ABOVE: Liberty Counsel Founder Mat Staver. Screenshot via YouTube.
The anti-LGBTQ evangelical and Orlando-based legal group Liberty Counsel, which has been listed as a hate group for its lies, propaganda, and attacks on LGBTQ people by the Southern Poverty Law Center, was targeted in a digital hacking intrusion that exposed a 25 gigabyte internal database that contains nearly seven years’ worth of records.
The data breach according to a lengthy investigative news piece by Intercept journalists Micah Lee and Michael Sherrard, was executed by a hacker, who identifies with the Anonymous movement, who released the data on the hacktivist site Enlace Hacktivista.
The Intercept reported that the transparency collective Distributed Denial of Secrets is providing it to journalists who request access.
Among the data records exposed, according to Lee and Sherrard, included content from Liberty Counsel’s website, emails the group sent to its supporters, and documentation of about $12 million in donations from some 44,000 donors since 2015. These donations, limited to those tracked on Liberty Counsel’s digital platform, represent only a portion of those the organization receives.
The records show that 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations controlled by Liberty Counsel encouraged supporters to vote for former President Donald Trump despite IRS rules that prohibit such entities from directly or indirectly endorsing candidates for political office. They also reveal how Liberty Counsel has skillfully employed misinformation and partisan polarization over election integrity and the COVID-19 pandemic to build its email list and raise millions of dollars in small contributions — and done so at a breakneck pace since November 2020.
While churches and other 501(c)(3) organizations are allowed to take stands on issues like abortion, same-sex marriage and gun control, the IRS’s Internal Revenue Code prohibits these organizations from engaging in political campaign activity.
“Because the IRS has not been very diligent in enforcing the law, many 501(c)(3) groups are pushing the envelope when it comes to politics,” Rob Boston, a senior adviser at Americans United for Separation of Church and State, told the Intercept.
The Intercept team also reported that apart from Liberty Counsel’s data, the hack includes another 425 gigabytes of records from dozens of Christian organizations that used the same customer relationship management software, many of them mission agencies aimed at converting humanity to Christianity.
Beyond the unceasing and relentless attacking of LGBTQ people and organizations, the Intercept notes that more recently, Liberty Counsel has been involved in other right-wing causes.
The day after the deadly Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, Liberty Counsel Founder Mat Staver sent an email to supporters stating that “our research and legal staff have been deeply engaged in stopping the steal of our 2020 elections.” The email, later published as a blog post, stressed that Trump could remain in power if God intervened: “We know God can intervene and turn what looks like a hopeless cause into a miraculous victory!”
