American Muckrakers

The Biggest Cunt I’ve Never Met; VIVEK RAMASWAMY

David B. Wheeler — Tue, 20 Oct 2026 20:25:00 GMT

As most of you know, I mostly use humor to humiliate terrible politicians. It works, and it keeps me sane.

This morning I read my friend Denver Riggleman’s post about Vivek Ramaswamy and the ad he just released against Dr. Amy Acton.

Then I did my own research. Go watch Denver’s piece. It hit him hard for personal reasons he discussed, and it hit me harder.

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I know what some of you are thinking. I’ve put out some nasty material on Madison Cawthorn, Mark “Nudeafrica.com” Robinson, and BeetleJuice Boebert. Guilty. But every one of those hit pieces was built on reporting, public records, images, and the politicians’ own words. They earned what they got.

And I have always drawn one line: family stays out of it. The only exception is when a politician drags an adult relative into the campaign themselves, like BeetleJuice showing up to testify at the sentencing hearings of her adult son, Tyler Boebert, the biggest crook in Garfield County, CO. You put them on the field, they’re in the game. Otherwise, hands off.

Ramaswamy didn’t just cross that line. He went looking for the most vulnerable person in Amy Acton’s life and put her on television.

Here is all you need to know. Dr. Acton’s mother is clearly a woman in crisis. When Amy was 12 years old, the state of Ohio took her away from that mother because of child abuse. Amy Acton survived that. She went on to become a doctor and the person who guided Ohio through the worst of a pandemic. That is the woman Vivek Ramaswamy decided to attack, and the weapon he chose was her abuser.

I don’t get incensed very often. Politics is not for the meek, and in 45 years I’ve been around plenty of weirdos, crooks, and, thankfully, some truly great candidates and staff. I’ve seen desperate. I have never seen anyone this desperate to win.

NOTE: What follows is NSFW, and may offend some. (I doubt it, my readers tend towards being tough minded.)
If that’s where you get off this post, no hard feelings. I won’t do this again, but I have to get it out of my system.

Vivek Ramaswamy is the biggest cunt I have ever not met in my 61 years on this earth.

I don’t use that word often. But I’m mostly English, so I’ll claim the heritage and ascribe it to this disgusting person. The only other politician I’ve ever slung it at is BeetleJuice Boebert, and even BB isn’t half the cunt Ramaswamy is.

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Don’t watch the ad unless you want to be sick to your stomach. I watched it so you don’t have to. And he’s not apologizing. He’s doubling down:

We actually do know what happened Vivek. Dr. Acton’s mother’s husband raped her.

Vivek deserves a special place in politician hell, and the good people of Ohio can send him there with a loss by double digits.

Send your love to . And, please send a vote of support via $5.00 or $1000. Donate if you can. I did.

As the only adults in this fucked up country right now, let’s stand up for Amy, and let’s put Ramaswamy where he belongs.

DBW

About the Author

David B. Wheeler is the president and co-founder of American Muckrakers, the Western North Carolina accountability organization best known for helping end Madison Cawthorn’s congressional career in 2022, the rare instance in modern politics of a sitting incumbent losing his own primary because somebody bothered to do the homework. Since then, American Muckrakers has turned its attention to Lauren Boebert, Ken Paxton, and a growing roster of politicians who confuse public office with a personal ATM. He publishes accountability journalism at Muckrakers.Today.

Wheeler co-hosts the MUCK YOU! podcast with Col. Moe Davis, the retired Air Force colonel and former chief prosecutor at Guantanamo Bay. He is the author of Color the Crooks, Case File #001: Lauren Boebert, the coloring book James Carville endorsed with the words “She earned every damn page. Buy it.” *He is also the founder of VoteROI.com, a political data company built on 86.9 million FEC records that helps donors figure out where their money actually goes, which, as this essay makes clear, is a question more people should be asking.

Before all that, Wheeler spent three decades in politics, elections, and event production in more than 50 countries on all seven continents. Along the way he lowered the Mississippi River, produced the first professional sports event ever held in Moscow, and produced the first marathon ever run on Antarctica. His political education started early: Page for the Iowa House of Representatives, intern in the United States Senate, and National Committeeman for Iowa on the Young Democrats of America national committee. David was the lead advance guy for then Senator Obama in Iowa City, Iowa, in October of 2006, and then again during his presidential announcement in Waterloo, Iowa, in February 2007. And, he has some good stories from both experiences.

An Iowa native and proud Hawkeye, Wheeler is a father of three and lives in the mountains of Western North Carolina, in the district Chuck Edwards is currently failing. He believes sunlight is the best disinfectant, filings don’t lie, and the loudest guy in the room is usually the one with the most to hide.

And, Beetlejuice Boebert claimed she was going to sue him. She never did, so David sued her in Federal Court in Denver and partially won.

Paid for by American Muckrakers PAC II (americanmuckrakers.com). Not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee. Donations made to American Muckrakers, Inc. are not deductible for federal or state tax purposes.

This publication is First Amendment protected speech and commentary on matters of public concern. All individuals referenced are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law. No portion of this publication may be used for commercial purposes without the written consent of American Muckrakers PAC, Inc. and David B. Wheeler.

I Asked Ten AIs to Call the Midterms. Then I Took Their Homework Away.

David B. Wheeler — Mon, 19 Oct 2026 22:17:27 GMT

Ten models, one question, two answers. The difference was a stack of paper. (Chatgpt image curated by me.)

Two weeks out. Every woman, man, non-binary, dog, cat and ant with a Substack and a spreadsheet has a prediction, and most of them are the same prediction with a different font. So I figured I’d skip the pundits and go straight to the machines. All of them.

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Ten chatbots: Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, Grok, DeepSeek, Kimi, Mistral, Perplexity, Meta, and Qwen. That’s two American, one French, three Chinese, and whatever Grok is. Three questions. Who gets the House. Who gets the Senate. How many governors does each side end up with. One answer each, no weaseling, no “it depends on turnout.” I told them to go read the polls, the betting markets, and my own model at DatumSignals.com before they opened their mouths.

Ten for ten: Democrats take the House. Ten for ten: Democrats take the Senate. Governors came back somewhere between 24 and 27 Democrats, up from the 24 we’ve got now.

Unanimous. Tidy. And about as useful as a weather forecast that says “look outside.”

Here’s the thing. When ten robots all read the same four websites (Kalshi, Polymarket, Cook, and whoever’s averaging the generic ballot this week), you don’t have ten opinions. You’ve got one opinion in ten costumes. That’s not intelligence. That’s plumbing. Same water, different faucets.

Every call, both rounds. Blue is Democratic, red is Republican, and the governor column is total Democratic governors out of 50. Yes, I made them show their work. Table by Chatgpt, curated by me.

So I did what my old editor at the North Warren Town and Country News would have done. I took the cheat sheets away. Ran it again: no polls, no markets, no forecast sites, no peeking at Datum. Figure it out from the map, the history, and whatever you think you know about the national mood. Give me a number.

The House didn’t blink.

All ten stayed Democratic, 68 to 92 percent. The president’s party has lost House seats in 18 of the last 20 midterms and the GOP majority is so thin you could read the Boebert indictment through it. If there were one. I’m just saying it’s thin.

The Senate fell apart.

Six of ten (ChatGPT, Gemini, Grok, DeepSeek, Perplexity, Meta) swung to Republicans holding the chamber, 55 to 65 percent. Their argument is straight out of Poli Sci 101 at Iowa, which I took, and which I’ll note was not a chatbot: Democrats need four net pickups, most of the GOP seats on the ballot sit in states that’d vote for a fence post with an R on it, and Senate races come down to candidates, not mood. A 50-50 tie still belongs to the vice president. Only four stuck with Democrats (Claude, Kimi, Mistral, Qwen), and only Qwen sounded sure, because it bothered to count: Republicans defending 20 seats, Democrats 13. Math. Who knew.

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Meta reasoned its way to a Republican hold using the 2024 map. Wrong year, pal. That’s like forecasting the Hawkeyes with Hayden Fry’s roster. Perplexity, the one that searches the web whether you ask it to or not, had the live numbers sitting right in front of it and still called it for Republicans once I told it to quit leaning on the forecasters. It reasoned straight past its own data. I know people like that. Some of them are in Congress.

Same ten robots, same day, same question. Six of them flipped the Senate from red to blue the second I let them look at the polls again. Call it artificial conviction. Image by Chatgpt curated by me.

So here’s the sentence that matters. With the data, the Senate is a 62 to 65 percent Democratic pickup. Without it, the machines say Republicans hold, six to four. The whole Democratic Senate case is the weather right now: presidential approval in the 30s, gas prices, a war nobody voted for, a generic ballot at D+9. Take away the thermometer and the map says the GOP survives.

That’s the election in one breath. The House is a fundamentals story. The Senate is a mood story. If the mood holds fifteen more days, Democrats get 51. If it slips even a little, Republicans keep the gavel at 50 or 51, and the new House majority spends two years passing bills that go across the Capitol to die.

Governors got messy.

Blind answers ran from “nothing changes” (DeepSeek, Perplexity, Meta, 24 D) all the way to 27 D. A few of the machines were working off maps older than my truck. One had Democrats “picking up” Maine, which Democrats already hold, and which Maine would probably like to keep. Toss those. The ones that actually knew the map clustered at 27 Democrats, 23 Republicans. That’d be the first Democratic majority of governors since 2010, back when the Ted Cruz was thinking about doing something with Boebert in Aspen.

The robots that knew the 2026 map landed at 27 Democratic governors. The ones reasoning from an old map saw no change at all. Can’t forecast a race you don’t know is on. Image by Chatgpt, curated by me.

So what does my model say?

Three inputs, one number. Structure, mood, and the midterm thermostat, refreshed daily and scored in public, which is more than I can say for most pundits. Image by Chatgpt curated by me.

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Datum Signals is the forecast I built for every Senate, governor, and House race in the country. It stands on three legs. First, structure: partisan lean, incumbency, how much money the challenger’s raising. Second, a behavioral mood index, state-by-state data on how people are actually feeling, updated every day. I call it the National Weather Service for civic emotions, and yes, I’ve trademarked that. Third, a midterm thermostat, the long-run habit voters have of smacking whoever’s in the White House. It refreshes daily and posts a live Brier score so you can see how often it’s been right. Out of sample, 2014 through 2024, it’s at 0.098. Lower is better. A coin flip is 0.25. Most cable guests would be happy to break 0.30.

This morning it’s got Democrats at 63 percent to take the Senate, 71 percent for the House, and 19 of the 36 governorships on the ballot, with Republicans at 16 and one toss-up. Add the seats that aren’t up and you land at 24 or 25 Democratic governors.

That puts Datum right in the pack on the Senate, which is where a mood-driven model ought to be. On the House it’s the most cautious number on the board; if this is a wave, we’ll be right on direction and a hair underconfident. On governors it’s on the low end, which tells me the toss-up bucket is probably hoarding races that belong in Lean D. I’ll be poking at that this week. The whole thing’s public at datumsignals.com/forecast, and if you think you can beat it, there’s a page for that too. Bring a lunch.

My calls, on the record.

House: Democrats.

Senate: Democrats, 51 to 49.

Governors: 27 Democrats, 23 Republicans.

I’ll grade every one of these against the actual results November 3, same as I grade the model, and the receipts will be sitting at datumsignals.com/calibration whether I like them or not.

One last thing.

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The point of a stunt like this isn’t to find out what the robots think. It’s to find out what they’re thinking with. Yank the inputs and you learn which of your beliefs are holding up the roof. Mine, it turns out, is a nine-point generic ballot surviving two more weeks. I’ll take that bet. But at least now I know exactly what I’m betting on.

I’ll run this whole circus again a week from today and once more on election eve. Same ten robots, same three questions. We’ll see who flinches.

Your turn.

Ten machines, one thermometer, and I’ve shown you my cards. Vote below and I’ll run your numbers against the robots next week. If this crowd beats ChatGPT, I’m putting it in the headline.

Finally, any comments, suggestions, or critiques are welcome.

DBW

About the Author

And, Beetlejuice Boebert claimed she was going to sue him. She never did, so David sued her in Federal Court in Denver and partially won.

The Lauren Boebert Crime Family Gravy Train, 2020 to 2026

David B. Wheeler — Sat, 17 Oct 2026 18:57:30 GMT

I pulled every electronic filing Lauren Boebert’s campaign and her six joint fundraising committees have submitted to the FEC since she first filed in late 2019. Not the summaries. The raw files, line by line, memo by memo, 107 reports with the amendments reconciled. Then I pulled the House of Representatives’ own Statement of Disbursements for every quarter she has been in office and laid her official payroll next to her campaign payroll.

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What you get is a gravy train extraordinaire. Donors in DC, FL, Rifle, Grand Junction and Windsor thought they were buying a fighter. What they bought was a lavish lifestyle for the candidate, her family and a second paycheck for the favorites around her.

Source: FEC Form 3 and 3X reports, Lauren Boebert for Congress (C00728238) and six joint fundraising committees, Dec 2019 to Sep 30, 2026. Sum of report cover-page totals: $18,331,747 disbursed.

The numbers

From December 2019 through September 30, 2026, Lauren Boebert for Congress reported $16.8 million in receipts and $16.6 million in disbursements. Team Boebert JFC and the smaller victory funds controlled by her moved another $1.8 million. Of the campaign’s itemized spending, about $1.02 million went to travel across 1,456 transactions, and about $188,000 went to food and drink across 319 transactions.

A million flipping dollars in travel for a House seat. Two hundred flights on United and American. Two hundred twenty-one Uber rides. Enterprise rental cars in Sarasota, Florida, over and over again, including one billed to the 2022 recount account in March 2023. The recount was in Colorado.

Source: FEC Schedule B itemized disbursements, all seven Boebert committees. Travel: 1,456 non-memo lines coded by purpose or payee (airlines, hotels, Uber, rental cars, mileage), $1,017,852. Meals: 319 lines coded catering, meals, restaurants, groceries or delivery, $187,865.

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The stuff you do not put on a campaign card

Start small. On July 12, 2024, the campaign paid $402.35 to Ray-Ban and called it “campaign attire.” That same reimbursement cycle included $240 to Halo Hair in Loveland, coded “debate prep.” The FEC has said for years that hair and clothing are personal expenses. Her compliance firm, Huckaby Davis Lisker, knows that. They filed it anyway.

Now go bigger. In June 2022 the campaign sent $36,000 to Post Hill Press, the publisher of her memoir. Another $6,000 followed in June 2023. Purpose: “Books.” A month before that first check, her campaign was running ads telling supporters to go buy the book. Her 2022 financial disclosure reported no royalty income. So the campaign bought tens of thousands of dollars of her own book from her own publisher, and we are supposed to believe none of that money found its way back to the author.

In May and June 2021 the campaign Venmo’d $6,650 to a man named John Pacheco in Rifle. The filing says “Rent/Utilities billed to campaign via Venmo in error.” She paid it back in July, after it showed up in the books. Rent. On a campaign card. By accident. Twice.

In 2026 the campaign started paying Vivint, a residential home alarm company, every month. She also expensed Starlink internet and a $1,163 Verizon bill. Safelite Autoglass got $2,635 across two visits, coded “travel/car repair.” Whose windshield?

If you like reporting like this, please consider a subscription or donating. This is my full time job and without support from folks like you I’m going to have to mow lawns or start flopping Whoppers. I hope you’ll help fund my reporting and holding horrible politicians, like BeetleJuice Boebert, and others.

Thank you, DBW

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There is a $15,000 payment to Grand Canyon Scenic Airlines in February 2022, a sightseeing and charter outfit in Boulder City, Nevada. There are nine stays at the Tideline Ocean Resort and Spa in Palm Beach totaling $14,519. There is the Trump hotel in Las Vegas, the Waldorf Astoria, the Brown Palace, and a $741 “event catering” bill at the Rainforest Cafe at Disney World. There are 32 Instacart orders, 37 King Soopers runs and 45 Grubhub deliveries, most of them coded as event catering or meeting expense. Somebody is eating very well on the donors’ dime.

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And there are the big checks nobody can explain. $50,000 to Rich Entertainment Touring in Nashville in the fall of 2022. $35,000 to Professional Bull Riders in May 2025 for “event site rental/tickets.” $4,148 to Sergio Gor, personally, for “event catering.” Sergio Gor is not a caterer. He is a Trump political operative.

FEC Schedule B, Lauren Boebert for Congress, filed purposes quoted verbatim. Filings: Rayban 1829215; Halo Hair 1788965; Pacheco/Venmo 1548113; Safelite 1753440, 1869503; Vivint 1966758 to 2027355; Post Hill Press 1602767, 1712914; Sergio Gor 1668264 (Team Boebert JFC, C00764803); mileage check 1539419.

You cannot read a motive off an FEC line, but you can add them up. I sorted every itemized disbursement into two tiers.

Tier one is spending that is hard to call anything but personal: $205,351 across 109 transactions. That is $78,652 in reimbursement checks written directly to Lauren Boebert, $42,000 for her own book, $38,126 in club memberships and dues at the Capitol Hill Club and the Conservative Partnership Center, $29,356 in clothing filed as campaign attire, $11,788 for the rent, the hair, the windshields, the home alarm, the Starlink and the Verizon bill, and $5,430 at the Apple Store.

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Tier two is the lifestyle. Travel, $946,972. Meals, groceries, Instacart and restaurants, $165,050. Entertainment and tickets, $109,360, which covers $50,000 to Rich Entertainment Touring in Nashville, the outfit behind Kid Rock’s tours, $35,000 to Professional Bull Riders, $7,500 to a California worship singer named John Feucht for “event entertainment,” and $5,000 to Rhema Music in Fruita, CO. That tier comes to $1,221,382.

Put the two together and you get roughly $1.45 million, about nine cents of every dollar her donors sent, spent on things that ended up on her plate, on her back, on her face, in her garage or in her hotel room. The $205,000 she will have trouble explaining. The $1.45 million she will have trouble living down.

Source: FEC Schedule B, all seven Boebert committees, non-memo lines sorted by purpose and payee. Tier one $205,351: checks to Boebert, her book, club dues, attire, rent, hair, car, home alarm, phone, Apple. Tier two $1,221,382: travel, meals, entertainment and tickets. Row-level detail in the Sources and Methods report below.

What she took home

Set the campaign aside for a second and just count what landed in Lauren Boebert’s own account.

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Her congressional salary, January 3, 2021 through September 30, 2026, at the statutory $174,000 a year: $998,505. On top of that, the House reimbursed her personally $76,654, according to the Statement of Disbursements: $58,119 in Washington lodging, including the $2,000 a month housing allowance she has drawn nearly every month since it started in 2023, $12,880 in meals, $3,688 in taxis and rideshares, $1,967 in airfare. Then her campaign wrote her 29 reimbursement checks totaling $78,652.

That is $1,153,811 paid to Lauren Boebert by Lauren Boebert’s employer (the taxpayers), Lauren Boebert’s office budget, and Lauren Boebert’s donors. The taxpayers covered her rent. The donors covered her mileage. And she still charged the Ray-Bans to the campaign.

Source: Member salary $174,000 per year (2 U.S.C. 4501), Jan 3, 2021 to Sep 30, 2026, $998,505. House Statement of Disbursements, 56 reimbursement rows paid to Boebert, Lauren, 2023 to Q2 2026, $76,654. FEC Schedule B, 29 reimbursement checks to Lauren Boebert, $78,652.

Code Red

A firm called Code Red Communications collected $256,212 from the campaign between August 2023 and October 2025 for “strategic consulting.” Its address on the filings moved from Grand Junction to Lone Tree in April 2024, right when she abandoned the Western Slope for the Fourth District. On December 6, 2024, a month after the election was over, the campaign cut Code Red a single check for $96,430.41.

Who owns Code Red Communications? What strategic consulting is worth $96,000 after the votes are counted? I do not know yet. I intend to find out.

Source: FEC Schedule B, Lauren Boebert for Congress, 20 payments to Code Red Communications, Aug 2023 to Oct 2025, $256,212. The $96,430.41 payment is filing 1869503, Dec 6, 2024, purpose “STRATEGIC CONSULTING/TRAVEL.”

The second paycheck

This is the part that should bother everyone, including the people who vote for her.

Thirteen people who drew a federal salary in her congressional office also drew checks from her campaign. Taxpayers paid those 13 people $3.85 million in House salary. The campaign paid them another $291,372 on top of it, most of it while they were on the House payroll.

Jeff Small was her chief of staff from January 2021 to January 2025. The taxpayers paid him $767,892 for that job. On December 13, 2022, the campaign paid him $28,057.69 for “strategic consulting/recount oversight.” On January 14, 2025, two weeks before he left the House payroll, the campaign paid him another $10,000 for “strategic consulting.” In between, the campaign reimbursed him $23,690 for travel and meals, much of it filed as “includes vendors not required to be itemized.” Translation: we are not telling you where the money went.

Source: House Statement of Disbursements, Q1 2021 to Q4 2024, personnel compensation to Small, Jeffrey D., Chief of Staff, $767,892. FEC Schedule B, Lauren Boebert for Congress, 13 payments to Jeff Small, $61,749, including filing 1684311 (Dec 13, 2022, $28,057.69, “recount oversight”) and 1887944 (Jan 14, 2025, $10,000, “strategic consulting”).

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Raven Finegan joined the House office in September 2022 as a Western Slope field rep and was promoted to regional director, district director and then district chief of staff in under three years, $456,014 in taxpayer salary along the way. On top of that she took $55,707 from the campaign, $15,500 of it labeled recount oversight. Jasmine Higgs, listed by the House as a part-time employee paid $282,833 over four years, took $41,195, including a $15,000 check in May 2023 for “recount oversight.” Clarice Navarro, her other district director, took $18,996. Daniel Hungerford, Jacob Settle, Ben Stout, Tabby Rosenthal, McKenna Farley, Bernadette Lake. Press secretary, comms director, legislative director, caseworker. All on both payrolls.

Source: House Statement of Disbursements, Q3 2022 to Q2 2026, personnel compensation to Finegan, Raven R., $456,014. FEC Schedule B, 16 payments to Raven Finegan, $55,707, including filings 1684311 (Dec 13, 2022, $8,000) and 1699499 (Mar 29, 2023, $7,500), both “recount oversight.”

Source: House Statement of Disbursements, 2021 to Q2 2026, personnel compensation for 13 employees of the Office of Rep. Lauren Boebert, $3,845,879. FEC Schedule B, campaign payments to the same 13 individuals, $291,372.

Source: House Statement of Disbursements personnel rows plus FEC Schedule B campaign payments, matched by name, top 10 by combined total. Taxpayers $3,728,559, donors $243,456, combined $3,972,015.

The recount that never ended

The 2022 recount was certified on December 12, 2022. The campaign spent $249,329 out of its recount account. $63,217 of that is dated after December 31, 2022. The $15,000 to Jasmine Higgs for recount oversight is dated May 8, 2023. Raven Finegan and McKenna Farley each got $7,500 for recount oversight on March 29, 2023. Rock Chalk Media got $48,250 out of the recount account for digital advertising.

There was nothing to oversee in May 2023. The recount had been over for five months. Those are bonuses with a label on them.

Source: FEC filing 1712914, Lauren Boebert for Congress, Schedule B, May 8, 2023, payee Jasmine Higgs, $15,000, purpose “ADMINISTRATIVE CONSULTING/RECOUNT OVERSIGHT- RECOUNT ACCT.” Recount certified Dec 12, 2022. Higgs on House payroll Aug 2022 to present per Statement of Disbursements.

The question I keep asking

I want to be precise here, because her lawyers read everything I write. The filings do not show a dollar going from any of these people back into Lauren Boebert’s pocket. They show a congresswoman who runs her campaign like a family business: the staff get paid twice, the candidate’s personal bills get paid once and corrected later, and the biggest checks go to vendors nobody has heard of for services nobody can describe.

So I will ask it as a question. When a chief of staff making $190,000 a year of public money gets a $28,000 “consulting” check from the boss’s campaign six days before Christmas, and the boss is a woman who has had tax liens, a foreclosure, a bankruptcy and a husband who could not keep a job, what is that money for? When a part-time House employee gets $15,000 to oversee a recount that ended five months earlier, who decided she had earned it, and what did she do with it?

I do not know the answer. I seriously wonder. I’ve heard rumors she’s allegedly demanding kick-backs. But that is unconfirmed.

And the people who do know are the same people cashing the checks.

What happens next

I have my anti-SLAPP case pending before the Weld County Courts. Boebert’s lawyer is due to file a response to our Motion by October 22nd after one extension was granted. We’ll see where that case goes.

If the FEC actually did it’s job, I would file another complaint about Boebert’s payments. But they’re pretty toothless right now and don’t even have enough members to convene a hearing or rule on complaints.

I’m hoping some former staffer, friend or family member that’s received a check will come forward and go on the record or file a whistleblower case and receive immunity from prosecution. The truth will eventually come out, in my experience in politics and with bad bosses like Boebert.

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Every row referenced here comes from the FEC’s own electronic filing system and the House Statement of Disbursements. A six-page sources and methods report, with every total, the staff table, and the FEC filing number for each transaction named above, is embedded below so you can check the work yourself. The full dataset, all 80,231 receipts and 4,149 disbursements, is going into the VoteROI database and will be published. If you worked in that office, or for that campaign, or you know who runs Code Red Communications, I would like to hear from you. Background or off the record is fine.

News tips: david@americanmuckrakers.com

DBW

Boebert Gravy Train Sources And Methods

17.2KB ∙ PDF file

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Here is how we did this report. I'm sure her lawyers will download it. I look forward to see them and LB in court in November. But, I doubt that will happen. She's a coward.

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About the Author

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David B. Wheeler is the president and co-founder of American Muckrakers, the Western North Carolina accountability organization best known for helping end Madison Cawthorn’s congressional career in 2022, the rare instance in modern politics of a sitting incumbent losing his own primary because somebody bothered to do the homework. Since then, American Muckrakers has turned its attention to Beetlejuice Boebert, Ken $$ Paxton, Mark (Nudeafrica.com) Robinson, Bymoron Donalds, Chunk Give Me Some Lovin Edwards, and a growing roster of politicians who confuse service in public office with a personal ATM. He publishes accountability journalism at Muckrakers.Today.

Wheeler has also recently started a competitor to ActBlue, VOTEROI, and an election prediction product that does not use polling: DATUM SIGNALS

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And, Beetlejuice Boebert claimed she was going to sue him for defamation. She never did, so David sued her in Federal Court in Denver and partially won.

Beetlejuice Boebert

American Muckrakers — Fri, 09 Oct 2026 17:49:37 GMT

Please support our work to fire Boebert and David Wheeler’s legal defense fund against her soon to fail restraining order attempting to end his 1st Amendment rights.

Fire Boebert & Legal Defense Fund

"I AM NOT A SINNER": Lauren Boebert Bought a Plane While Her Waitresses Begged for Their Paychecks To Feed Their Kids

David B. Wheeler — Fri, 09 Oct 2026 12:46:53 GMT

The Bible says the withheld wages of workers cry out against the boss who keeps them. Three former Shooters employees say Boebert cut $15 paychecks, called her staff “ignorant,” told a woman on probation to go borrow a gun, then announced she was saved and couldn’t sin. So much for loving thy neighbor.

Lauren Boebert built her whole political career on one story: the gun-toting small business owner who fought for her workers. The people who actually worked for her say it’s garbage. And she swore to it anyway.

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In August 2023, in a declaration she signed under penalty of perjury in my federal defamation case against her, she wrote that from 2013 to 2022 she “owned a successful small business in Rifle, Colorado.”

Successful for who? Not for the people carrying her plates.

I now have three former Shooters Grill employees telling the same story, covering 2015 into 2020. Two of them talked to a licensed Colorado private investigator in October 2020, a week before Boebert won her first race. The third was Boebert’s best friend in middle school and high school, and later worked for her at Shooters. She first laid it out in private Facebook messages in January 2021. I interviewed her myself in 2022.

Now, some of you are thinking: old news, David. Fair enough. The Shooters years, Jayson, the drugs, the dropout story have all been chewed over by plenty of reporters, me included. I’m not pretending I discovered any of it this week.

But there was always an excuse baked into that coverage. She was young. She was a small-town restaurant owner who got in over her head. Give her time and Washington will smooth out the rough edges.

Well, she’s had time. Six years in Congress are in the rear view mirror. So it’s fair to go back and ask the question: has she grown? Has she matured? Has she become a better boss, a better neighbor, a better Christian?

No.

She got thrown out of a family musical in Denver for vaping and groping her date, then lied about it until the security video came out. Her office used your taxpayer-funded website to call me a liar and a likely perjurer for filing a sworn complaint. And when that didn’t make me go away, she marched into a Weld County courtroom and asked a judge to protect her from a reporter who lives 1,265 miles away in North Carolina.

Same Lauren. Bigger platform. Better paid. So yes, we’re going back to Rifle, because the woman her workers describe is the same one sitting in Congress today.

“Sell these t-shirts. That’s your checks.”

Shooters staff were supposed to get paid every week. Here’s what the old best friend says happened instead.

“She absolutely did pay us late,” she wrote. “Sometimes we’d wait up to two weeks! Twice over Christmas we didn’t get paid.”

One payday sticks with her. The crew had gone days without checks. Boebert’s mom said Lauren was down in Denver picking up a batch of t-shirts. When Lauren got back and her employees asked for their money, she had her answer ready.

“You want your checks? Sell these t-shirts. That’s your checks.”

Read that again. These were servers living on tips. She owed them wages, didn’t pay them, and told them to go hustle her merchandise to cover what she owed.

Meanwhile the boss was shopping. “Then she’d flaunt her purchases in our faces,” the friend said. “Like a new iPhone for Jayson. Or her new Escalade, or her airplane, or her new house!!!”

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A few of them reported her to the state labor board and the Better Business Bureau. Nothing happened.

Remember 2020, when Boebert went national by defying COVID orders and keeping Shooters open? Her excuse was that she had to pay her employees. Her old friend’s reaction: “That was never a concern before!!!”

Same restaurant, same story

If it was just one disgruntled ex-employee, Boebert’s people would call it a grudge and move on. It isn’t just one.

On October 26, 2020, investigator Melinda Leon called two other former servers. Her notes are summaries, not transcripts. Read them anyway.

The first worked there from late 2015 into 2017. She said Boebert “never paid her crew on time” and “had her priorities wrong.” How wrong? According to the summary, Boebert “bought a plane but only managed to pay the employees one time a month.” That went on “the entire time she worked there.”

Some checks didn’t just come late. They came empty. Paychecks “would be for $15 or even zero dollars,” the notes say, because Boebert told staff they “made too much in tips so they didn’t get pay.” She said she worked 6 a.m. to 5 p.m. and got paid for eight hours.

That server owns her own restaurant now. She knows how payroll is supposed to work. Her words to the investigator: “The way Lauren runs a restaurant and treats people is scary.”

The second server lasted about eight months and quit in September 2019. “It is the worst job I’ve ever had,” she said. It was the only job that ever gave her nightmares. A bun slid off a burger that was missing its toothpick, and Boebert called her “ignorant.” Her car broke down, she called in two hours ahead, and Boebert pulled her off the schedule for a week. Asked to describe her old boss, she said “mean, hateful.”

Three people, years apart, who weren’t comparing notes. Boebert can call that a grudge. I call it what it is: a boss who treated the people making her money like they were disposable.

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While I’ve got you

Boebert’s latest move: a protection order against a reporter 1,265 miles away.

On September 18, I published a sworn ethics complaint against Lauren Boebert. Six days later, on September 24, she walked into Weld County court without a lawyer and asked a judge for a civil protection order against me. A temporary order was signed that same afternoon. I wasn’t there, and nobody had served me. She got it to Fox News before she got it to me or my lawyers.

Read her petition and look at what she calls the incidents. It’s my reporting. My story. My posts on X. Photos the Daily Mail took and published. She doesn’t claim I’ve set foot in Colorado this year, called her, or come anywhere near her. I live in the mountains of North Carolina.

She tried this once before. In June 2022, while I was reporting on her, she filed for a protection order in Garfield County. It was never served. On July 20, 2022, the judge dismissed it at a hearing that neither Boebert nor her lawyer showed up for. Now she’s telling reporters she’s had a restraining order against me since 2022. The court docket says otherwise.

My lawyers are fighting it. That costs real money. She has a taxpayer-funded press office. I have you.

Donate to the legal defense fund. Every dollar goes to the fight.

The girl from Rifle High

Boebert’s official story is that she left high school to start raising a family. Her best friend from those years tells it another way.

“She didn’t drop out ‘to start raising a family,’” she wrote. She says Lauren left school, went to work at McDonald’s, and then met Jayson, who’d just moved to Rifle from Las Vegas.

Asked straight out about drugs, she didn’t hedge. “Lauren was absolutely a meth user.”

When I interviewed her in 2022, she confirmed it to me and went further. She told me about Lauren using meth in a trailer at a man camp, hot-boxing it.

That’s worth putting next to the other thing Boebert swore to in 2023: “I have never been a drug addict or a stripper.” Her lawyers told the federal court there was nothing behind the drug claims but “subtweets from unverifiable accounts.” Well, here’s her best friend from back then, putting it in writing.

She also described a violent relationship. “They would beat each other up.....then she got pregnant.” Lauren told her Jayson hit her. She saw it go the other direction too. “She punched him in the face once while I was at her house.”

Years later, Boebert offered her old friend a job at Shooters. “It was the worst!!!!” she wrote. “I’ve met a lot of different versions of this girl in the last 20 years, but this one is the worst!!!”

Guns as a costume

Shooters sold the world on armed waitresses. The servers I’m quoting say a lot of those guns were empty.

The 2019 server told the investigator she was on probation for a misdemeanor and wasn’t allowed to have a gun. She says Boebert knew it. Boebert handed her $500 cash for a gun and a concealed carry permit anyway. The gun shop turned her down, and she gave the money back.

Boebert didn’t let it go. According to the notes, she “told her to find a gun to carry knowing she was on probation” and “said to get someone to loan her a gun if necessary.” Right before she quit, the server borrowed a .38 from a neighbor. She never loaded it. She didn’t think some of the other girls loaded theirs either.

Boebert bragged about training her staff. This server says she never once went to a range with her. Boebert just “made fun of her for not having a gun.” Her read on the whole thing: Boebert “wears a gun more as a fashion statement.”

The other server carried an empty .380 until Boebert caught on and made her load it. They “never practiced shooting the gun at a firing range,” she said. She also told the investigator that “children were carrying guns, underage, in the restaurant.”

And if you ever wondered why a gun-themed restaurant didn’t serve beer, the 2019 server had the answer. Boebert told her “God wouldn’t let her restaurant prosper and would make it fail if she served alcohol.”

Sit with that for a second. She pushed a woman on probation to go borrow a gun so the restaurant’s gimmick looked right. She let kids walk around armed in a place that served the public. And this is the person who goes on TV to lecture America about guns.

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“I AM NOT A SINNER”

The old best friend once watched Lauren and Jayson argue about religion at the restaurant. Jayson said, “we’re all sinners.”

Lauren lost it. “I beg your pardon?! I AM NOT A SINNER!!!! I have been saved!!!” Jayson told her that’s not how it works. She insisted it was.

“All of us just backed the hell away from her,” the friend wrote. “That’s how she reasons with herself and her actions!”

That explains everything. In Lauren Boebert’s head she’s already been forgiven, so nothing she does to anybody else counts. Not a late paycheck. Not a $15 one. Not a kid with a gun in her restaurant. Not dragging a reporter into court for doing his job.

Where this goes

Here’s who Lauren Boebert is when the cameras are off. She bought a plane while her servers waited weeks for checks. She called a waitress ignorant over a toothpick. She told a woman on probation to find somebody to loan her a gun. Then she signed a sworn declaration calling it all a success story. She has never answered for any of it, and she’s counting on nobody making her.

I’m making her.

Shooters closed in 2022 after the landlord didn’t renew the lease. The people who waited on those checks are still around. So is the labor board complaint they say they filed. I’m going after the paper.

If you worked at Shooters, if you got a $15 check or no check at all, I want to hear from you. Email me at david@americanmuckrakers.com or text, WhatsApp, or Signal me at 312-213-6001. I protect my sources. Ask around.

And if you want this reporting to keep coming while Boebert spends your tax dollars attacking the reporter, chip in here. I can’t do it without you.

DBW

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About the Author

And, Beetlejuice Boebert claimed she was going to sue him. She never did, so David sued her in Federal Court in Denver and partially won.

Why We Amended the Boebert Complaint, and What We Added

David B. Wheeler — Wed, 07 Oct 2026 12:01:18 GMT

On September 17, I filed a sworn complaint with the House Committee on Ethics against Rep. Lauren Boebert. I signed it under penalty of perjury. Its central allegation is that Boebert carried on a relationship with her District Director, Clarice Navarro, while Navarro worked under her supervision. That is something the House banned outright after #MeToo.

Boebert’s office called the complaint “utterly false.” Her spokesperson said there was no truth to it whatsoever. That’s her right. The Committee, not her press shop and not me, will decide what the evidence shows.

What she did next is a different matter, and it’s why there is now a Second Amended Complaint. Here is what changed, and why.

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Addition 1: Jasmine B. Higgs and the family payroll

The most significant addition is a new count on nepotism, and it centers on a part-time employee most people have never heard of.

Jasmine B. Higgs has been on Boebert’s House payroll since August 25, 2022. Before that, by her own résumé, she was a server and then a manager at Shooters Grill, Boebert’s restaurant in Rifle, until July 2022. She lives in Fruita, outside the district Boebert now represents.

Higgs also lives with Boebert’s brother, Dylan.

Federal law, 5 U.S.C. § 3110, bars a Member of Congress from employing or advancing a relative. “Sister-in-law” is on that list. Colorado recognizes common law marriage, under which two people are legally married if they mutually agree to be married and openly hold themselves out as married. If Higgs and Dylan Boebert meet that test, she is Lauren Boebert’s sister-in-law under federal law, and her employment falls squarely within the statute.

I don’t know whether they’re married, and the amended complaint says so plainly. That’s why the count has a second part that doesn’t depend on the answer. House Rule XXIII requires that staff pay match the work performed. Taxpayers have paid Higgs $282,833.18 through June 2026, at a rate that climbed toward what senior full-time staff earn, for a part-time job. If that pay is tied to a family relationship rather than to the duties, it violates the House rule whether or not there’s a marriage license.

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We asked the Committee to do what only it can do: determine Higgs’s marital status and the basis for every raise she received.

There’s an irony here worth noting. Boebert spent 2023 on the Oversight Committee demanding that federal agencies account for employees working from home. She accused federal bureaucrats of “lounging at home.”

Her own constituent services aide lives more than six hours from much of the 4th District. Who supervises her, and how are her hours verified? The Committee should ask.

Addition 2: The protection order, and interference with a House proceeding

Seven days after I filed, Boebert went to Weld County Court and filed for a civil protection order against me. It’s case 2026C1286.

The timing speaks for itself. A Member of Congress who is the subject of a sworn ethics complaint went to court to restrain the person who filed it.

Congress protects its own proceedings by law. Under 18 U.S.C. § 1505, it is a federal crime to corruptly influence, obstruct, or impede, or try to, any inquiry or investigation by either House or any of its committees. Federal law also protects witnesses and complainants from retaliation.

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The amended complaint asks the Committee to examine the protection order filing under those standards. It also asks the Committee to examine the public statements from Boebert’s office accusing me of crimes I didn’t commit. The question is simple: were these legal and public attacks aimed at the person who brought the matter to the Committee, and at the people who might testify?

The House cannot police its own members if the people who report misconduct can be dragged into court for doing it, or smeared in the press until they back off. That principle doesn’t depend on whether you like me, or her. It’s how the system protects every complainant, from either party.

Addition 3: The “restraining order” that doesn’t exist

After the complaint became public, a story spread that I was under a restraining order. The New York Post ran it. CBS Colorado aired it, after I had told its reporter in writing that it was false.

It is false. Colorado court records show the 2022 order sought against me was dismissed and vacated. The link the Post used actually points to a court record involving Jayson Boebert, not me.

The amended complaint documents how that falsehood moved from Boebert’s camp into the press. It also documents her office’s public statements accusing me of breaking the law. A Member using her office to smear a complainant goes to whether her conduct reflects creditably on the House. That is the standard Rule XXIII sets.

Addition 4: More witnesses and more records

The amended complaint adds witnesses with direct knowledge of the events it describes. It also adds a compiled exhibit volume built from public records: House Statements of Disbursements, FEC filings, and Colorado court dockets. Where the evidence is video, it is linked directly.

Every new factual claim was checked against an official source before it went into a sworn filing. Where I couldn’t verify something, I left it out or said so.

What happens now

The Committee decides. I’ve done what a citizen can do: put my name on a sworn document, given everyone named a chance to respond before publication, and published the one response I received in full and unedited.

Boebert has a choice too. She can answer the complaint on the merits. Or she can keep doing what she’s done so far.

If you have tips, contact david@americanmuckrakers.com.

If you want to support the legal fight over the protection order, you can contribute at

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About the Author

And, Beetlejuice Boebert claimed she was going to sue him. She never did, so David sued her in Federal Court in Denver and partially won.

Boebert’s Part-Time Staffer: From Shooters Grill Server to Part Time Taxpayer Payroll @ $90,000 Per Year

David B. Wheeler — Tue, 06 Oct 2026 15:28:15 GMT

Jasmine B. Higgs and her infant working at Shooters Grill

When Shooters Grill in Rifle shut its doors in the summer of 2022, at least one of its employees didn’t have to look far for her next job.

Jasmine B. Higgs is on Rep. Lauren Boebert’s congressional staff. LegiStorm lists her as a constituent services representative, and the office directory lists her as a part-time employee.

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From the grill to the Capitol payroll

Higgs’s own online résumé tells the story. She worked at Shooters Grill in Rifle from March 2018 through July 2022, first as a server and then as a manager. Before that, she was a host at the Ale House in Grand Junction.

Her education entry lists Fruita Monument High School. Nothing on the résumé shows a college degree, government experience, or casework background.

A month after her Shooters job ended, she was on the federal payroll. House disbursement records show her start date as August 25, 2022.

The money

For a part-time job, the pay is substantial. House disbursement data shows Higgs was paid $22,499.99 for the third quarter of 2025 alone. That works out to roughly $90,000 a year for a part-time position.

An American Muckrakers analysis of House disbursement records puts her total taxpayer-funded pay at $282,833.18 from August 2022 through June 2026.

Census figures put Mesa County’s median household income at $73,658 and its per capita income at $40,076. Working part-time, Higgs out-earns the typical Mesa County household and more than doubles what the average resident makes.

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Serving a district she doesn’t live in

Higgs lives in Fruita, near Grand Junction. That’s in Colorado’s 3rd District, the seat Boebert abandoned in 2024 when she jumped to the 4th.

The fastest drive from Fruita to the eastern plains of the 4th District takes 6 hours and 11 minutes and covers 392 miles. The route runs along I-70, over the Continental Divide and through Denver. The alternate routes take up to 6 hours and 49 minutes and cover up to 443 miles.

That’s a round trip of more than 12 hours before she helps a single constituent. So what does a part-time constituent services representative do for 4th District constituents from nearly 400 miles away?

Unless she’s making that drive, she’s presumably working from home. That raises the obvious questions: who is supervising her, and how does she clock in and out?

Boebert on working from home

Boebert has made remote work a signature issue, at least for other people’s employees.

In 2023, as a member of the House Oversight Committee, she joined Chairman James Comer and Rep. Pete Sessions in sending letters to 25 federal agencies demanding data on telework and remote work. At the time, Boebert claimed that during the pandemic, federal bureaucrats were “lounging at home and not even logging in to their computers.” She also said constituents hadn’t gotten their tax refunds, passports, or VA benefits on time because federal employees were teleworking.

When the agencies were slow to respond, Comer, Sessions, and Boebert renewed their demands and threatened compulsory measures. In a joint statement, they said Americans show up to work every day and federal agencies should do the same.

So will Boebert apply that standard to her own office? Her own constituent services representative appears to be working from home, hundreds of miles from the voters she’s paid to help.

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The record

Colorado court records show a history that raises questions about how carefully Boebert vets the people she puts on the public payroll:

2015, Mesa County: Pleaded guilty to driving under the influence (case 2015M2984). The sentence included a suspended 365-day jail term, probation, and community service.
2015, Mesa County District Court: Charged with felony criminal mischief ($1,000 to $5,000). She pleaded guilty to a reduced misdemeanor count and paid $881.65 in restitution (case 2015CR1110).
2019, Mesa County: Charged with driving under restraint. That count was dismissed, and she pleaded guilty to a license violation (case 2019T547).
2023, Delta County: Pleaded guilty to speeding 10 to 19 mph over the limit (case 2023R194). She was on Boebert’s payroll at the time.

None of this bars anyone from employment, and people deserve second chances. But congressional caseworkers handle constituents’ Social Security, VA, and IRS problems, often with access to sensitive personal information. Voters are entitled to ask whether this hire was based on qualifications or on loyalty from the Shooters days.

What are Higgs’s duties, and where does she perform them?
Why does a part-time constituent services position pay roughly $90,000 a year?
How many other former Shooters Grill employees are, or have been, on the House payroll?
Does Higgs have a written remote work agreement, and how are her hours tracked and verified?

If you have tips, contact david@americanmuckrakers.com.

Sources:

U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts: Mesa County
LegiStorm: Boebert staff salaries
About the Author
David B. Wheeler is the president and co-founder of American Muckrakers, the Western North Carolina accountability organization best known for helping end Madison Cawthorn’s congressional career in 2022, the rare instance in modern politics of a sitting incumbent losing his own primary because somebody bothered to do the homework. Since then, American Muckrakers has turned its attention to Lauren Boebert, Ken Paxton, and a growing roster of politicians who confuse public office with a personal ATM. He publishes accountability journalism at Muckrakers.Today.
Wheeler co-hosts the MUCK YOU! podcast with Col. Moe Davis, the retired Air Force colonel and former chief prosecutor at Guantanamo Bay. He is the author of Color the Crooks, Case File #001: Lauren Boebert, the coloring book James Carville endorsed with the words “She earned every damn page. Buy it.” *He is also the founder of VoteROI.com, a political data company built on 86.9 million FEC records that helps donors figure out where their money actually goes, which, as this essay makes clear, is a question more people should be asking.
Before all that, Wheeler spent three decades in politics, elections, and event production in more than 50 countries on all seven continents. Along the way he lowered the Mississippi River, produced the first professional sports event ever held in Moscow, and produced the first marathon ever run on Antarctica. His political education started early: Page for the Iowa House of Representatives, intern in the United States Senate, and National Committeeman for Iowa on the Young Democrats of America national committee. David was the lead advance guy for then Senator Obama in Iowa City, Iowa, in October of 2006, and then again during his presidential announcement in Waterloo, Iowa, in February 2007. And, he has some good stories from both experiences.
An Iowa native and proud Hawkeye, Wheeler is a father of three and lives in the mountains of Western North Carolina, in the district Chuck Edwards is currently failing. He believes sunlight is the best disinfectant, filings don’t lie, and the loudest guy in the room is usually the one with the most to hide.
And, Beetlejuice Boebert claimed she was going to sue him. She never did, so David sued her in Federal Court in Denver and partially won.
Paid for by American Muckrakers PAC II (americanmuckrakers.com). Not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee. Donations made to American Muckrakers, Inc. are not deductible for federal or state tax purposes.
This publication is First Amendment protected speech and commentary on matters of public concern. All individuals referenced are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law. No portion of this publication may be used for commercial purposes without the written consent of American Muckrakers PAC, Inc. and David B. Wheeler.
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The Speech Rep. Boebert’s Lawyer Didn’t Mention

David B. Wheeler — Mon, 05 Oct 2026 12:11:19 GMT

ANALYSIS

Disclosure: I am the respondent in Rep. Boebert’s protection order case in Weld County. My attorneys are contesting it with a anti-SLAPP motion.

At Thursday’s hearing in Weld County, Judge Dana Nichols made clear early on that the day was not going to be a hearing on the evidence. That didn’t stop Scott Gessler, Rep. Lauren Boebert’s attorney. He kept coming back to one theme: my posts about his client. He read them aloud. He called them nasty. He suggested they were evidence that she needs protection from me.

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I’ll own my posts. Some are harsh. I’ve called her a liar, a hypocrite, whore, and worse, and I stand behind the commentary or rude comments under every one. All of it is political speech about a sitting member of Congress, which is the most protected speech there is under the First Amendment.

But if crude, mocking, or insulting posts about political opponents are the standard, it’s worth looking at the congresswoman’s own record. Not because her posts are illegal. They aren’t. Hers are protected too. The point is that a politician who has built a brand on mockery is now asking a court to treat mockery of her as a threat.

I reviewed 971 posts from her two X accounts, her personal account and her official congressional account. Here is a sample, in her own words.

On LGBTQ Americans

The worst post I found didn’t come from her campaign account. It came from her official House account, the one run as part of her congressional office. In it, she asked Democrats whether they were groomers or pedophiles. She has also called a transgender federal health official a groomer, and told critics to expect to be called “groomers” too.

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On Vice President Kamala Harris

She has called Harris “psychotic,” “incompetent,” and “a Communist at heart,” and mocked her for using pronouns.

On President Joe Biden

On guns

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On everyone else

A fellow Republican on the morning of her primary. Rep. Rashida Tlaib, under the “Jihad Squad” label Boebert later apologized for using against Rep. Ilhan Omar. Beto O’Rourke, the day after the Uvalde school shooting. John Fetterman, while he recovered from a stroke. And her own House colleagues, whom she called “creatures” this year.

“It goes directly to her”

Gessler’s other argument was that tagging his client’s accounts on X is contact. Any time someone uses either of her handles, he told the court, it goes directly to her and she receives them.

So I asked X how many posts that is.

According to X’s own data, her two accounts have been tagged in 24.7 million posts since December 2019. In 2026 alone, through September 30, it’s 625,241. That’s about 2,300 a day.

In the three days Gessler cited in his contempt motion, September 24 through 26, her accounts were tagged 2,690 times. I wrote 19 of them. That’s less than 1 percent. Over the life of her accounts, my posts tagging her add up to about 2,475, roughly one of every 10,000.

Now take Gessler at his word. If every tag lands in front of her personally, and she spends 15 seconds on each, that’s more than nine hours a day reading X notifications in 2026. At her 2022 peak, it would have taken 90 hours a day.

If that’s true, we finally have an explanation for her legislative record.

What she gets done

Since 2021, Boebert has introduced 74 bills. One became law on its own: a land transfer for Clifton, Colorado, signed in January 2025. Two more slipped through only because their text was folded into the annual defense bill. Six others passed the House and died in the Senate. Nothing she has sponsored has become law in 2026.

Her office advertises “75 legislative priorities signed into law.” Those are funding lines and provisions tucked into large spending packages, not bills she wrote. That’s still a lot of free time for reading 2,300 tags a day.

Why not just mute me?

Of course, that isn’t how X works. Mentions are public posts. X filters and ranks them, and users can mute, block, or never open the notifications tab at all. Neither of her accounts even accepts direct messages. A tag is a public conversation about her, not a letter to her.

And if my posts were really landing in her inbox, X gives her a two-tap solution: mute. She’d never see my tags again, and I’d never know. She didn’t need a judge for that. She needed a judge to stop a reporter.

Blocking me from her official account would be a different matter. Courts have treated officials’ government-use accounts as public forums, where blocking critics over their views can violate the First Amendment. In other words, the law treats her official account as a public square. Gessler wants the court to treat it as a private mailbox.

The threats she ignored

Real threats against Boebert exist. A search of X turns up posts from strangers wishing she would die by firing squad, saying federal agents would be justified in shooting her, and calling for her to be hanged, several posted directly to her accounts. As far as court records show, she has never sought a protection order against any of them. She sought one against the reporter who filed an ethics complaint.

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What the Supreme Court said about this in 1988

In Hustler Magazine v. Falwell, the Rev. Jerry Falwell sued over a crude parody ad that mocked him in the most personal way imaginable. A jury awarded him damages for emotional distress. The Supreme Court threw it out, 8 to 0.

Chief Justice William Rehnquist, a conservative, wrote the opinion. He started here:

“At the heart of the First Amendment is the recognition of the fundamental importance of the free flow of ideas and opinions on matters of public interest and concern.”

He warned that public figures will face “vehement, caustic, and sometimes unpleasantly sharp attacks,” and that one who brags about a spotless record “cannot convincingly cry ‘Foul!’ when an opponent or an industrious reporter attempts to demonstrate the contrary.”

He rejected the idea that speech loses protection because it’s offensive:

“[T]he fact that society may find speech offensive is not a sufficient reason for suppressing it. Indeed, if it is the speaker’s opinion that gives offense, that consequence is a reason for according it constitutional protection.”

And he explained why “outrageous” is no standard at all, because it would let a court punish speech “on the basis of their dislike of a particular expression.”

Falwell was a public figure who said he was emotionally wounded by something far cruder than anything I’ve written. The Court told him that’s the price of public life. A member of Congress gets the same answer.

The double standard

Every one of her posts is protected speech. I would defend her right to post every one of them.

What I won’t accept is the idea that the First Amendment protects her when she asks Democrats whether they’re pedophiles from an official government account, mocks a stroke survivor, and calls a transgender health official a groomer, but somehow stops protecting me when I report on her conduct and call her names. Or that one reporter’s 19 posts, among 2,690, are a threat she can’t escape.

A protection order is supposed to stop real threats. It is not supposed to settle who gets to be rude on the internet. If it were, she’d have a lot of explaining to do.

The next hearing is November 16.

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Fighting this case costs real money, even when you’re right. If you believe the First Amendment applies to everyone, not just members of Congress, please chip in to my legal defense fund.
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David B. Wheeler

Sources: Rep. Boebert’s posts retrieved through the X API v2 full-archive search, October 3, 2026, and rendered from X. Tag counts from the X API v2 full-archive counts endpoint, retrieved October 1, 2026; counts include posts, replies, and quotes still on X, and exclude deleted posts. Legislative record from the Congress.gov API, retrieved October 3, 2026, and Rep. Boebert’s press releases. Hustler Magazine, Inc. v. Falwell, 485 U.S. 46 (1988).

About the Author

And, Beetlejuice Boebert claimed she was going to sue him. She never did, so David sued her in Federal Court in Denver and partially won.

What SLAPP Means to Anyone Who Believes in the Constitution

David B. Wheeler — Sun, 04 Oct 2026 14:31:42 GMT

COMMENTARY

This is an opinion piece. The views are my own.

The First Amendment guarantees five freedoms in one sentence: religion, speech, press, assembly, and the right “to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

The authors put them together for a reason. They knew the powerful would always prefer silence to scrutiny. So they made it the law of the land that citizens could speak, publish, and complain to their government without being punished for it.

There is a modern weapon designed to get around that promise. It’s called a SLAPP.

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What a SLAPP is

SLAPP stands for Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation. The term was coined by two University of Denver professors, George Pring and Penelope Canan, who studied how people with money and power use courts to punish critics.

A SLAPP isn’t filed to win. It’s filed to hurt. The goal is to drag a critic into court, drain their bank account, consume their time, and send a message to everyone watching: speak up, and this will happen to you too.

The plaintiff doesn’t need a strong case. The process is the punishment.

Why it matters to you

You don’t have to be a journalist to be a target. Neighbors who object at a zoning meeting have been SLAPPed. So have people who wrote online reviews, testified before city councils, or filed complaints with regulators.

Every one of those acts is protected by the Constitution. And every one can be made expensive enough that ordinary people stop doing them.

That’s the real danger. A SLAPP doesn’t just silence the person sued. It silences everyone who decides it isn’t worth the risk.

How the law fights back

More than 30 states now have anti-SLAPP laws. Colorado passed its law in 2019. It lets a person who is sued over protected speech or petitioning file a special motion to dismiss early. The person who brought the case then has to show a reasonable likelihood of winning. If they can’t, the case is thrown out, and they can be ordered to pay the other side’s attorney fees.

Those protections exist because legislators in both parties recognized something simple: the courthouse door should not be a tool for shutting people up.

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Why I’m writing this

I filed a complaint with the House Ethics Committee. That is petitioning the government, the very right the First Amendment names. One week later, I was in court defending myself against a protection order petition built in part on that complaint.

My attorneys have filed an anti-SLAPP motion. A judge will decide it. But the principle isn’t mine alone.

If a member of Congress can answer an ethics complaint by hauling the person who filed it into court, then the right to petition only belongs to people who can afford a lawyer. That isn’t the Constitution I learned about in Norwalk, Iowa, and it isn’t the one I’ll stop defending.

Speech that holds power to account is not a crime. It isn’t harassment. It’s the point.

DBW

Stand with me
Fighting a SLAPP costs real money, even when you’re right. Dan Ernst and Alan Feldman are defending this case in Weld County, and the next hearing is November 16.
If you believe the right to speak, publish, and petition the government belongs to everyone, not just people who can afford lawyers, please chip in to my legal defense fund. Every dollar goes to the fight.
Donate to David's 1A Legal Fund
Thank you.
David B. Wheeler

About the Author

And, Beetlejuice Boebert claimed she was going to sue him. She never did, so David sued her in Federal Court in Denver and partially won.

Seven Petitions, One Permanent Order: Rep. Lauren Boebert’s Protection Order Habit

David B. Wheeler — Sat, 03 Oct 2026 20:05:44 GMT

Disclosure: I am the respondent in two of the cases below, including Rep. Boebert’s current Weld County petition, and I filed the House Ethics complaint that preceded it. My attorneys are contesting the order with a Anti-SLAPP Motion which will be reported on tomorrow.

Colorado court records obtained by American Muckrakers show Rep. Lauren Boebert has filed seven petitions for temporary protection orders since 2018, against five different people. Six of the cases are closed. Only one produced a permanent order.

The pattern is consistent. She files, gets a temporary order granted the same day, then lets the case collapse at the permanent order hearing.

The record

July 2018, Garfield County-Rifle (2018C80). Petition against a woman. Temporary order granted same day. The respondent was served July 17. At the November 6 status conference, the docket records a party’s failure to appear. The case was dismissed that day.

2018C80 | Boebert, Lauren Opal v. [Respondent]
07/12/2018 Temporary Protection Order: Granted
07/17/2018 Return of Service
11/06/2018 Status Conference: Party Failed to Appear
11/06/2018 Temporary Protection Order: Vacated
11/06/2018 Dismissed without Prejudice

December 2018, Garfield County-Rifle (2018C133). Second petition against the same woman. This is the one case that ended in a permanent order, granted January 2, 2019.

2018C133 | Boebert, Lauren Opal v. [Respondent]
12/21/2018 Temporary Protection Order: Granted
01/02/2019 Permanent Protection Order: Granted

February 2020, Garfield County (2020C14). Petition against a man, filed during her first run for Congress. Temporary order granted. At the March 11 hearing, the docket records a party’s failure to appear. The order was vacated and the case closed.

2020C14 | Boebert, Lauren v. [Respondent]
02/19/2020 Temporary Protection Order: Granted
03/11/2020 Temporary Restraining Ord Hrg: Party Failed to Appear
03/11/2020 Temporary Protection Order: Vacated

March 2020, Garfield County-Rifle (2020C51). Twenty days after the first case died, she filed again against the same man. A party failed to appear at both permanent order hearings. Dismissed.

2020C51 | Boebert, Lauren v. [Respondent]
03/31/2020 Temporary Protection Order: Granted
04/14/2020 Permanent Restraining Ord Hrg: Party Failed to Appear
04/28/2020 Permanent Restraining Ord Hrg: Party Failed to Appear
04/28/2020 Dismissed without Prejudice

June 2022, Garfield County (2022C30220). Petition against me, filed with attorney Suzanne Taheri. I was served June 30. Boebert was a no-show. The judge dismissed the case and vacated the order.

2022C30220 | Boebert, Lauren Opal v. Wheeler, David
06/23/2022 Temporary Protection Order: Granted
06/30/2022 Return of Service
07/20/2022 Dismissed without Prejudice
07/20/2022 Temporary Protection Order: Vacated

In her new Weld County petition, Boebert claims she dropped the 2022 case because I was never served, last week said I “had gone into hiding” and she hoped I would “just go away.” The Return of Service is on the docket.

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February 2024, Garfield County-Rifle (2024C15). Petition against her ex-husband, Jayson Boebert, filed as domestic abuse. Temporary order granted. After two continued hearings, the case was dismissed and the order vacated March 11, 2024.

2024C15 | Boebert, Lauren v. Boebert, Jayson
02/02/2024 Complaint: TPO Domestic Abuse
02/02/2024 Temporary Protection Order: Granted
03/11/2024 Case Closed: Dismissed
03/11/2024 Temporary Protection Order: Vacated

September 2026, Weld County (2026C1286). Seven days after I filed a sworn ethics complaint against her with the House Ethics Committee, Boebert went back to court against me. A temporary order was granted the same day, requiring me to stay 100 yards away. Her petition cites the ethics complaint’s allegations among its reasons.

2026C1286 | Boebert, Lauren v. Wheeler, David B
09/24/2026 Complaint: TPO
09/24/2026 Temporary Protection Order: Granted
09/30/2026 Motion to Dismiss
11/16/2026 Permanent Restraining Ord Hrg (scheduled)

Boebert is represented by Scott Gessler and Tanya Light. My attorneys, Dan Ernst and Alan Feldman, have filed a motion to dismiss and an anti-SLAPP motion arguing the petition targets First Amendment protected reporting. Judge Dana Nichols kept the temporary order in place and is allowing briefing by both sides on the SLAPP motion. She could have dismissed it. The next hearing is November 16, two weeks after Election Day.

Why it matters

Protection orders exist for people in real danger. A judge found grounds once. But six of her seven petitions did not end in a permanent order. In at least four, the case died at a hearing where she was absent or a party failed to appear. Two targeted the same journalist. And the latest arrived one week after an ethics complaint and six weeks before an election.

A temporary order is easy to get. It is granted on one side’s word, the same day, with no response from the other side. Boebert seems to know that.

A personal note
I’ve been a journalist since I was 16. In all that time, I’ve never had to write a paragraph like this one.
Being falsely accused of stalking someone is painful. It follows you. It shows up in headlines next to your name, in search results my kids can read, and in the minds of people who will never look at a court docket. Lauren Boebert knows that. A temporary order costs her a filing fee and a sworn statement. It costs me my reputation, my time, and thousands of dollars in legal fees to defend reporting that is protected by the First Amendment.
I have never threatened her. I have never harmed her. What I have done is report on her, file a sworn complaint with the House Ethics Committee, and publish the records. That is not stalking. That is journalism.
I’m going to keep doing it. But I can’t do it alone. Dan Ernst and Alan Feldman are fighting this in Weld County, and the next hearing is November 16.
If you believe a sitting member of Congress shouldn’t be able to use the courts to silence a reporter, please chip in to my legal defense fund. Every dollar goes to the fight.
Donate to the legal defense fund
Thank you. It means more than you know.
David B. Wheeler

I am barred by court order and unable to contact Boebert’s to request for comment. However, if her office would like to respond, I will post it in full here.

Full court records are attached below.

Have information about these cases or other tips? Contact me at david@americanmuckrakers.com.

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Boebert Protection Order Records Redacted

1.95MB ∙ PDF file

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About the Author

And, Beetlejuice Boebert claimed she was going to sue him. She never did, so David sued her in Federal Court in Denver and partially won.

A Member of Congress Tried To Silence My Reporting. I’m still reporting.

American Muckrakers — Fri, 02 Oct 2026 19:45:42 GMT

A personal word from David B. Wheeler

I want to step out of the legal language for a moment.

Being called a stalker has been painful. I am a reporter. I am a dad. I am a son. I am a political activist who cares deeply about the First Amendment. I am not a stalker, and seeing that word next to my name in a court file and in national headlines has been hard on me and on the people I love.

I have never involved her minor children. I have said publicly that they are off limits, and I have kept that promise. My reporting is about the official conduct of a Member of Congress and how public money is spent. That is the job. I was doing my job.

Stalking is a serious charge. Real victims of stalking deserve to have it treated seriously. Here it has been leveled in an unserious way, in response to an Ethics complaint and a request for comment.

I spoke with my 91 year old mother today and talked her off the ledge. She’s tough and smart but was worried that the Petitioner would pull a fast one. I have also spoken with my kids (10, 14 & 16) and gave them the facts and told them why it’s important to speak up about alleged illegal acts by public officials. The kids, along with my mother, gave me their full support and love. That has calmed my nerves.

I am not going to fight this on social media. I look forward to resolving it the right way, through the legal process and with the Court, and I trust that process.

Thank you for reading, and for standing with me.

David B. Wheeler

Help Pay the Legal Fees

What the court did Oct 1st

On October 1, the Weld County Court held its first contested hearing in Boebert v. Wheeler, Case No. 2026C1286. The Court sits in Greeley, Colorado. Here is where things stand.

The Honorable Dana Nichols presiding. Rep. Lauren Boebert appeared in person with attorneys Scott Gessler and Tanya Light. I appeared by Webex, and my attorneys, Alan Feldman and Dan Ernst, appeared in person.

Three things matter most:

The court stated on the record that my reporting will not violate the temporary protection order.
The court gave both sides time to file briefs on my special motion to dismiss under Colorado’s anti-SLAPP statute, C.R.S. § 13-20-1101. The case will proceed after the court rules on that motion.
The temporary order stays in place until a hearing set for November 16, 2026, at 8:30 a.m.

I agreed not to “tag” the Petitioner in social media posts while this is pending. The court also allowed CBS Colorado to use the Webex conference in their reporting and as a pool.

The contempt motion that wasn’t on the calendar

On the day of the hearing, the Petitioner’s lawyers filed a Motion for Contempt Citation and tried to slip it into a proceeding that was set for something else entirely. That is not how the procedure works. A contempt request requires a citation issued by the court and a separate show-cause hearing with notice. The court said so plainly: this was not a contempt hearing. Their proposed order sits unsigned. Below is what they filed.

Mtn For Contempt Citation

161KB ∙ PDF file

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Petitioner's Motion for Contempt - Exhibits

1.25MB ∙ PDF file

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Read the exhibits to the Contempt Motion that was not heard.

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The motion’s theory, in my opinion, is that five posts on my X account between September 24 and 26, which mentioned her public, verified accounts, amount to “contact” with her. These were public posts to my followers about a public official and this case, including one about her financial disclosure report filed with the House Clerk. My attorney opposes the motion. The court told both sides that anyone who believes the order was violated can contact law enforcement.

Her lawyers also tried to ask for discovery. This is county court, on a protection order petition. Discovery is not allowed here. They asked anyway.

Put those two moves together and the pattern is clear: a case filed days after my Ethics complaint is now being used to try to punish my posts and dig through my files. That is exactly what the anti-SLAPP statute exists to stop.

I need your help

This court action has already cost me personally more than $15,000. That is money I do not have.

I am represented by two very competent lawyers, and they are the reason the court confirmed my reporting can continue. But good lawyers cost money, and this fight is not over.

Help Pay the Legal Fees

If you value this reporting, please help me pay these legal fees. Any amount makes a difference.

David

Thank you. I mean it.

What our motion says

The petition was filed on September 24, one week after I submitted a sworn complaint to the U.S. House Committee on Ethics on September 17, and two days after I sent a demand for correction and retraction.

Our motion argues that the petition treats reporting, requests for comment, a retraction demand, public-record reporting, and an Ethics complaint as stalking. Under Colorado law, that is protected speech and petitioning. If the motion succeeds, an award of attorney fees and costs is mandatory.

Wheeler SLAPP Motion

2.74MB ∙ PDF file

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Read the Motion filed by Wheeler which the Judge ruled she will rule on Nov 16, 2026.

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Exhibits for SLAPP Motion

1.38MB ∙ PDF file

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Read the exhibits to the SLAPP Motion filed by Wheeler here

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What I told the court under oath

I had exactly three written contacts with the Petitioner in 2026, all by email: two requests for comment and one legal demand. None contained a threat. Two bounced because her official House mailbox was full.
I had no involvement in the Daily Mail photographs. I reposted a published article.
I live about 1,500 road miles away in North Carolina and have not been in Colorado since March 2023. I was last in Weld County in the summer of 1984 when I was a Cheley camp counselor and went to do my laundry in Longmont.
I have never threatened, followed, or surveilled her, or gone to her home or offices.
I have never tried to lure her to a hotel room.
I have no criminal record and do not own a firearm. My boys have bb guns.

The only in-person contact alleged is a handshake at a public campaign event on May 26, 2022. It lasted about eight seconds and is on video here.

What’s next

Briefs on the anti-SLAPP motion, our opposition to the contempt motion, then a ruling, then the November 16 hearing. The House Ethics complaint remains pending and will be amended

I will keep reporting, as the court confirmed I can. Stay tuned and please consider donating to keep holding Boebert accountable.

DBW

Tips: david@americanmuckrakers.com

Help Pay the Legal Fees

About the Author

And, Beetlejuice Boebert claimed she was going to sue him. She never did, so David sued her in Federal Court in Denver and partially won.

Court Tomorrow

American Muckrakers — Wed, 30 Sep 2026 20:44:27 GMT

Friend,

Tomorrow morning we’ll be in a Weld County courtroom with Rep. Boebert.

Two lawyers are ready. The evidence is ready. The money isn’t. We’ve raised about a third of the $15,000 we need, and the bill comes due whether we hit the goal or not

I won’t make this long. If you’ve been meaning to help, now is the moment.

Chip In To Expose Boebert

$25, $50, $100, whatever you can. Every dollar goes to the legal defense first.

Thank you. I’ll report back from the courthouse.

David B. Wheeler
President, American Muckrakers

Boebert Asked a Judge to Silence Me. Thursday, We Answer.

American Muckrakers — Tue, 29 Sep 2026 16:10:25 GMT

Chip In To Expose Boebert

GREELEY, Colo. On Thursday morning, October 1, a Weld County District Court judge will decide whether a sitting member of Congress can use a civil protection order to stop a journalist from reporting on her.

Rep. Lauren Boebert filed the petition on September 24, twelve days after I submitted a sworn ethics complaint against her to the House Ethics Committee and one week after her office put out a press release calling me a perjurer. She checked the box for stalking. She checked the box for “imminent danger.” She asked the court to keep me 1,000 yards from her home and workplace and to bar me from “engaging in conduct that impairs” her employment.

Her employment is representing Colorado’s 4th District. The conduct is journalism.

This is the linchpin evidence for Boebert.

May 26, 2022 · Sky Ute Casino, Ignacio, CO · unedited, 1:06 · Watch the video

You decide. Did I try to wrestle Boebert to the ground with five police officers, two staffers, and her 250-pound, 6’2” husband standing nearby? Or did I shake a congresswoman’s hand at a public event?

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What she swore to

I have read the petition several times now. So have my lawyers. It runs nine pages, and the case it makes is thinner than the paper.

Her “most recent incident,” dated September 18, is that I “resurfaced” and published an ethics complaint. The form asks what the threat or act of violence was. That is her answer.

JDF 402, page 2, section 4(a): “The most recent incident”

Location: Weld County, “all day.” I was in North Carolina.

Her “most serious incident,” dated September 22 and 23, is a tweet noting she had public court dates that week, plus a photo of her running errands that someone else posted online. “I fear that he may already be in Colorado,” she wrote. I was in Spruce Pine, North Carolina, where I live.

JDF 402, page 2, section 4(b): “The most serious incident”

Her own narrative page moves the errand photo from Sept. 22 to “Sunday,” which was Sept. 20.

Attached narrative, page 2

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Court dates are public record. Knowing them is called reading. She calls it stalking.

The physical allegation is from May 26, 2022, at the Sky Ute Casino in Ignacio. She swore that I “squeezed and hurt my hand and would not let go.”

JDF 402, page 2, section 4(c)

That is the handshake in the video above. Watch it again.

On the next page, her own incident checklist for that event lists the location as Durango, 25 miles away, the physical injury as “N/A,” and police contact as none. There were five officers in the room.

JDF 401 Incident Checklist, “Grabbing” row

Same incident, different page. Location: Durango. The video is from Ignacio. Physical injury: N/A.

Attached narrative, page 1

Third telling: now she had to “forcibly pull it away.” Five officers stood there. None of them moved.

JDF 401 Incident Checklist, first two rows

Under “Harassing Phone Calls” she wrote “emails, online.” Under police contact, “No.” Four years of alleged harassment and not one police report.

She also wrote that in 2022 I “went into hiding” to avoid being served. In 2022 I was suing her for defamation in federal court under my own name. My home address appears on page 8 of her petition.

Attached narrative, page 1

“Went into hiding.” She wrote my home street address on page 8 of this very filing.

JDF 402, page 2, section 5

“Imminent danger.” From a reporter who emailed her office for comment and got no reply. That is the whole case.

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Why this matters beyond me

Boebert has tried this before. In June 2022 she sought a protection order in Garfield County; a judge dismissed it on July 20 of that year at a hearing she did not attend. It did not work then. But she learned something: a restraining order is cheaper than a defamation suit and faster than a rebuttal. File the petition, issue the press release, and every headline in Colorado leads with “restraining order” instead of the $200,000 payment, the family member on the payroll, or the district director.

If it works this time, every reporter and every critic in her district will know the price of writing about her. That is the point. That is what the First Amendment was written to prevent.

What happens Thursday, and after

Two attorneys who know her playbook are representing me: the one who took Boebert to federal court with me for defamation, where we partially prevailed, and the one who beat her 2022 petition. We will answer every allegation with her own filing and the tape.

If the court denies the order, I am not going home. I intend to travel eastern Colorado, through the towns of CO-4, and tell this story in person: at public events, to local papers and radio, to the voters who will decide her future in five weeks. She has an official press office and a taxpayer-funded website. I have a car, a camera, and the record.

What I need from you

Legal fees for Thursday are $15,000. The tour after that runs on gas, halls, and printing. There are two ways to help, and both matter today, not next week.

Donate. Every dollar goes first to the legal defense, then to getting this story in front of CO-4 voters.

Chip In To Expose Boebert

Subscribe. A paid subscription to this Substack is the most reliable money we have. It is what pays for records requests, sourcing, and the reporting that led to the ethics complaint in the first place. If you have been reading for free, now is the time.

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She has the House Republican Conference behind her. I have you. Thursday morning we find out whether that is enough. I think it is.

If you have information about Rep. Boebert, write me directly: david@americanmuckrakers.com. Sources are protected.

David B. Wheeler
President, American Muckrakers

About the Author

And, Beetlejuice Boebert claimed she was going to sue him. She never did, so David sued her in Federal Court in Denver and partially won.

Lauren Boebert Called Me a Criminal. Here's What Actually Happened. I Need Your Support Now!

American Muckrakers — Sat, 26 Sep 2026 16:05:32 GMT

On September 17, I filed a sworn ethics complaint against Rep. Lauren Boebert with the House Ethics Committee. It isn't built on rumor. It's built on House disbursement records, FEC filings, text messages, and named sources who gave written statements. This is the same kind of paper trail American Muckrakers has used in every complaint we've filed.

Boebert didn't answer the records. She answered by accusing me of a crime.

Her official House press release was published on a taxpayer-funded government website says I "likely committed perjury and broke a federal law." Read that again: a sitting member of Congress used her official office to accuse a private citizen of a federal crime, in writing, on a .gov domain paid for by the public. I committed no crime. My complaint is sworn under 28 U.S.C. § 1746, the standard federal perjury exposure for a false statement, and it asks the Ethics Committee to do its job and investigate.

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That's not a rebuttal. That's a threat dressed up as a press release.

The Manufactured Restraining Order

A few days later, the New York Post ran a story claiming Boebert has had a restraining order against me since 2022. That's false, and it's false in a way that's easy to check.

The case the Post is pointing to is a Garfield County, Colorado filing from June 2022. It was **dismissed on July 20, 2022.** No permanent order was ever entered. No order was ever served on me. Nothing has been in effect for over four years. The Post's story links to a record that isn't about an active order against me — because there isn't one.

According to the sheriff's return of service and the court's own docket, Judge Paul Metzger dismissed the case and denied any permanent order at a hearing that neither Boebert nor her counsel bothered to attend.

That's the pattern here: an accusation gets made, it lands in a headline, and the underlying paperwork tells a completely different story — if anyone bothers to read it.

I Sent Her a Cease-and-Desist

On September 22, I sent Boebert, her chief of staff, and her staff a formal cease-and-desist and retraction demand. It's not a strongly worded email. It's a legal notice, and it demands specific things:

- Stop saying I committed perjury or broke federal law.

- Correct both press releases, and every outlet that ran them, within 10 days.

- Stop claiming any restraining order exists against me.

- Preserve every record, including the release her office has already quietly pulled from its own site.

A false accusation that a named individual committed perjury and violated federal law imputes criminal conduct. That's defamatory per se under the law of most states, North Carolina included, and I've put her on formal notice ahead of a defamation lawsuit. If her office doesn't correct the record, I expect to file.

Why This Matters Beyond Me

I could let this go. It would be easier. But there's a reason a member of Congress reaches for "you committed a crime" instead of "here's why your records are wrong": it works. It's designed to make the next person who finds something uncomfortable in her filings think twice before publishing it. It's designed to make donors, sources, and watchdogs flinch.

American Muckrakers doesn't flinch. That's the whole premise of the organization — we go where the disbursement records lead, we name what we find, and when a sitting member of Congress responds by trying to criminalize the person doing the finding, we don't back down. We push back, in the open, with the paper trail to back it up.

But pushing back against a member of Congress with a taxpayer-funded office, taxpayer-funded staff, and taxpayer-funded lawyers takes something I don't have an unlimited supply of: legal counsel to carry the ethics complaint through the process and defend against exactly the kind of retaliation she's already started.

**Chip in $25 to help fund the fight: Contribute now

$25, $50, $100 or $250 — whatever tou can.

Defeat BettleJuice Boebert

Thank you for reading, and thank you for standing with me.

David B. Wheeler

President, American Muckrakers

David Wheeler

---

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Beetlejuice Boebert Called a Complaint Filed Under Oath a Scam. Then Her Office Started Deleting Things.

David B. Wheeler — Tue, 22 Sep 2026 23:30:33 GMT

Five days ago I filed a sworn ethics complaint against Rep. Lauren Boebert, built on House payroll records, FEC filings, court records, and written statements from named sources with direct knowledge. I signed it under penalty of perjury because I believe every allegation in it deserves investigation by the proper body.

Her response was not to address the records. It was to attack the messenger, the process and the press.

Her office published official press releases, on your taxpayer-funded house.gov website, accusing me of “likely” committing perjury and calling my sworn filing “his lies.” She attributed to CNN a finding CNN never made. She called the complaint “a scam.” And she claimed she has had a restraining order against me since 2022.

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Here is what the court record actually says: Boebert sought a protection order in June 2022. It was never served on me. On July 20, 2022, a Garfield County judge dismissed the case and denied any permanent order, at a hearing neither Boebert nor her …

🚨 BREAKING: Ethics Complaint Alleges Boebert Had Sexual Relationship With Senior Staffer, Paid $200,000 in Hush Money to Conceal The Affair; Sworn complaint filed🚨

David B. Wheeler — Fri, 18 Sep 2026 18:38:39 GMT

Sworn complaint filed with the House Ethics Committee alleges Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) carried on a years-long affair with her female District Director, rewarded her with taxpayer-funded bonuses, disguised a $5,000 campaign payment as “consulting,” and arranged a $200,000 hush money payment after the staffer threatened her.

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North Carolina Is a Coin Flip With a Thumb on the Scale

David B. Wheeler — Wed, 16 Sep 2026 14:58:12 GMT

DatumSignals forecast, computed September 16, 2026. Source: datumsignals.com/race/senate-2026-NC

Our DatumSignals.com model has North Carolina at Cooper 54, Whatley 46 as of this week. Not the probability of the vote share, the probability of winning the seat. That makes NC the tightest marquee Senate race in the country, and one of a handful that will decide who controls the chamber in 2027.

Read the full forecast here: DatumSignals: NC Senate 2026

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Why it’s this close

The model sees three forces pulling in different directions. North Carolina’s structural lean actually favors Democrats by about three points before anything else is considered. It’s an open seat, with Thom Tillis walking away rather than defending it, which makes everything more volatile. The national midterm environment is shifting toward Democrats. But the state’s own public mood is moving the other way, toward Republicans, and that’s what keeps Whatley in this race.

The polls tell the same story. Roy Cooper led by double…

Two Months of Firing Fools: Your September Update

American Muckrakers — Mon, 14 Sep 2026 17:02:42 GMT

Friends,

You paid for a lot of trouble these last two months. Here’s what it bought.

We put the Boebert family courtroom on your screen

In August we got court orders to broadcast Tyler Boebert’s Colorado hearings live. When they came, we streamed them on Muckrakers.Today, X, YouTube, and LinkedIn. No filter, no spin. Just the courtroom.

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September 4, Weld County: 20 days in jail with work release and 12 months probation after Tyler pleaded guilty to child abuse. September 10, Garfield County: 20 more days and two years supervised probation in his identity theft case, running concurrent. Congresswoman Boebert showed up at both hearings to beg for leniency. We showed up so her constituents could watch her do it.

We’ll be back with cameras for every hearing they’ll let us in.

Billboards are going up in CD-4

Around the hearings we ran a rapid-response campaign to fund billboards, radio spots, and broadcast court orders in Colorado’s 4th. Locations are mapped. The campaign is rolling. Boebert’s vo…

Beetlejuice Boebert Back in Court This Week

American Muckrakers — Sun, 06 Sep 2026 16:56:34 GMT

American Muckrakers won a court order to broadcast Boebert court proceedings LIVE. No filters, no spin. Voters saw it as it happened.

On Friday, Rep. Lauren Boebert begged a Weld County judge for mercy before her son Tyler was sentenced to 20 days in jail for child abuse and neglect, after his toddler was found wandering outside unsupervised three times.

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This Thursday, September 10, Tyler faces a second sentencing in Garfield County, and we expect the Congresswoman there again. He also faces five pending felony counts, including three child sexual exploitation charges.

The catch: our broadcast order covered one courtroom. Colorado requires a separate order from each judge, in each case. We have to win them one by one.

Help us hit $5,000 by Thursday to fund the court filings for broadcast orders at every remaining hearing, plus radio and billboards putting the footage in front of CO-04 voters.

CHIP IN NOW

We help fire her from one district once. Let’s finish the job.

David B. Wheeler
President, American …

Boss of Lauren Boebert Crime Family Tries to Keep Adult Son Out of Jail for 3X Child Abuse Charges in Court Today

American Muckrakers — Fri, 04 Sep 2026 22:31:06 GMT

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Watch the boss of the Lauren Boebert Crime Family (aka BeetleJuice) make a pathetic plea to keep Tyler Boebert out of jail. It failed and the judge gave him a 20 day sentence in jail, with a work release daily.

Tyler has additional cases against him that could carry additional jail time and several are felonies.

We’ll stay on top of this story and keep bring you updates.

Help us fund this work so voters of Colorado learn more about the Boss. Please donate here:

Hold Boebert Accountable Fund

About the Author

And, Beetlejuice Boebert claimed she was going to sue him. She never did, so David sued her in Federal Court in Denver and partially won.

American Muckrakers

The Biggest Cunt I’ve Never Met; VIVEK RAMASWAMY

Ramaswamy didn’t just cross that line. He went looking for the most vulnerable person in Amy Acton’s life and put her on television.

Vivek Ramaswamy is the biggest cunt I have ever not met in my 61 years on this earth.

DBW

About the Author

I Asked Ten AIs to Call the Midterms. Then I Took Their Homework Away.

The House didn’t blink.

The Senate fell apart.

Governors got messy.

So what does my model say?

My calls, on the record.

One last thing.

Your turn.

DBW

About the Author

The Lauren Boebert Crime Family Gravy Train, 2020 to 2026

The numbers

The stuff you do not put on a campaign card

Thank you, DBW

What she took home

Code Red

The second paycheck

The recount that never ended

The question I keep asking

I do not know the answer. I seriously wonder. I’ve heard rumors she’s allegedly demanding kick-backs. But that is unconfirmed.

And the people who do know are the same people cashing the checks.

What happens next

DBW

About the Author

Beetlejuice Boebert

"I AM NOT A SINNER": Lauren Boebert Bought a Plane While Her Waitresses Begged for Their Paychecks To Feed Their Kids

“Sell these t-shirts. That’s your checks.”

Same restaurant, same story

While I’ve got you

Boebert’s latest move: a protection order against a reporter 1,265 miles away.

The girl from Rifle High

Guns as a costume

“I AM NOT A SINNER”

Where this goes

About the Author

Why We Amended the Boebert Complaint, and What We Added

About the Author

Boebert’s Part-Time Staffer: From Shooters Grill Server to Part Time Taxpayer Payroll @ $90,000 Per Year

From the grill to the Capitol payroll

The money

Serving a district she doesn’t live in

Boebert on working from home

The record

Questions for Boebert

About the Author

The Speech Rep. Boebert’s Lawyer Didn’t Mention

ANALYSIS

Disclosure: I am the respondent in Rep. Boebert’s protection order case in Weld County. My attorneys are contesting it with a anti-SLAPP motion.

On LGBTQ Americans

On Vice President Kamala Harris

On President Joe Biden

On guns

On everyone else

“It goes directly to her”

What she gets done

Why not just mute me?

The threats she ignored

What the Supreme Court said about this in 1988

The double standard

A protection order is supposed to stop real threats. It is not supposed to settle who gets to be rude on the internet. If it were, she’d have a lot of explaining to do.

Stand with me

About the Author

What SLAPP Means to Anyone Who Believes in the Constitution

About the Author

Seven Petitions, One Permanent Order: Rep. Lauren Boebert’s Protection Order Habit

The record

Why it matters

About the Author

A Member of Congress Tried To Silence My Reporting. I’m still reporting.

About the Author

Court Tomorrow

Boebert Asked a Judge to Silence Me. Thursday, We Answer.

What she swore to

Why this matters beyond me