By
At the time of the ACLU Lawsuit regarding NSA Spying, I announced that if you were interested in intervening in the lawsuit to please contact me. Michelle Malkin was kind enough to link to it. I was contacted by John Stephenson a/k/a Jay Stephenson of StoptheACLU.com, who–like hundreds of others–wanted to get involved.
Since I informed Michelle and others that the only costs would be filing fees and costs, Jay volunteered to have the Paypal account for this set up at his site. That was a mistake (because Jay has since shown a predilection for stealing–more on that below). Both Michelle and I (and other websites) generously linked to Jay’s site (he was one of hundreds of people who contacted me), and we asked that people donate at that Paypal account. Mistake #2. We gave Jay and his site many links each time he asked (incessantly).
Since then, Jay informed me that he misused the bulk of the funds on himself, spending $600.00 of the money on an ad for his blog and $200.00 on maintenance for his site. I doubt the fifty or so people who donated wanted their money meant to pay expenses to go to the Jay Stephenson a/k/a John Stephenson Personal Pleasure Account. In short, Jay stole the money. When Jay informed me of this, I insisted he put the money back. I don’t know whether he ever did, and I doubt it. He refuses to provide any accounting.
(And apparently, Jay is stealing from anyone reading who is a U.S. taxpayer. You see, Jay is in the military, but yet, he appears to be blogging all day long. Don’t you enjoy paying his salary to blog? Talk about conduct unbecoming.)
Thereafter, Jay decided to defame me and link to other sites that did, while still thinking I’d represent him. It’s my policy not to provide free legal work to people who attack me. Not a smart move, Jay. But that was not the beginning, just the final straw after this misappropriation of funds. Jay, after agreeing in writing to provide an accounting and transfer the money–including that which he stole and claims he repaid–to an independent account, decided he wanted to keep the money for himself and refused to live up to his agreement. (Surprise, surprise.) I don’t know exactly how much was raised, but it was about $1,400, the bulk of which Jay stole/misappropriated/spent on himself. I also don’t know the names or contact information for the donors, either, because consistent with his dishonest behavior, Jay refuses to provide that. Instead he allegedly sent them a letter that, frankly, cannot be further from the truth.
If you gave money to Jay, please contact him to get it back. We are now working with StoptheACLU.ORG, which is run by an honest individual, a description that cannot be bestowed on either Jay Stephenson a/k/a John Stephenson or his StoptheACLU.com site. Remember that, the next time you may be tempted to contribute to his site or even believe anything you read on it. Jay has demonstrated consistently that he is neither honest nor trustworthy. We hope the IRS is reading.
As for the intervention, we are proceeding. Neither Jay nor his site has ever been my client, and this does not change a thing in the direction of the intervening action.