MONUMENTAL: Jason Rapert isn’t happy that a blogger has asked who contributed to the fund to build the 10 Commandments monument.
An anonymous blogger has dug into the available public record on a ministry and a nonprofit established by Sen. Jason Rapert and posed a series of questions left unanswered by the available documents.
What is the work of Rapert’s Holy Ghost Ministries, for example? Its assets include a $535,000 house in Bigelow. And who are the financial contributors to it and the American History and Heritage Foundation, which raised money for the Ten Commandments monument that spawned a federal lawsuit over Arkansas’s decision to mingle church and state on the Capitol grounds?
The senator is not amused at the questions. The Arkansas Blog’s tweet about the anonymous blog post last night inspired a thread of return Twitter blasts from the senator.
It gets really old seeing the same tired liberal tricks replayed as if they are “new” & the same idiots retweeting the slanderous “anonymous” personal attacks that never worked before. I notice the author of this rubbish is a coward – concealing his/her identity. #arpx #arleg 1/4
— Sen. Jason Rapert (@jasonrapert) May 3, 2019
I will let my attorneys handle the legal aspects of this latest defamatory hit – that will be a real story. But I will handle the political response – this is rubbish & added to the pile of failed attempts to hurt me, my family, our ministry & our business. #arpx #arleg 2/4
— Sen. Jason Rapert (@jasonrapert) May 3, 2019
Soon, the cowards will be revealed and they will finally be held accountable for their dirty deeds. Just like Stephan Ferry was caught when he filed that false police report against me last year – and got sentenced to jail for it #arpx #arleg 3/4 pic.twitter.com/MNvrZDRbW7
— Sen. Jason Rapert (@jasonrapert) May 3, 2019
Last, haven’t you liberal cowards figured it out? You’ve accused me of everything, threatened my family, filed false police reports against me (you got BUSTED) & done EVERYTHING you could to defeat me. I’M STILL STANDING. You are failures. Psalm 37 #arpx #arleg 4/4 pic.twitter.com/9LWaAwvM1A
— Sen. Jason Rapert (@jasonrapert) May 3, 2019
The anonymous blogger’s item mainly recites the public record — federal tax forms, state financial disclosure statements and IRS documents.
Public disclosure of contributors is NOT required on federal tax filings. But the situation illustrates the inadequacy of Arkansas’s ethical disclosure law for elected officials. The ability of a politician to set up a nonprofit that solicits money from anonymous sources without disclosure invites suspicion. An unscrupulous legislator could use it as a cloak for corruption. I am NOT saying that is the case with Rapert’s organizations. But I don’t think it is actionable to ask a state legislator to provide more disclosure about his or her money-raising activities.
UPDATE: The anonymous blogger struck again today with some questions about another of Rapert’s organizations, the National Association of Christian Lawmakers. It’s another outfit where the disinfectant of sunshine would erase any suspicions about the activity.
Who is Illuminate Arkansas? They won’t say. They use the nom de plume Adam Weishaupt, the 18th-century German philosopher who founded the secret society called the Order of Illuminati. They are having too much fun.
