, at the same time, "Of course
this happened in Washington." It is a tale of the capital's fast-paced,
who-you-know culture, where connections are currency as good as cash,
and relationships, formed at IM speed, are sometimes sealed without so
much as a single face to face meeting. Like everything else in 2014, it
is a story that moves quickly....
Last
summer, a young man named Rory McCarron began working in New York for
Caring Across Generations, a union-funded campaign designed to promote
improved home health care options for those in need. While there,
McCarron befriended Eleiza Braun, the group's communications director,
who had previously worked in Geneva, for The Global Fund.
.
When they weren't hard at work, Braun says, she and McCarron would often spend time talking shop. McCarron had previously worked as a digital director for Democrat Kathleen Falk's gubernatorial campaign in Wisconsin and, to Braun, he seemed savvy and well versed in a world for which, at 31, she felt almost too old.
When they weren't hard at work, Braun says, she and McCarron would often spend time talking shop. McCarron had previously worked as a digital director for Democrat Kathleen Falk's gubernatorial campaign in Wisconsin and, to Braun, he seemed savvy and well versed in a world for which, at 31, she felt almost too old.
His
online bio said he had gone to Williams College and had served as
executive director of a Hillary Clinton-related super PAC called HRC
Legacy PAC. Indeed, Braun says, he told her in great detail about his
close ties to the former secretary of State.
Over
drinks, she says, the two began to hatch an idea for an issue campaign
that would promote science and reason. "We thought it would be a really
good political bridge issue," Braun says.
"Where
did the idea come from? [Over] a lot of drinks consumed, you talk about
different ways to run campaigns. That is the thing you do in bars with
like-minded people," she says.
Soon,
they started talking to others about their idea and, eventually, Braun
introduced McCarron to Kieloch, a longtime Democratic and progressive
fundraiser who currently consults for House Majority PAC. Braun knew
Kieloch also had Clinton ties—namely to Hillary's brother, Tony Rodham.
McCarron and Kieloch first met at a political event in Connecticut and hit it off. "He was warm and friendly and charismatic; a little quirky—but aren't we all?" says Kieloch.
By
July, McCarron had left Caring Across Generations and, as the summer
came to a close, he and Braun were shaping their new organization.
The
following month, McCarron asked Braun if she might contribute some
notes for a speech Clinton would be giving on the use of force in Syria.
Braun says she was flattered by the opportunity, and wrote up some
talking points, which McCarron said he passed along to Clinton staffers.
According to Braun, McCarron specifically claimed to have passed them
along to Cheryl Mills, a longtime Clinton associate who served as her
chief of staff at the State Department....
According
to Braun, this wasn't the only time McCarron had forwarded her an email
conversation in which he appeared to be conversing with a Clintonite. National Journal was
also provided copies of two other such email exchanges, in which
McCarron appears to be in friendly communication with Robert Reich, Bill
Clinton's former Labor secretary, and Anne-Marie Slaughter, president
and CEO of the New America Foundation, who served under Hillary Clinton
at State....
Kieloch invited McCarron and McCarron's boyfriend to
his mountain house in Virginia over Thanksgiving, and the two stayed
several days thereafter for Kieloch's birthday party. McCarron was
introduced to a number of Kieloch's friends, including Nora Maccoby, a
filmmaker who cowrote the movie Buffalo Soldiers, and who spent several years working on environmental advocacy issues. She took an immediate liking to McCarron.
"I
thought he was smart, and all our friends thought he was smart," she
says. "He is gay and fat and kind of innocent. It was this whole teen
innocence: He seemed pure in his intentions on science and getting
investment in science and taking on the Koch Brothers, and that to me
was really admirable and basically what I had been doing."
Maccoby
also recalls McCarron talking about Hillary Clinton. "It was like he
was on the phone with Hillary all the time," she says. Indeed,
Maccoby took such a liking to McCarron that she invited him and his
boyfriend to stay with her and her husband in their house for several
weeks.
And
so it was that McCarron became baked in Washington's convection oven of
credibility....And the
new, digital Washington, Washington 2.0, is more porous and accessible
than ever; no suit or tie required, no proof of degree or driver's
license necessary....
And
he was able to deliver enough, initially, to convince others he had the
goods. Maccoby recalls McCarron arranging a meeting for the two of them
with a contact at the Defense Department. Eventually, she says, she
agreed to join Invest Again as director of partnerships and outreach,
for a salary of $90,000 a year. Kieloch said he was impressed by the
Hillary Clinton esoterica McCarron seemed to know—the kinds of things,
he says, like the fact that Clinton had a getaway cabin in Lake Winola,
Pa., to which one might assume only a true member of the club would be
privy....
In addition to claiming to be a go-between with the
Clintons, say those involved with the group, McCarron also made claims
about major funding commitments, including a purported $12 million
pledge from Branson, the Virgin Atlantic billionaire. A copy of a Google
Hangout conversation from Dec. 5, provided to National Journal, appears to show McCarron describing the terms of the deal: "Branson in for 12."
Two
weeks later, McCarron provided to Braun and Kieloch a PDF copy of a
letter of intent, apparently signed by Branson, on stationary bearing
the Virgin logo.
"I
have thoroughly enjoyed my conversations with you and your team over
the past month and look forward to the great work we can do together,"
the letter says.
Over
the next month, the team planned for three big powwows surrounding
Invest Again's major public unveiling: There was a trip to Hollywood for
the Golden Globes, where they would schmooze with talent agents and
celebrities and potential donors; a trip to Davos, where McCarron said
he had arranged meetings with the Clintons and Branson; and an event at
the South by Southwest music festival in Austin, Texas....
On
Jan. 9, an email apparently sent from McCarron to Kieloch and Braun
outlined the Davos itinerary. It said he had scheduled time with Branson
for "all day" on the 23rd and 24th, and Bill Clinton for all day on the
24th and a two-hour block on the 23rd. Also referenced in the email was
a speech McCarron said he was supposed to give in conjunction with
receiving a young leadership award at the World Economic Forum,
according to Kieloch. Kieloch and Braun also say McCarron told them that
he had secured his family's private plane for the transatlantic flight.
But
by then, Kieloch says, he was growing uneasy about the whole thing....
Back in Washington, a fuming Kieloch bombarded
McCarron with text messages and phone calls, telling him that he had
been uncovered as a fraud. In response, McCarron filed for an order of
protection in Los Angeles Superior Court, according to the court's
website. Braun and Kieloch had concluded by that point that they could
no longer count on anything McCarron had told them. They weren't going
to Davos; they weren't going to be flying on a Gulfstream. They braced
for the fallout and moved to try to find a way to put an end to
McCarron's control.
Braun
obtained her own lawyers and, according to several sources, Clinton
attorney David Kendall was apprised of some of the allegations involving
McCarron. Last Thursday, McCarron says, he met with Kendall. Reached by
phone, Kendall declined to comment.
The next day, according to an email obtained by National Journal,
McCarron tried to explain the Kendall meeting and the larger shake-up
surrounding Invest Again to a group of colleagues. He said that problems
started when Kieloch "started asking questions about my background and
threatened my life"—a charge Kieloch denies. Regarding the Kendall
meeting, he said, "the only concern he had was that the campaign was not
using Sec. Clinton's name to fundraise." ...
When I asked him about attending Williams College (his
LinkedIn profile had, until late Friday, said he graduated there in
2008), he told me he attended but ended up a few credits shy. When I
told him I checked with the registrar's office, and there was no record
of him ever attending the school, he said he and his mother requested
that his name be stricken from the records. (The person I followed up
with in the registrar's office said she didn't think this could be
done.) And so on it went.
Why
did it appear that HRC Legacy PAC had never raised any actual money,
but had instead garnered several reprimands from the FEC for having
missed filing requirements?
McCarron
replied that the PAC was just a device to help hide the names of donors
for a 501c(4) he operated, but wouldn't disclose any information about.
(501c(4) organizations are not required to disclose the names of
donors.) It was all just to "send a reporter on a goose hunt," he said.
"Reporters are our enemies."
McCarron
made one small concession about misportraying his ties to Clinton. He
acknowledged deceiving Braun into thinking that her Syria talking points
were going to be passed along to Clinton's people. He said he was just
trying to be nice and "give a colleague confidence in her writing."
On
our third telephone conversation, he said the $12 million pledge from
Branson, and the signed letter of intent, were legitimate.
"The Branson letter is something I got from someone on his team," McCarron said.
But when I forwarded a copy of the letter to Virgin, Christina Choi, Branson's spokeswoman, denied it had come from her boss.
"It was not written by Richard, who has not had contact with [McCarron]," Choi wrote in an email.
The Invest Again website came down this week.
"For
myself, one of the absolutely hardest pieces to process is I
legitimized him," says Braun. "People trusted him because they trusted
me. I was part of causing a nontrivial amount of hurt, whatever way it
happened."
Braun
says she herself spent $10,000 to help fund the website; many of the
consultants have put in significant time for which they now believe they
won't be paid. "There are two months of retainers we'll never get,"
said one contractor....
For
his part, McCarron says he is the one who has lost money—as much as
$45,000—and that his boyfriend has lost thousands as well. He says he is
going over things with his attorneys, and looking into filing a lawsuit
against his accusers within the next two weeks. "In this field," he says, "all you have is your reputation."" via Free Rep.
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