NYT Report Alleges Secret Deals Within Lincoln Project, George Conway Calls For Group to be ‘Shut Down’

Ahead of the 2020 presidential election, four founders of the Lincoln Project had reportedly quietly begun setting up a new media company that the founders believed would be “far more lucrative venture” than the Lincoln Project itself, the New York Times reported Monday.

According to the Times, Lincoln Project founders Steve Schmidt, John Weaver, Reed Galen, and Rick Wilson had drafted and filed papers to create TLP Media in September and October, an attempt to “transform the original project, a super PAC, into a far more lucrative venture under their control.”

Days before the 2020 presidential election in November, Schmidt had Lincoln Project leadership gather in his home in Utah a few days before the 2020 election to discuss the Lincoln Project’s post-election future, according to the Times.

At that meeting, Schmidt reportedly pitched a “billion-dollar” media company, and invited Lincoln Project leadership to be a part of it.

The TLP Media project “was not the only private financial arrangement among the four men,” the Times reported. “Shortly after they created the group in late 2019, they had agreed to pay themselves millions of dollars in management fees, three people with direct knowledge of the deal said.”

A Lincoln Project spokeswoman denied the report, telling the Times that “[n]o such agreement exists and nothing like it was ever adopted.”

“The behind-the scenes moves by the four original founders showed that whatever their political goals, they were also privately taking steps to make money from the earliest stages, and wanted to limit the number of people who would share in the spoils,” the Times reported, adding that the Lincoln Project also directed around $27 million to Galen’s consulting firm, from which the four men were paid.

George Conway, who worked with the Lincoln Project, called for the organization to be shut down, unless all its finances are fully disclosed.

.@ProjectLincoln should shut down, absent full disclosure of its finances. As this detailed story shows, there’s simply too much money that hasn’t been accounted for, and, I fear, never will be. https://t.co/QUbeWVB5dS

— George Conway (@gtconway3d) March 8, 2021

“Project Lincoln should shut down, absent full disclosure of its finances. As this detailed story shows, there’s simply too much money that hasn’t been accounted for, and, I fear, never will be,” Conway tweeted.

Conway, a vocal Trump opponent, is married to former Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway.

The Lincoln Project was founded by longtime Republican operatives who opposed former President Donald Trump. It raised more than $87 million in donations and produced dozens of anti-Trump videos.

Although the Lincoln Project was financially successful, it was also facing a leadership crisis. Multiple reports, including one by the Times, revealed allegations that Weaver had been harassing young men for years with sexually provocative messages. According to the Times, the Lincoln Project knew about the allegations against Weaver as early as January 2020.