Katherine Knox (207) 228-7229 [email protected]
Isabel Mullin (207) 228-7336 [email protected]
January 25, 2018
Jonathan Wayne Executive Director Maine Commission on Governmental Ethics and Election Practices 135 State House Station Augusta, ME 04333
Re: Addendum to Request for Investigation into Campaign Finance Violations by the Maine Examiner and Maine Republican Party
Dear Mr. Wayne:
On January 23rd, on behalf of our client, the Maine Democratic Party, we filed a request for investigation pursuant to 21-A M.R.S. § 1003(2) and 94-270 C.M.R. ch.1, § 4(2)(C). We now write to provide additional documentation of coordination between the Maine Examiner and the Maine Republican Party (“The Party”). This information combined with that previously submitted, provides the Commission with evidence that the above- referenced parties likely violated campaign finance law, and we ask that an investigation be immediately commenced.
ADDITIONAL SUPPORTING DOCUMENTATION
Since filing the request for investigation, evidence has come to light that the Executive Director of the Party, Jason Savage, is directly involved with the Maine Examiner’s operations. (Attachments GG, HH, II, & JJ.) First, metadata 1 indicates that the
1 “Metadata” is defined by Merriam-Webster as “data that provides information about other data.” (https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/metadata?src=search-dict-hed.) Metadata is sometimes referred to as a digital fingerprint. In this case, the metadata provides information about “author” of the digital pictures included in the Maine Examiner articles as well as the date the pictures were “taken” by the author. The Attachments provide screenshots of the
Jonathan Wayne January 19, 2018 Page 2
Executive Director—or someone using his computer—provided the Maine Examiner with the pictures of Ben Chin that were included in the seven stories published between December 3rd and 10th, 2017. (Attachment EE.)
Second, an electronic error log on the Maine Examiner website appears to show that the Executive Director also owns or controls the hosting account responsible for its website. (Attachments FF.) Third, it also appears that the Executive Director was the one who downloaded the layout design for the Maine Examiner website on September 17, 2017. (Attachments HH.)
As a result of this new information, we request that the Commission also fully investigate to what extent the Maine Republican Party operates and controls the Maine Examiner and whether the Party should be held responsible for the Maine Examiner’s failure to file independent expenditure reports with the City of Lewiston for the stories. We further request the Commission investigate whether the Party violated political communication disclosure law by failing to identify the name and address of the person who financed the stories and their dissemination and the top three funders and investigate whether or not Mr. Chin’s opponent authorized the communications. As stated in the initial request, the Commission should consider the propriety of assessing penalties in accordance with 21-A M.R.S. § 1004-A, permitting penalties of $5,000 for substantial misreporting and material false statements and § 1004-C, which grants the Commission the authority to triple monetary sanctions for violations occurring within 14 days of an election. We ask that the Commission also consider whether the matter should be referred to the Attorney General under § 1004(2).
This evidence raises a number of questions about the Maine Republican Party’s campaign finance reporting practices and means of communicating with the people of Maine. We respectfully request that the Commission fully investigate these matters and assess the appropriate penalties for violations of Maine campaign finance law.
Sincerely,
Katherine R. Knox Isabel I. Mullin
metadata for each of the pictures included in the seven stories published and shared by the Maine Examiner. (Attachment EE.) In addition, one of the attached Lewiston Sun Journal articles published January 24, 2018 provides a good explanation of how this information was uncovered. (Attachment GG.) ATTACHMENT EE Metadata information was accessed on January 25, 2018 by right clicking on the pictures in each article on the Maine Examiner’s website, clicking “save image as” and saving the images to a computer, and then right clicking on file and selecting “properties,” and clicking the “details” tab in the box that opens.
The above screenshot is for the metadata of the photo included in the Maine Examiner story about Ben Chin on December 3, 2017.
The above screenshot is for the metadata of the photo included in the Maine Examiner story about Ben Chin on December 4, 2017.
The above screenshot is for the metadata of the photo included in the Maine Examiner story about Ben Chin on December 5, 2017.
The above screenshot is for the metadata of the photo included in the Maine Examiner story about Ben Chin on December 7, 2017 at 4:05.
The above screenshot is for the metadata of the photo included in the Maine Examiner story about Ben Chin on December 7, 2017 at 8:35.
The above screenshot is for the metadata of the photo included in the Maine Examiner story about Ben Chin on December 8, 2017.
The above screenshot is for the metadata of the photo included in the Maine Examiner story about Ben Chin on December 10, 2017.
ATTACHMENT FF
1/25/2018 maineexaminer.com/wp-content/themes/playbook/error_log
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http://maineexaminer.com/wp-content/themes/playbook/error_log 4/4 ATTACHMENT GG
1/25/2018 Democrats cry foul as photos tie GOP to Maine Examiner - Lewiston Sun Journal
Democrats cry foul as photos tie GOP to Maine Examiner
By Steve Collins, Sta Writer - January 24, 2018
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[UPDATE: More ties discovered between Maine GOP’s director and a secretive website]
AUGUSTA — Shortly after lunch on the first Monday of December, Maine Republican Party Executive Director Jason Savage copied an online photograph of Lewiston mayoral candidate Ben Chin onto his computer.
Savage’s copied picture, titled “chin-profile-two,” wound up illustrating a story that ran the following day, Dec. 5, in the secretive Maine Examiner.
The story, written by “Administrator,” took issue with the mayoral hopeful’s use of the word “revolution” in an email to campaign supporters in October. It was part of a series of stories the Maine Examiner published before the Dec. 12 Lewiston mayoral runoff supporting Republican Shane Bouchard’s successful bid to defeat Chin.
At least six times in December and January, other pictures that passed through Savage’s computer wound up on the Maine Examiner’s site, prompting some Democrats and critics of the Maine Examiner on Wednesday to claim there is a tie between the anonymous site and Savage.
Chin said the data shows “a very clear connection” between Savage and the Examiner, which Democrats charge is a violation of state campaign finance laws and a serious ethical breach.
Savage, who hasn’t addressed in public his connection to the right-leaning online publication, did not respond Tuesday or Wednesday to repeated requests for comment from the Sun Journal by telephone and email.
That his name appeared as the pictures’ author is not proof that Savage had a direct tie to the stories that ran with them. It’s possible that Savage downloaded the pictures and passed them
http://www.sunjournal.com/democrats-cry-foul-as-photos-tie-gop-to-maine-examiner/ 1/4 1/25/2018 Democrats cry foul as photos tie GOP to Maine Examiner - Lewiston Sun Journal to others who subsequently fed them to the Examiner.
The Maine Democratic Party filed a complaint this week with the Maine ethics commission alleging that the GOP worked hand in hand with the Maine Examiner to spread slanted and thinly sourced news stories to advance its political agenda. The complaint said state law requires disclosure of the political party’s assistance and funding and alleged Republicans have kept it under wraps.
Phil Bartlett, the Maine Democratic Party chairman, said Wednesday the revelation about Savage’s photos illustrating Maine Examiner stories shows “the Maine GOP has stooped to a new low, proving that they are willing to go to unprecedented levels to deceive people in order to accomplish their political goals. They should be ashamed.”
He said the state GOP “peddled misleading and inaccurate information, tried to hide behind the safety of anonymity, and then lied about it to the people of Maine — likely breaking the law.”
“This proves that the Maine Democratic Party’s complaint is justified, and that the investigation we requested must move forward,” Bartlett said.
Bartlett said that “every Republican leader in Maine — including the gubernatorial candidates — should condemn this dishonest behavior and tell the people of Maine that their party should not be led by liars like Jason Savage” and political and communications director Garrett Murch.
“We call on Republicans to ensure that Savage and Murch, along with their shameful behavior, no longer have a home in Maine politics,” Bartlett said.
The Maine Examiner, which began publishing this past fall, is not listed as a business organization with the Maine secretary of state. It doesn’t list any owners or staff, but its website notes it is run by “a small group of Mainers.”
Its stories are generally truthful, if one-sided, delivering the news with a right-wing spin. Savage has sometimes shared them on social media.
In a Jan. 17 pieceon its website, the Examiner said it “may produce some news content that liberals and progressives don’t want you to read, but we get our facts straight and we provide the proof to back up our claims.” http://www.sunjournal.com/democrats-cry-foul-as-photos-tie-gop-to-maine-examiner/ 2/4 1/25/2018 Democrats cry foul as photos tie GOP to Maine Examiner - Lewiston Sun Journal The discovery of the Savage-created pictures was made by a California web developer, Tony Perry, who saw a news story about the Democrats’ ethics complaint and decided to try to figure out who created the Maine Examiner site.
He said he poked around enough to realize the ownership had been masked online, which is fairly common.
Then he downloaded some of the pictures the Examiner had run and took a look at the metadata that sometimes provides information about the origin of photographs.
He quickly found some that carried Savage’s name as the author.
“Who’s this Jason Savage?” he said he asked himself, “so I just Googled him.”
The Sun Journal examined the metadata embedded in six pictures on the Maine Examiner site that originated from Savage’s computer. One, a picture of gubernatorial hopeful Alan Caron, was copied from Caron’s website by Savage as recently as last week. It wound up as the artwork for a campaign finance story by the Maine Examiner.
The metadata shows Savage created it at 5:02 p.m. on Jan. 17. The story itself was posted by the Examiner at 5:16 p.m., a gap of 14 minutes. It is possible, though, the time stamps do not accurately reflect the actual times involved.
Chin, who lost his mayoral bid by 145 votes, said nothing surprises him about how Savage and the GOP operate. He said some people, including Savage, “enjoy scoring little points and making people feel bad” instead of pursuing politics as a way of making a better world.
http://www.sunjournal.com/democrats-cry-foul-as-photos-tie-gop-to-maine-examiner/ 3/4 1/25/2018 Democrats cry foul as photos tie GOP to Maine Examiner - Lewiston Sun Journal
This photograph that ran with a Maine Examiner story about Ben Chin carries in its metadata an indication that Maine Republican Party Executive Director Jason Savage created it.
http://www.sunjournal.com/democrats-cry-foul-as-photos-tie-gop-to-maine-examiner/ 4/4 ATTACHMENT HH
Mountain of evidence now shows Maine GOP staff lied about creating fake news site | Be... Page 1 of 8
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Mountain of evidence now shows Maine GOP staff lied about creating fake news site
On Wednesday night, the Lewiston Sun Journal revealed that metadata attached to several images used on the Maine Examiner website in a series of false or misleading attacks against Democratic candidates and officeholders shows that they were edited by software registered under the name “Jason Savage.”
http://mainebeacon.com/mountain-of-evidence-now-shows-maine-gop-staff-lied-about-cre... 1/25/2018 Mountain of evidence now shows Maine GOP staff lied about creating fake news site | Be... Page 2 of 8
Savage is executive director of the Maine Republican Party. He previously worked for Governor Paul LePage’s personal PAC and before that as IT staff and social media manager under LePage at Marden’s surplus and salvage stores.
Last week, Beacon reported on a clear relationship between the Examiner, Savage and the Maine GOP, based on their social media activity.
While Sun Journal reporter Steve Collins cautions that the photos alone don’t prove authorship of the site and that “it’s possible that Savage downloaded the pictures and passed them to others who subsequently fed them to the Examiner,” other new evidence points to Savage as the site’s owner and administrator.
The clearest proof is a publicly-accessible error log on the website that includes internal URLs from the site’s hosting service. It shows that the hosting account responsible for the website is registered under the username “jasonsavage207.”
Additionally, the design template for the website was downloaded from mythemeshop.com and installed on September 17, 2017. A public profile for a professional account on that service with the username “jasonsavage207” shows that user last visited on that day.
Jason Savage’s Instagram handle is “jasonsavage207” and his Twitter username is “jsavage207.”
Taken together, the evidence now seems overwhelming that the Maine Republican Party, and Savage specifically, is behind the website and that Maine GOP communications director Garrett Murch was lying when he told the Bangor Daily News that he didn’t know who ran the site.
The Maine Democratic Party, which has filed an ethics complaint against the website as part of an effort to unmask its authors and hold them accountable for potential election law violations, was quick to condemn the GOP’s actions.
“The Maine Republican Party peddled misleading and inaccurate information, tried to hide behind the safety of anonymity, and then lied about it to the people of Maine – likely breaking
http://mainebeacon.com/mountain-of-evidence-now-shows-maine-gop-staff-lied-about-cre... 1/25/2018 Mountain of evidence now shows Maine GOP staff lied about creating fake news site | Be... Page 3 of 8
the law,” said Democratic Party Chair Phil Bartlett “We call on Republicans to ensure that Savage and Murch, along with their shameful behavior, no longer have a home in Maine politics.”
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Category democracy Garrett Murch Jason Savage Maine Democratic Party Maine Republican Party media Phil Bartlett
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Ralph Dhuy · Mills Grae University Goodbye, Jason. You were never good at anything besides licking LePage's boots. Maine politics will be better without you, boy.
Like · Reply · 8 · 9 hrs
Wayne A Mayo · Bowdoin College It was but a matter of time. The "Painful Stooooopidity" infection was bound to catch up with and race like wild fire through the Maine Re-Puke Party, which like it's cronies across the U.S., are drowning in a sea of bigotry, blather, drivel, faux christianity, fucktardery, greed, hipocrisy, homophobia, ignorance, insanity, jingoism, misogyny, lying, obfuscation, obstruction, racism, rape, sexual deviation & selfish privilege. Their credo has long been "the end justifies the means"; this timely discovery of the Maine GOP's duplicity deserves a total airing and those guilty of crimes must be seriously prosecuted.
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Digital Ties Surface Between GOP And Secretive Website That Attacked Lewiston Mayoral Candidate
By STEVE MISTLER (/PEOPLE/STEVE-MISTLER) • 1 HOUR AGO
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(http://mediad.publicbroadcasting.net/p/mpbn/ les/styles/x_large/public/201801/39184530714_d4d34fa9b9_b.jpg) Metadata from a photo of Ben Chin posted on the Maine Examiner's website shows Maine GOP Executive Director Jason Savage as the author. STEVE MISTLER / MAINE PUBLIC
The Maine Ethics Commission could once again rule whether traditional political attacks carried out by an anonymous website attempted to in uence an election. This time the attacks were cloaked as news reports. Earlier this week the Maine Democratic Party led a complaint with the commission alleging that the Maine Republican Party violated campaign nance laws by using the secretive Maine Examiner site to damage the progressive candidate in the Lewiston mayoral race.
The Democratic party’s of cial complaint with the commission contains little direct evidence to back its claim, but since then digital clues have surfaced tying GOP Executive Director Jason Savage to the Examiner.
Of cials with the Maine GOP have denied that they broke campaign nance laws. But so far they have said little about the party’s involvement with the Examiner.
Democrats assert that the GOP colluded with the site and may have violated a state law requiring groups spending money to in uence an election to report the expenditure and its funders. According to the law, the expenditure must exceed $250 in a municipal election.
Wednesday, the Lewiston Sun Journal reported that it was contacted by a California man who combed through metadata from photos posted on the Examiner. The metadata shows Savage as the author of multiple photos. Maine Public con rmed the nding during its own review of metadata from photos downloaded from the site.
(http://mediad.publicbroadcasting.net/p/mpbn/ les/styles/x_large/public/201801/examiner_meta_1.jpg) The metadata associated with a photo of gubernatorial candidate Alan Caron posted on the Maine Examiner website.
CREDIT STEVE MISTLER / MAINE PUBLIC
Metadata is a digital ngerprint of images and documents posted to a website. It can contain descriptive information about an element that makes it searchable on the internet, such as its author or keywords that describe its contents. The metadata on the Examiner photos isn’t de nitive proof that Savage authored Maine Examiner posts. However, the Maine People’s Alliance, a liberal activist group, said on its Maine Beacon website that it had linked Savage to other parts of the site (http://mainebeacon.com/mountain-of-evidence- now-shows-maine-gop-staff-lied-about-creating-fake-news-site/), including a publicly available error log in which “jasonsavage207” appears. “Jasonsavage207” is the same as Savage’s Twitter handle (https://twitter.com/jsavage207/with_replies).
(http://mediad.publicbroadcasting.net/p/mpbn/ les/styles/x_large/public/201801/examiner_meta_2.jpg) The metadata associated with a photo of University of Maine Professor Amy Fried on the Maine Examiner website.
CREDIT STEVE MISTLER / MAINE PUBLIC
The secretive Examiner was created in September, months before the GOP’s favored candidate, Shane Bouchard, defeated progressive activist Ben Chin by just over 140 votes in a runoff election.
The site published several negative stories about Chin. One piece included leaked emails from Chin’s campaign in which the mayoral hopeful wrote that he ran into a “bunch of racists” while canvassing voters. The Examiner headlined the story, “Leaked Email: Ben Chin Says Lewiston Voters ‘Bunch of Racists.”
Chin has not challenged the authenticity of the leaked emails, but he and others have attempted to blame the Examiner and “fake news” for his loss.
In a statement, Maine GOP chairwoman Demi Kouzounas challenged those assertions while dismissing the validity of the ethics complaint.
“First of all, the emails are real, they are not false, distorted or 'fake' as Democrats are asserting,” Kouzounas wrote. “This complaint is totally without merit. As far as the content we advertised, it is legitimate and not fabricated. The party takes its legal obligations seriously and has met them.” It’s unclear whether the Examiner posts played a role in determining the outcome of the Lewiston mayoral race. Publicly available analytics of the site show that it had limited audience reach, although the Maine GOP attempted to amplify negative stories about Chin through its of cial social media accounts and through party activists.
Facebook limits the reach of posts generated by professional page accounts because they want owners to pay to boost posts (http://www.adweek.com/digital/kristoffer-nelson-srax-guest-post- facebook-news-feed-algorithm/). It’s also unclear if the Maine GOP paid to boost and target its Examiner posts to reach swing Lewiston voters who could have tilted the outcome of the race. If it did, such expenditures could be considered campaign expenditures.
Chin’s loss in the mayoral race last year was his second, yet the dynamics of the contests were arguably similar. In 2015 he earned the most votes on Election Day, but he ultimately lost to Bob Macdonald after Macdonald consolidated the support of the conservative candidates who didn’t advance to the runoff.
A similar dynamic could have affected the outcome this year. Chin picked up 4,239 votes on Election Day, but only 3,518 votes in the runoff – a dip of about 18 percent. Bouchard increased his vote total during the runoff, from 2,979 votes on Election Day to 3,663 votes.
But whether the Examiner actually in uenced the race may not matter to the ve-member Ethics Commission. The commission is charged with enforcing campaign nance laws that deal with paid attempts to in uence voters.
An investigation, if authorized, could be similar to a 2010 case that arose from the 2010 gubernatorial contest. The commission ned political operative Dennis Bailey $200 after nding that he authored stories on an anonymous website attacking independent candidate Eliot Cutler.
Bailey argued that his site was a news site, and therefore exempt from campaign nance laws. But the commission argued that Bailey’s handiwork constituted campaign communications because he was working for rival candidates at the time. A federal court agreed with the commission’s ndings.
The Ethics staff would conduct an investigation in the Examiner case. But the ve-member commission must rst vote to authorize it.
The commission’s next scheduled meeting is Feb. 22.
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1/25/2018 Maine GOP says Democratic ethics complaint 'completely without merit' - Lewiston Sun Journal
Maine GOP says Democratic ethics complaint 'completely without merit'
By Steve Collins, Sta Writer - January 25, 2018
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AUGUSTA — The Maine Republican Party’s executive director said Thursday that a Democratic ethics complaint against the GOP is “completely without merit.”
Denying any wrongdoing, Jason Savage said the Republicans “are extremely diligent about reporting all expenditures in a timely manner.”
Meanwhile, more evidence has emerged tying Savage to an anonymous website that spreads news with a right-wing spin, including error logs on the site that name him.
The new information sheds more light on the connection between Savage, who promised a more detailed response soon, and the secretive Maine Examiner that has been lending a hand to the GOP since its inception in September.
The Sun Journalreported Wednesday that Savage’s name appears in the metadata of some of the photographs on the Examiner’s website, the first solid indication that Savage might have unexplained connections with the online publication.
The state Democratic Party Maine has lodged an ethics complaint with the state alleging that the Republicans violated state ethics and campaign finance laws by working secretly with the Examiner to offer slanted posts without disclosing who was funding or operating the site.
Error logs for the Maine Examiner show its account is hosted under a user named “jasonsavage207,” a moniker that matches accounts used by Savage.
The Maine People’s Alliance’s Maine Beacon reported the error logs Thursday that show Savage’s name.
In addition, the Beacon discovered “the design template for the website was downloaded from mythemeshop.com and installed on September 17,” the same date that someone with the username “jasonsavage207” last visited the site.
http://www.sunjournal.com/more-ties-discovered-between-maine-gops-director-and-a-secretive-website/ 1/3 1/25/2018 Maine GOP says Democratic ethics complaint 'completely without merit' - Lewiston Sun Journal Together with the metadata from photographs on the Examiner’s site, the Beacon said the evidence “now seems overwhelming that the Maine Republican Party, and Savage specifically, is behind the website” that helped undermine Lewiston mayoral candidate Ben Chin’s chances in a Dec. 12 runoff won by GOP favorite Shane Bouchard.
Phil Bartlett, the Maine Democratic Party chairman, said Wednesday the revelation about Savage’s photos illustrating Maine Examiner stories shows “the Maine GOP has stooped to a new low” and called for GOP leaders to “condemn this dishonest behavior and tell the people of Maine that their party should not be led by liars like Jason Savage.”
Though the Republicans have said almost nothing about the Maine Examiner since questions began swirling about it this month, the party’s communications director, Garrett Murch, did mention the publication in a Dec. 7 email and provided a link to one of its anonymously authored pieces.
Passing along a tip that the Examiner had a story about Chin’s unpaid parking tickets, Murch said GOP officials “haven’t confirmed this report, but you may want to, particularly given other things about Chin that have recently come to light questioning his respect for the city he wants to represent. This website’s stories on Chin’s emails have checked out thus far, after all.”
Murch added a comment from him that the Sun Journal could use if the parking tickets story checked out.
Maine Republicans are not denying a connection to the Maine Examiner. Instead, they’re defending the online paper’s reporting about Chin’s emails.
The GOP’s state party chair, Demi Kouzounas, said in a prepared statement Thursday that the Lewiston emails are not “false, distorted or fake,” a point that few have argued. Chin himself admitted they were real.
Kouzounas called the Democrats “desperate” and insisted they were “trying to get the Maine media to assist them” in calling the emails “fake news.”
The Boston Globe first noted the social media connections between Savage, the GOP and the Maine Examiner in a recent story.
http://www.sunjournal.com/more-ties-discovered-between-maine-gops-director-and-a-secretive-website/ 2/3 1/25/2018 Maine GOP says Democratic ethics complaint 'completely without merit' - Lewiston Sun Journal Under the First Amendment, Americans are free to write and publish whatever they like — though they may be subject to libel laws after the fact — but campaign finance laws in Maine require that people who fund political campaigns disclose their contributions and spending.
The Democrats charge that Savage’s activity is an indication that the GOP failed to obey the relevant statutes.
Maine Republican Party Executive Director Jason Savage delivering a “Fake News Alert” last year discussing a story his party thought failed to meet the standards of good journalism. (From a Maine GOP video)
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