What Happened at Tyler Boebert’s Advisement Hearing

Tyler Boebert appeared (remotely) before a Colorado judge for a formal advisement hearing. No plea was entered. The judge made that explicit: “Today’s not the day where you plead guilty, not guilty, anything like that.”

The court advised him of five counts, all alleged to have occurred between January 1 and February 29, 2024:

Counts 1 and 2: Sexual exploitation of a child, both class 3 felonies. Count 1 alleges he knowingly caused, induced, or enticed a child to engage in explicit sexual conduct for the making of sexually exploitative material. Count 2 alleges possession with intent to deal, sell, or distribute such material. Each carries 4 to 12 years in the Department of Corrections, three years mandatory parole, a fine of up to $750,000, and mandatory sex offender registration under C.R.S. 16-22-103.

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Count 3: Sexual exploitation of a child (accessing, viewing, possessing, or controlling sexually exploitative material, including video), a class 4 felony. Two to six years DOC, three years parole, $2,000 to $500,000 fine, sex offender registration.

Counts 4 and 5: Contributing to the delinquency of a minor, alleging he induced, aided, or encouraged a child to violate a felony victims rights act crime, namely sexual exploitation of a child. Two to six years DOC each, three years parole, $2,000 to $500,000 fine.

Boebert confirmed on the record that he understood the charges and penalties: “Yes, I do, Your Honor.”

The judge then entered a mandatory protection order naming two protected parties (not named in open court). Boebert must not harass, intimidate, retaliate against, or tamper with any victim or witness; must vacate and stay away from their home and any location where they are likely to be found; and must have no direct or indirect contact with them. He confirmed he had a copy of the order and understood its conditions. The hearing ended with the court setting the next court date.

The Judge issued an Order allowing us to post the video from the hearing. In addition, we made a transcript. Both can be viewed here:

Hearing Video and Transcript Here

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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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I keep coming back to one number.

$194 million.

That is how much was spent on advertising in Michigan’s U.S. Senate primary this year. Nobody had ever spent that much on a state midterm primary before.

About $64 million of it went toward helping Haley Stevens try to defeat Abdul El-Sayed.

Two Democrats.

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In the closing stretch, the Stevens side was outspending El-Sayed’s campaign on television by 12 to 1.

Stop and think about that for a minute.

Michigan was going to nominate a Democrat either way. Meanwhile, Republicans control the White House, the House, the Senate, and the courts. Faced with that little national emergency, some of the smartest and richest people in Democratic politics decided the most urgent use of $64 million was settling a family argument.

I have been around politics long enough that very little surprises me anymore.

This did.

Whose money was it?

I did what I usually do when somebody tells me not to worry about the money.

I pulled the filings.

You should too. In fact, please do, because some of this sounds made up.

The biggest spender behind Stevens was United Democracy Project, AIPAC’s super PAC. It spent roughly $30 million on this one race, a record for the group.

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AIPAC itself supplied about $30 million of UDP’s roughly $100 million cycle haul. Because AIPAC moves its money through a nonprofit, the public cannot see where a dime of that money originally came from.

It is a black box wearing a blue jersey, supposedly.

The money we can trace is not especially reassuring.

Paul Singer gave to UDP.

Yes, that Paul Singer, one of the largest Republican megadonors in America.

Robert Kraft gave. Marc Rowan gave.

Jan Koum gave Trump’s super PAC $5 million in Meta stock in 2024, then moved another $1.6 million into UDP through a pass-through organization.

When researchers examined UDP’s large contributions, they found that barely one-third came from people who reliably support Democrats. Nearly a quarter came from donors with Republican giving histories.

Then there was A Stronger Michigan, the second-largest spender in the race. It poured in about $16 million. Almost all of its money came from Center Forward, a dark-money group that tells the public essentially nothing about where its money originates.

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Another organization, the Center for Democratic Priorities, spent roughly $6.5 million and apparently never bothered reporting its activity to the FEC at all.

And while all of this was happening, AIPAC sent a joint fundraising email for Haley Stevens and Susan Collins.

The same email.

A Michigan Democrat and a Maine Republican.

The biggest so-called pro-Democratic spender in the biggest Democratic primary in America was simultaneously raising money to protect a Republican Senate seat.

You do not need me to explain what that is.

The ads barely work

Here is the dirty little secret everybody in this business knows but few people with invoices are willing to say out loud.

Television persuasion in large federal races barely moves voters.

I am not saying every television ad is worthless. I am saying the research has been remarkably consistent. The effects are small. They fade quickly. And the more saturated the market becomes, the less each additional dollar accomplishes.

Michigan was the most saturated midterm advertising market in history.

By the end, the last $50 million might as well have been fed through a paper shredder.

So why keep spending?

Because consultants get paid from the ad buy. The larger the buy, the larger the check.

There is no commission on restraint.

There is certainly no commission on investigative journalism.

The ads are not merely the strategy.

The ads are the business.

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Here is what about $305,000 did

I will use our own books because I know them cold, and every line is sitting at the FEC for anybody who wants to check my math.

Madison Cawthorn

We broke the video of him humping his cousin’s face. Roughly half a billion people saw the story worldwide. A sitting member of Congress lost his own primary.

Our cost was about $150,000.

Mark Robinson

We put his own NudeAfrica.com comments in front of North Carolina voters.

His words. His account. His history.

He was wiped out in November.

Cost: about $25,000.

Chuck Edwards

We exposed his messages to female staffers, the casino trips, and the late-night texts.

He is resigning.

Cost: about $5,000.

Five grand.

Lauren Boebert

Beetlejuice.

The theater’s own security cameras did most of the testifying. She survived her next election by 546 votes and then fled to another district to preserve her career.

We spent about $125,000.

And we are not finished with her.

Add those numbers together and you get approximately $305,000.

For roughly that amount, we helped defeat a sitting congressman, helped expose a statewide Republican candidate who was subsequently crushed, exposed another congressman who is now leaving office, and pushed a fourth into political survival mode.

The pro-Stevens operation in Michigan spent about 210 times that amount fighting another Democrat.

Yes, I know. A Senate primary is not the same thing as investigative work. Michigan is not North Carolina. Television advertising is not opposition research.

That is precisely the point.

Donors should stop comparing budget categories and start comparing results.

The part that makes me angry

That $305,000 did not come from billionaires.

It came five dollars at a time. Ten dollars. Twenty-five dollars.

It came from regular people who have mortgages, grocery bills, children, medical expenses, and plenty of better things they could be doing with their money. They gave anyway because they believed corrupt politicians should be exposed and removed from office.

Then we have to go back and ask those same people again.

Not because the institutional money does not exist. It plainly exists.

The foundations, megadonors, and political organizations sitting on nine-figure accounts simply will not fund this kind of work.

I do not mean they will not fund us specifically. That would be a complaint, and I am not interested in complaining.

They will not adequately fund anything like this.

There is a comparatively inexpensive, proven, public method for exposing corrupt politicians and helping remove them from office. The people controlling the largest pools of political money would still rather burn through $64 million choosing between two Democrats.

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Even Kamala Harris said it

At the Louisiana Democratic Party gala in New Orleans, Kamala Harris said voters want leaders who know how to fight. She said the Democratic Party needs to become comfortable with “a certain kind of ruthlessness.”

She is right.

But ruthlessness is not a speech.

Ruthlessness is a budget line.

Ruthlessness means funding the work that removes corrupt Republicans from office instead of writing nine-figure checks to fight your own voters.

The machine heard Harris.

It applauded.

Then it went right back to billing.

Until Democratic donors, especially the real ones giving five, ten, and twenty-five dollars, demand that their institutions fund what demonstrably works instead of what reliably generates commissions, the results will not change.

The receipts are public.

The model works.

The excuse is gone. Help us defeat a couple more terrible politicians. Subscribe. Donate. Contact us with tips about nefarious actions.

DBW

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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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While Rep. Lauren Boebert prepares to testify on her son’s behalf at two criminal sentencing hearings next month, a new case has landed on the docket.

On August 14, 2026, a petition for a protection order was filed against Tyler Boebert in Mesa County Court (Case No. 2026C925). Three days later, on August 17, Judge Matthew B. Hardin granted a Temporary Protection Order against him.

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Here is what the court record shows:

The timeline

• August 14, 2026: Complaint filed and protection order registration paperwork submitted

• August 17, 2026: Temporary Protection Order GRANTED, plus an accompanying order

• August 28, 2026: Temporary Restraining Order hearing, 9:00 AM, Courtroom 6, Judge Matthew Bryson Hardin presiding

The petitioner is a private individual, and out of respect for her privacy and safety we are not amplifying her name, though it appears in the public record.

The bigger picture

This TPO does not exist in a vacuum. Tyler Boebert already faces:

• Sentencing in Weld County on September 4, 2026 (Case 2025M2424, 1:30 PM, Courtroom 8)

• Sentencing in Garfield County on September 10, 2026 (Case 2024CR57, 1:30 PM, Courtroom C)

• Pending felony charges in Garfield County (Case 2026CR234)

Rep. Boebert is expected to testify on her son’s behalf at the September sentencing hearings. She has spent years lecturing America about law and order. Her family’s court calendar tells its own story.

What happens next

The August 28 hearing will determine whether the temporary order becomes a permanent one. We will be watching, and we will report what happens.

For full coverage, court documents, and ongoing reporting on the Boebert family’s legal troubles, visit muckrakers.today.

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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Colorado court records show a new felony case filed August 6 in Garfield County District Court: The People of the State of Colorado v. Boebert, Tyler J, case 2026CR234.

Five counts. Three of them felony sexual exploitation of a child charges, including induce/entice and possession with intent (both Class 3 felonies). Two counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor.

A warrant issued August 7. Bond set at $10,000. He walked out of jail August 9.

And in four weeks, his mother, Rep. Lauren Boebert, is scheduled to testify on his behalf at his sentencing hearings in two SEPARATE cases (Weld County Sept 4, Garfield County Sept 10).

He is presumed innocent. The court records are public. We published them. But the question has to be asked: WHERE THE FUCK IS THIS YOUNG MAN’S MOTHER AND FATHER?

👉 Read the full story with source documents at Muckrakers.Today

We broke this story with reader support and public records. That’s it. If you value accountability journalism, subscribe or chip via link below or mail a check to American Muckrakers, 237 Rockledge Rd, Spruce Pine, NC 28777.

MUCK YOU BOEBERT CRIME FAMILY!

DBW

Help Take Down the Boebert Crime Family

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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American Muckrakers has obtained a county jail “Recent Releases” log showing Tyler Jay Boebert, 21, released from custody on August 9, 2026.

The timing matters. Tyler Boebert faces two sentencing hearings next month: Weld County on September 4 (case 2025M2424) and Garfield County on September 10 (case 2024CR57). His mother, Rep. Lauren Boebert, is expected to testify on his behalf at both.

A release log means a booking preceded it. We are pulling the intake records now to confirm when he went in, why, and on what charges.

We will publish the documents as soon as we have them.

🔴 Full story coming on Muckrakers.Today 🔴

If you value this work, it runs on reader support. Chip in at americanmuckrakers.com or mail a check to American Muckrakers, 237 Rockledge Rd, Spruce Pine, NC 28777.

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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Yes, that's really MTG via Cameo. Yes, we'll do it again. Help us take down the next Chuck Edwards and others that think staff are playthings.

Give Here For Accountability

Tuesday we published his texts and told him to resign. Wednesday, 5 a.m., he quit his campaign. And no, I don’t think it was our headline that did it. It was his own thumbs. A thousand pages of his messages, produced to the Ethics Committee, sitting there in black and white. All we did was make sure the people of Western North Carolina got to read what he wrote.

Since Wednesday my phone hasn’t stopped. Reporters, donors, a couple of old friends from Iowa, all asking some version of the same question: how did it happen so fast?

It didn’t. That’s the answer nobody wants. What you saw was the last 48 hours of a file that took years. The boring years are the whole trick.

Which brings me to the file I’ve been keeping longer than any other.

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She threatened to sue us. We sued her instead.

Boebert and I go back to 2022. That summer she got herself on national TV promising to sue us for defamation. She didn’t stop there, either. She told the press our donors had legal exposure too. Read that twice. A sitting member of Congress threatening ordinary people because they gave twenty bucks to her critics.

Her lawsuit never showed up. Mine did. June 2023, federal court in Denver, American Muckrakers and me as plaintiffs, Lauren Opal Boebert as defendant. She moved to have it tossed. Magistrate Judge Kathryn A. Starnella said no. In her written opinion the judge found Boebert defamed me five times, and she ruled the donor threats weren’t protected speech because they were never made in good faith or in serious contemplation of actually filing anything. Which is the polite judicial way of saying the tough talk was hot air.

We settled this past June. The terms are confidential and they’re staying that way. I have no complaints. Make of that what you will.

And here’s the thing people miss about those four years: the lawsuit was never the main event. While all that ground along, we filed an ethics complaint with the House Office of Congressional Ethics. We sent a 42-page complaint to the DOJ and the Denver FBI about her cozy arrangement with Garfield County Sheriff Lou Vallario. Every page of that one came from emails we shook loose ourselves through Colorado Open Records Act requests. No leaks. No unnamed sources. Their own words, pried out one records request at a time. The Colorado Secretary of State opened an investigation, and their legal analyst found sufficient evidence that Vallario used his badge to promote Boebert and trash her primary opponent.

Records requests. Court filings. Paper. It’s tedious work and nobody makes movies about it. Chuck Edwards could tell you how it ends.

The half million that went dark

Now my favorite chapter, and I mean favorite the way you mean it about a toothache.

Her 2020 financial disclosure reports $478,386 in spousal income from something called Terra Energy “Productions.” Go ahead, look that company up. I tried. Can’t find it. The real outfit, the one the county drilling permits actually tie her then-husband to, is TEP Rocky Mountain.

Okay, maybe somebody botched a form. It happens. Except the next year the income moves into a family LLC and the number turns into “N/A.” Same husband. Same rigs. The permits show him doing the same work into January 2023 at least. Nothing about the job changed. Only what the public got to see changed. Nearly half a million a year in oil and gas money, gone dark, while she sat on the Natural Resources Committee casting votes on oil and gas.

She disclosed it once, so she knew exactly how. Then she quit doing it.

What’s filed and what’s coming

We’re at the FEC too. Last August I filed a sworn complaint against Lauren Boebert for Congress and against Boebert personally for spending campaign money on herself. The FEC docketed it as MUR 8390. We’ve amended it twice since, because the file keeps growing.

Amendment one: $12,299.80 her campaign paid to the Tideline Ocean Resort and Spa in Palm Beach, reported as “Travel” and “Event Site Rental.” Small problem. On the same day as a $7,032.76 charge at that resort, her own social media has her at Woody’s Q Shack in Alamosa, Colorado. On the day of another charge, $2,844.04, she’s documented in Washington. I’ve produced events on all seven continents and I’ve never figured out how to host one at a Florida spa from two time zones away.

Amendment two, filed this June, is the rodeo. May 12, 2025, her fundraising committee sends $35,000.00 to Professional Bull Riders, LLC. The report says “EVENT SITE RENTAL/TICKETS.” Four days later? Kid Rock’s Rock N Rodeo at AT&T Stadium, and there’s Boebert, attending with family and friends. Thirty-five grand of donor money. We’ve asked the FEC to subpoena PBR’s records so we can all find out who used that access.

The FEC’s Office of General Counsel confirmed receipt in June. She’s being served. It’s pending, and you’ll hear about every development here first.

Two ethics complaints against her are pending as I write this, too. But circle this on your calendar, because this is the part that matters most right now: next month Lauren Boebert walks into a courtroom twice in one week. Her son Tyler has two sentencing hearings, September 4 in Weld County (case 2025M2424, 1:30 p.m., courtroom 8, in person) and September 10 in Garfield County (case 2024CR57, 1:30 p.m., courtroom C). She’s expected to speak on his behalf at both.

Look, I’m a father of three. I understand wanting to stand up for your kid, and I won’t pretend I wouldn’t. But most parents walk into that room with nothing but love and a clean shirt. She walks in with a congressional title and a national profile, hoping the scales tip her son’s way because of who his mother is. That’s not parenting. That’s leverage. And it deserves witnesses.

Help us get this coverage live

I don’t want you reading a spokesman’s cleanup statement the next morning. I want you watching. We have expanded media coverage requests pending in front of both judges, Weld and Garfield, to bring these hearings to you live from the courtroom.

It costs real money. Two hearings, two counties, travel, filings, records fees, broadcast logistics, and we do it without a dime of corporate cash. Never taken any. If you want to see what Lauren Boebert says to those judges, in public, on the record, no spin room in sight, chip in today: DONATE HERE PLEASE!

Every dollar goes to the coverage. First hearing is September 4. That’s four weeks out.

Why any of this works

Here’s what politicians actually count on. Not that you’ll forgive them. That you’ll forget. Ride out the ugly week, wait for the next shiny object, and the whole thing just evaporates. Usually they’re right, too. Scandals don’t die because they weren’t true. They die because nobody kept the file.

Somebody kept the file on Chuck Edwards. Look how that week went.

I’ve kept the Boebert file since 2022. A federal defamation case we won our rulings in and settled on terms I’m happy with. An FEC complaint, twice amended, pending right now. Ethics complaints. Records requests. Disclosure filings. Drilling permits. Edwards wasn’t the finish line. Edwards was the proof of concept, and the concept is simple: paper beats spin, every time, eventually.

Lauren Boebert is next.

Big D

David B. Wheeler
President, American Muckrakers

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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Our reasoning then was simple math, and we published it. South Dakota was never going to elect two challengers over Mike Rounds. Beaudion, the Democratic nominee, had $3,078 in the bank as of this week. Independent Brian Bengs, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel, had the resources, the profile, and the only realistic path. A split field was a gift to Rounds. We said consolidate. It took months, but the field just consolidated.

South Dakota now joins Nebraska and Idaho, where Democrats also stepped aside for independents, in the one-on-one model that gives red-state challengers an actual chance. Rounds against Bengs, head to head. That is a race.

Click here to listen to the 2 interviews we’ve had with Brian Bengs and the other interviews of folks supporting him we played during the “Brian Bengs Week” on MUCK YOU!

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Now it is Bengs versus Rounds. Watch that race along with us. Bengs is the real deal and I think can win.

Big D

David B. Wheeler
President, American Muckrakers

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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He says it was prayer and reflection. Sure it was. The House Ethics Committee dropped its report Monday finding substantial evidence that he made repeated unwanted advances toward two young female staffers, and recommended the full House censure him. That is one step short of expulsion. By Tuesday, per CNN, his own party’s leadership was working the phones to shove him out. By Wednesday he was gone. That is not prayer. That is math.

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I have spent this week inside the document production his own office handed the Ethics Committee. Nearly a thousand pages of his texts. His words, not mine. We published them yesterday, and if you missed that piece, go read it, because the man told on himself better than we ever could.

He offered, in writing, to skip House votes to decorate a staffer’s Christmas tree. He cancelled a constituent tele-town hall for a dinner date. He booked the Bellagio and coached secrecy around a Vegas trip. Thirty tubs of ice cream to a staffer’s home. A casino night printout with a hand-drawn heart on it. A comment about a staffer’s dress at a FEMA meeting, while Helene survivors in these mountains were still waiting on their congressman.

His lawyers wrote 15 pages calling the findings unfounded. His campaign spokesman said the report was a complete exoneration. Forty-eight hours later the fully exonerated congressman quit a race he won in May.

Read that again. You do not quit a race you already won because you were exonerated.

Here is the part nobody in Washington will say out loud: this happened because somebody kept the file. The Ethics Committee did its job, and so did we. No cable hits, no viral moments, just documents that do not blink. His own texts, produced under compulsion, ended his career. All we did was make sure the people of NC-11 could read them.

And the district? NC-11 just blew wide open. Edwards won the primary in May, which means voters do not pick his replacement. Party insiders do, in a back room, in August. Whoever walks out of that room starts from zero against Jamie Ager, who has been on the ground for months in a district that was already sliding toward competitive. I wrote in this newsletter weeks ago that NC-11 was the race to watch. Now the whole country will be watching it.

So what happens next. Three things.

Edwards should still resign. He says he will finish his term, which means the guy who offered in writing to skip our votes keeps casting them until January. The censure vote is still coming when the House returns in September. He should spare the district the spectacle of standing in the well while it gets read to him. Our demand from yesterday has not moved.

We will be in the room for the replacement fight, or as close to the door as they let us get. The NC-11 GOP protected this man for months. If they think they can quietly swap in a successor without anyone checking the new guy’s record, they have not been paying attention to how we work.

And Lauren Boebert is next. Garfield County, August 13. Weld County, September 4. Two ethics complaints pending. Four years of file. More on that in the next piece.

Edwards wrote this morning that serving Western North Carolina has been the greatest honor of his professional life. Serving Western North Carolina was the job, Chuck. The texts show where your attention actually was. These mountains deserved a full-time congressman. In November, they can finally elect one.

Read the whole story here.

Big D

David B. Wheeler President, American Muckrakers

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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That is not a characterization. That is what the documents say.

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American Muckrakers has reviewed the text messages Rep. Chuck Edwards produced to the U.S. House Committee on Ethics. His own words, spanning two years and two 20-something female staffers:

The House Ethics Committee has now found Edwards violated the House Code of Official Conduct and recommended the full House CENSURE him. We publish the screenshots, the full timeline, and the case for why censure is not enough. Chuck Edwards must resign.

I’ve spent years chasing accountability in Congress. Boebert. Cawthorn before her. This morning it landed in my own backyard.

Chuck Edwards is my congressman. NC-11, Western North Carolina, the mountains I live in. Today the House Ethics Committee, chaired by a Republican, recommended the full House censure him over his conduct toward two young female staffers. One was 19 when she started working for him. Censure means standing in the well of the House while the Speaker reads your shame out loud. Only expulsion is worse.

And here’s the part most outlets will skip: Edwards filed a 14-page counterattack written by Stanley Brand, one of the most experienced ethics lawyers in Washington. It doesn’t deny the gifts or the trips or the letters. It says the Committee broke its own rules to get him.

We’re hosting every page at Muckrakers.Today. Don’t take my word for anything. Read it yourself:

Full report: https://muckrakers.today/docs/edwards-ethics-committee-report.pdf

The exhibits: https://muckrakers.today/docs/edwards-ethics-appendix-a.pdf

His lawyers’ response: https://muckrakers.today/docs/edwards-ethics-appendix-b.pdf

Press release: https://muckrakers.today/docs/edwards-ethics-press-release.pdf

THE STUFF YOU WON’T BELIEVE

Sixteen witnesses. Nearly 1,500 pages. I’m quoting the documents, not speculating.

Over $1,000 in jewelry. Designer purses. Guns, plural. A paid New York trip with Hamilton tickets after one staffer’s breakup. Comments about their weight. Dinners he told staff to keep off his official calendar. Texts after midnight.

He skipped House votes, actual votes he was sent to Washington to cast, to decorate a staffer’s Christmas tree.

He hired a singer for a staffer’s birthday to perform an Ed Sheeran love song. “Darling, we could fall in love ‘neath the hills of Aberfeldy.” She told a friend she was “scared lowkey.” Her words, in the record.

One day a staffer looked sad, so he had about 30 tubs of ice cream delivered to her house. When she said that seemed like a bit much, he wrote back: “My heart was breaking seeing you like that.”

And my personal favorite. A staffer texted him thanks after a casino night. He printed the text out. On paper. Drew a heart next to it. Then wrote, in his own hand, “Perhaps my proudest personal moment!” The photo is in the exhibits.

November 2025, he flew a former staffer to Vegas. Bellagio, Sphere show, flights, all on him. When shutdown votes yanked him back to DC, she offered to change his flight herself so his scheduler wouldn’t “ask why you’re in Vegas.”

THE DELETED TEXTS

When the Committee asked for his messages, more than 400 texts with one staffer were missing, plus a nine-month hole covering at least 400 more. And the gaps weren’t random. His replies vanished in a pattern that made the young women look like the ones doing the chasing.

The problem with deleting texts is that the other person still has them. Investigators got the receipts anyway. Among the recovered messages: “I’m burning with jealousy because I wanted to be the person to introduce you to it.” A handwritten letter signed “With my lifetime of appreciation and devotion, Chuck.”

The Committee wrote that deleting those particular messages “indicates he was aware that their content was cause for concern.”

NOW, HIS SIDE. AND YOU SHOULD ACTUALLY READ IT.

I’m an accountability journalist, not a prosecutor, so here’s what Appendix B argues, straight up.

First, the Committee found no violation of the actual sexual misconduct rules. No sexual activity, no proposition, no quid pro quo, no federal harassment violation. The censure rests entirely on the catch-all rules about behaving “creditably” and honoring the “spirit” of the House.

Second, nobody ever filed a complaint. The investigation started from a Committee press statement and media reports. His lawyers say a censure recommendation requires an Investigative Subcommittee, formal charges, and a hearing where every count gets proved by clear and convincing evidence. None of that happened. Their word for it: “ultra vires.” Beyond the Committee’s power.

Third, they produced a voicemail Staffer 2 left Edwards in October 2025, weeks before Vegas: “I’m still so excited for Vegas. It’s going to be so much fun.” His lawyers say the Committee had that recording and ignored it.

They also point out House gift rules exempt gifts based on personal friendship, that Edwards gave gifts to plenty of other staffers including a handgun to a male staffer, and that the affair rumors trace back to a staffer he fired. He closes with “sincere regret” if anyone felt uncomfortable. While admitting nothing.

Is some of that lawyer smoke? Sure. The procedural argument is real, though, and if the House censures him on this record, every member of both parties should understand the precedent being set.

But here’s what sticks with me. When investigators asked Edwards directly whether he should have acted differently toward the young women who worked for him, he had a three-word answer.

“I’m going to say no.”

Two women walked away from careers in Congress. He’d change nothing. The Committee called it “a lack of self-awareness and accountability.” I call it exactly what Western North Carolina doesn’t need in Washington.

And while we’re on the subject of ethics: American Muckrakers has two ethics complaints pending against Lauren Boebert right now. The Edwards report proves the process can work when the evidence is there. We intend to make sure it works twice more. She’s also got court dates in Garfield County on August 13 and Weld County on September 4, and we’ll be watching those too.

The House votes on censure next. Then in November, NC-11 votes. I’ll be covering both here and at Muckrakers.Today. Subscribe, share this, and send it to somebody in the 11th District.

Sunlight. Always sunlight.

Big D

NOTE: All quotations come from the House Committee on Ethics report, Appendix B, and exhibits linked above. Representative Edwards has denied wrongdoing, and he is entitled to a presumption of innocence with respect to any matter not adjudicated. OK, Chuck.

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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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I don’t need to look far for proof. I see it right from my front porch.

Exhibit A: North Carolina’s 11th District

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Meet Chuck. I live in NC-11, tucked in the mountains west of Asheville. Our congressman is Chuck Edwards. Edwards is currently under investigation following allegations he was sleeping with, or trying to sleep with, his own staff. Beyond that, he presided over a Hurricane Helene disaster recovery that left his constituents stranded without debris removal, housing funds, or basic answers while he cut ribbons and posed for photo ops. And yes, Chuck has the single worst comb-over in the United States Congress. That’d be funny if it weren’t such a precise metaphor for the guy: an awful lot of effort to cover up what everyone can plainly see.

Meet Jamie. This district ought to be a knife fight, and credit where it’s due, our nominee is fighting one. Jamie Ager, a fourth-generation local farmer, has out-raised Edwards roughly 3 to 1. That’s around $3 million compared to Chuck’s $940,000, holding more than four times his cash on hand according to the latest FEC filings. Polling shows Edwards in deep trouble.

Now, here’s the catch. NC-11 is an anomaly, and everybody in politics knows it.

Ager is what happens when a top-tier local candidate, a severely wounded incumbent, and serious money happen to collide in the exact same place at the exact same time. Go ahead, name a second district where all three conditions are true right now. I’ll wait.

Across the rest of the country, great challengers are starved for cash. National money arrives in late October, if it shows up at all, and wounded incumbents cruise to victory simply because nobody built the infrastructure to knock them off. One bright spot in the mountains isn’t a nationwide wave; it’s a mirage letting everyone else off the hook.

Even here, the race isn’t won. It comes down to whether that war chest actually transforms into door knocks in Mitchell, Madison, and Haywood counties. Money that stays in a bank account is just a digit on a quarterly report.

NC-11 is the exception. Here’s the rule with six warning signs we’re ignoring at our own peril.

1. Confusing Pure Anger With Actual Organization

Anger is free. Organization costs real money, time, and shoe leather. Western North Carolina is furious over the Helene recovery, but raw fury doesn’t knock doors, cure flawed ballots, or pull low-propensity voters to the polls in precincts decided by 900 votes. Rallies in Asheville feel great, but they don’t move Mitchell, Madison, or Haywood counties an inch. If your county party’s field operations fit on a paper napkin, you aren’t ready. Right now, way too many of ours aren’t.

2. Money Going to the Wrong Places (Still)

I run a PAC. I read filings. Most people would want a shower after looking at them. A shameful chunk of small-dollar cash raised in the name of “saving democracy” gets incinerated on consultant fees, list rentals, and out-of-state vendors who’ve never won a single race in the state they’re billing. I’ve documented campaigns where over 40% of the money left state lines before a single voter was ever contacted. That isn’t a political campaign; it’s a car wash for political consultants.

Donors: Do your homework. Look up candidates on VoteROI.com1 and direct your money to the races that desperately need cash today.

3. National Cash Arrives Late or Not at All

October money is funeral money. The DCCC and major national funders love parachuting into races in late September, long after the die is cast, and then blaming the candidate when they lose. Battles are won with early capital: building staff, field networks, and name recognition in the spring, not a frantic TV ad buy ten days before the election. Writing off winnable districts with damaged incumbents isn’t high strategy, it’s malpractice, and people ought to lose their jobs over it every single cycle. (Spoiler: nobody ever does.)

4. The Map and the System Aren’t Neutral

While folks argued on Twitter, the other side redrew the maps. North Carolina’s lines were explicitly drawn to safeguard incumbents like Chuck Edwards, and that exact playbook played out state after state. Throw in voter roll purges, closed polling sites, and local election offices staffed by people who still insist 2020 was stolen. None of this is secret; it’s public record enacted in broad daylight. Every hour spent in social media flame wars is an hour nobody spent recruiting poll watchers or funding election protection lawyers for post-election courtrooms.

5. Complacency Disguised as Confidence

“Midterms always swing against the party in power.” Maybe. But historical trends aren’t a field strategy, and hope isn’t a ground game. Chuck Edwards’s main achievements are an active federal investigation, a disastrous recovery response, and a hairstyle held together by Aqua Net, and he’s still standing. Guys like Chuck don’t lose to general vibes; they lose to relentless organization. The “inevitable wave” has a funny way of evaporating, leaving the same pundits to write post-mortems on why the failure was bound to happen.

6. The Circular Firing Squad Is Loaded

Last night, I got an email that illustrates our whole problem. A donor gave us $10 two years ago, then wrote in to unsubscribe over our billboard campaign targeting Lauren Boebert. She stated she strongly opposes Boebert’s views and held no objection to holding her accountable, but our billboards offended her manners, so she was pulling out.

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The kicker? She lives in Colorado, but not even in Boebert’s district.

Is that email an isolated incident? Sure. Most of our inbox consists of snark, encouragement, and useful tips. But pause and digest what that email represents: Lauren Boebert votes against disaster relief, veterans, and her own constituents, yet this donor’s response is to lecture the one group that nearly stripped Boebert of her seat and take her ten bucks home.

I offered to refund her $10. Hell, I’d drive it to her house. If you spend your energy policing the folks fighting in the trenches and hitting us harder than you hit Boebert, you aren’t an ally.

The other side doesn’t do this. Their donors don’t cut and run over rough language or sharp edges. They know they’re in a knife fight, and they back the people holding knives. Our side keeps expecting a war won with thank-you notes and pristine etiquette, then acts stunned when the Boeberts and Edwardses of the world keep winning. Politics is a contact sport. If you don’t treat this like a battle for the country’s direction, you aren’t paying attention.

Our Own Books, Open on the Table

Sunlight applies to everybody, including me.

American Muckrakers has raised $13,865 across 541 contributions this year, along with roughly $14,000 from subscribers to this Substack. Split that across six months, and it’s about $4,500 a month for a 61-year-old man and his three teenage kids to live on. That is the entire war chest of the outfit that helped derail Madison Cawthorn’s political career, operating on an average gift of $25 while grift shops with slick email systems and zero wins collect millions.

Small-dollar donors are exhausted. They’ve been burned by years of urgent “DONATE NOW OR DEMOCRACY DIES” inbox spam, leaving the people doing the real work to pay the price.

That number terrifies me, more than any polling data. Not because I’m scraping by, but because I know how hard we work, what we’re capable of flipping, and how pitiful our fundraising numbers are relative to the stake.

So here is a direct ask, with total transparency on where every cent goes: Lauren Boebert is expected in Colorado courtrooms this August and September regarding her son’s criminal cases. We are raising funds right now to place cameras in those courtrooms and put her testimony directly in front of her constituents, in her own words, on the record.

No consultants. No email list rentals. Just live coverage on social media and a pooled feed for news outlets. If you want hard-hitting accountability journalism over another panic-email about democracy, help us make it happen: donate here.

Want something tangible for your money? Pick up my book. James Carville already told you to. All proceeds go directly to American Muckrakers.

So What Do We Actually Do?

I’m a muckraker, not a doomsayer. Every single one of these problems has a practical fix, but it requires unsexy work nobody posts on social media:

• Give smart: Use VoteROI.com to donate directly to candidates like Jamie Ager and local grassroots groups conducting real voter contact, not email lists that spend your $25 renting other email lists. Got $10 for us? It goes straight to courtroom cameras in Colorado this August and September.

• Do the unglamorous jobs: Data entry, ballot curing, voter transit, poll monitoring. If you hold a law license, sign up for election protection now—not three days before the election. Got a laptop and a platform? Focus locally, where a few hundred votes alter the outcome.

• Hold our own side accountable: Sunlight isn’t reserved exclusively for Republicans. When our campaigns burn donor money or national committees write off winnable seats, call them out. A party unable to police itself has no business asking voters for power.

Disaster isn’t inevitable, but it is sitting right in front of us, in NC-11 and in my inbox, waiting for us to remain complacent, disorganized, and preoccupied with grading each other’s manners.

Ninety-six days. Get off your ass, get to work, and give.

— DBW

About the Author

David B. Wheeler is the president and co-founder of American Muckrakers, the Western North Carolina accountability group best known for helping end Madison Cawthorn’s congressional career in 2022, a rare instance of a sitting incumbent losing his own primary because someone took the time to do the research. Since then, American Muckrakers has focused its lens on Lauren Boebert, Ken Paxton, and a growing list of politicians treating public office like a personal bank account. He publishes accountability journalism at Muckrakers.Today.

Wheeler co-hosts the MUCK YOU! podcast alongside Col. Moe Davis, retired Air Force colonel and former chief prosecutor at Guantanamo Bay. He authored Color the Crooks, Case File #001: Lauren Boebert, the coloring book endorsed by James Carville with the words: “She earned every damn page. Buy it.”

He is also the founder of VoteROI.com, a political data platform built on 86.9 million FEC records to help donors trace where their money actually goes.

Before founding Muckrakers, Wheeler spent three decades in politics, elections, and event production across 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 staged the first marathon ever run in Antarctica. His political background spans decades: Page for the Iowa House of Representatives, U.S. Senate intern, and Iowa National Committeeman for the Young Democrats of America. David served as lead advance for then-Senator Barack Obama in Iowa City in October 2006, and again during his presidential announcement in Waterloo in February 2007.

An Iowa native and Hawkeye, Wheeler is a father of three living in Western North Carolina’s 11th District. He believes sunlight is the ultimate disinfectant, filings don’t lie, and the loudest person in the room usually has the most to hide.

(And yes—Lauren Boebert threatened to sue him, never did, so David sued her in Federal Court in Denver and won a partial victory.)

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

This publication constitutes First Amendment-protected commentary on matters of public concern. All individuals mentioned are presumed innocent unless proven guilty in a court of law. Content may not be republished for commercial purposes without explicit written consent from American Muckrakers PAC, Inc. and David B. Wheeler.

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So here’s the bill. April 23, 2026, Lauren Boebert puts her name on the Surveillance Accountability Act as the lone cosponsor behind Thomas Massie. And it asks the government to do the almost insultingly obvious: get a warrant. From a judge. On probable cause. Before it goes digging through your life. Shut the loophole that lets the feds just buy from a data broker what the Constitution says they can’t take. Kill the warrantless face scans. Choke the license plate readers quietly clocking everywhere you drive.

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It’s actually a pretty good bill. I’ll say it twice so nobody misquotes me: good bill. The data-broker dodge is a real, deliberate, years-running scam on the Fourth Amendment, and Congress has spent every one of those years looking anywhere else.

But chew on one word. Notice.

Read more

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The numbers came in this week, and they are worse than anything in four years.

The United Nations confirmed on July 14 that June 2026 was the deadliest month for Ukrainian civilians since April 2022. At least 293 civilians killed. Another 1,990 injured. May had already set a four-year record. June broke it.

Since Putin launched his full-scale invasion in February 2022, the UN has verified at least 16,431 civilian deaths in Ukraine, including 803 children, with more than 48,000 injured. The UN says the real number is far higher, because it cannot count the dead in places Russia occupies, like Mariupol, where thousands are believed buried under rubble no investigator can reach.

And July is not letting up. In the first seven days of this month alone, 93 civilians were killed. On July 6, Russian missiles and drones hit Kyiv overnight and killed at least 14 people in their apartment buildings. That strike came four days after another attack on the capital killed at least 30.

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She wants the law enforced against immigrants, teachers, librarians, prosecutors, political opponents, and anyone else who irritated her before breakfast.

But when the law requires Lauren Boebert to explain her own family’s money, “law and order” begins to look less like a principle and more like a bumper sticker.

Nearly $1 million in consulting income appeared on one financial disclosure.

Then the exact amounts disappeared.

The name of the company changed.

Another LLC, personally formed by Lauren Boebert, appeared in the corporate chain.

Official county records continued placing her husband directly inside active drilling operations.

The congressional guardrails responded with the institutional equivalent of staring at their shoes.

This is not a minor bookkeeping dispute.

This is a story about money, political power, oil and gas, federal disclosure requirements, and a member of Congress who appears to believe transparency is something other people should practice.

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She wants the law enforced against immigrants, teachers, librarians, prosecutors, political opponents, and anyone else who irritated her before breakfast.

But when the law requires Lauren Boebert to explain her own family’s money, “law and order” begins to look less like a principle and more like a bumper sticker.

Nearly $1 million in consulting income appeared on one financial disclosure.

Then the exact amounts disappeared.

The name of the company changed.

Another LLC, personally formed by Lauren Boebert, appeared in the corporate chain.

Official county records continued placing her husband directly inside active drilling operations.

The congressional guardrails responded with the institutional equivalent of staring at their shoes.

This is not a minor bookkeeping dispute.

This is a story about money, political power, oil and gas, federal disclosure requirements, and a member of Congress who appears to believe transparency is something other people should practice.

Read more

I never want money to keep anyone from being part of this community. If a paid Substack subscription is not within reach right now, please contact me. I will gladly provide a free lifetime subscription.

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No questions asked. No judgment. No explanation needed.

You belong here. Hit me up via email or chat here on SS anytime.

And, if you afford a subscription, I’d appreciate your support today. Our donations are down so far I’m contemplating joining OnlyFans for the elderly.

DBW

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Then comes this Facebook Marketplace listing from Jayson Boebert: an entire black reclining living-room set, including a couch, loveseat, recliner and end tables—offered for $200, reduced from $750. Can you imagine what that furniture smells like and has seen! Maybe JD would like the couch?

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PUBLIC RECORDS • FIRST AMENDMENT • FLORIDA BULLSHIT

STORY UPDATED ON JULY 14, 2026, WITH STATEMENTS FROM THE O’GARAS & the OFFICE OF CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER BLAISE INGOGLIA.

Mr. James O’Gara mailed a postcard to Florida Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia. It contained three words: “You lack values.”

That was not a threat. It was not even ambiguous. It was criticism, the kind of blunt, unpleasant, constitutionally protected criticism public officials receive every day.

Florida responded by sending two armed investigators from the Department of Financial Services’ Criminal Investigations Division to the home James shares with his wife, Cathy. The agents questioned him and then interviewed two neighbors. The encounter was entered into the department’s ACISS case system as Case No. 25-3226.

The public-records file and the recorded interview do not prove that Ingoglia personally ordered the visit. But, he has a reputation as a control freak and desperatly wants to keep his office. But the…

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PUBLIC RECORDS • FIRST AMENDMENT • FLORIDA BULLSHIT

Mr. James O’Gara mailed a postcard to Florida Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia. It contained three words: “You lack values.”

That was not a threat. It was not even ambiguous. It was criticism, the kind of blunt, unpleasant, constitutionally protected criticism public officials receive every day.

Florida responded by sending two armed investigators from the Department of Financial Services’ Criminal Investigations Division to the home James shares with his wife, Cathy. The agents questioned him and then interviewed two neighbors. The encounter was entered into the department’s ACISS case system as Case No. 25-3226.

The public-records file and the recorded interview do not prove that Ingoglia personally ordered the visit. But, he has a reputation as a control freak and desperately wants to keep his office. But they do show senior officials inside the department transforming a harmless postcard into a formal “threat assessment,” routing it down a law-enforcement chain of command and dispatching investigators who themselves repeatedly acknowledged that O’Gara had done nothing wrong. (Review the full public documents below.)

And they show something else: the sheer, absurd scale of the government effort to make this a big fucking deal. The state that brags about hunting waste burned a full work week of public payroll on three words from a retired Army veteran.

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