Lincoln Project Pays 6 Figures to Co-Founder Who Claimed PAC Ignored Allegations John Weaver Preyed on Men and Boys
The Lincoln Project has settled with co-founder Jennifer Horn after she accused the anti-Trump PAC of ignoring allegations John Weaver made unwanted sexual advances to young men and a boy.
Weaver made a name for himself for working with late Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) and former Gov. John Kasich (R-OH).
He was among those who founded the PAC to defeat former President Donald Trump in 2019.
Weaver and Horn were joined in founding The Lincoln Project by George Conway, Steve Schmidt, and Rick Wilson.
The group firmly positioned itself as a principled conservative answer to Trump and his brand of GOP populism.
With The Lincoln Project, Trump’s former GOP consultant opponents raised millions of dollars with the promise of seizing back control of the Republican Party. They vowed to tear it all down and rebuild it in their own image.
Last January, their plans unraveled as Weaver was accused of sexual misconduct by almost two dozen young men, one of whom was reported to be a 14-year-old.
The New York Times reported:
John Weaver, a longtime Republican strategist and co-founder of the prominent anti-Trump group the Lincoln Project, has for years sent unsolicited and sexually provocative messages online to young men, often while suggesting he could help them get work in politics, according to interviews with 21 men who received them.
His solicitations included sending messages to a 14-year-old, asking questions about his body while he was still in high school, and then more pointed ones after he turned 18.
These messages from Mr. Weaver, 61, who helped run John McCain’s presidential campaigns in 2000 and 2008 and John Kasich’s in 2016, did not lead to physical encounters except in one consensual case, and none of the men accused Mr. Weaver of unlawful conduct.
Horn reportedly heard chatter about the allegations against Weaver and brought the issue up to others in the PAC. She claimed she was ignored, and ultimately left The Lincoln Project last February, citing the controversy.
Schmidt put Horn on blast on social media after she quit and went public. Tweets attacking her by Schmidt and Wilson were later deleted.
Horn sued the PAC she helped found, and according to the Washington Free Beacon, the group settled with her last summer.
Chuck Ross, writing for the Free Beacon, reported:
Jennifer Horn received $375,000 from the Lincoln Project last year, according to campaign disclosures released this week. The Lincoln Project paid Horn, a co-founder of the group, an initial installment of $250,000 on July 15 and monthly installments of $25,000 thereafter.
The terms of the settlement were not made public.
Ross, citing Federal Election Commission records, reported that each payment to Horn from The Lincoln Project was characterized as a “legal payout.”
