StopTheACLU Loses a Lawyer

You may remember a few weeks ago when I had a good laugh at the expense of our witless friends at StopTheACLU for thinking that they were going to be allowed to intervene in the ACLU's lawsuit against the NSA over the wiretapping program. Well now it turns out that Debbie Schlussel, the equally witless attorney who told them they could intervene in the case if they paid her to represent them, has pulled out of the arrangement:

Because I reported on this site, which has been deleted now, about a fight between Debbie Shlussel and other bloggers, Debbie has decided to no longer represent stoptheaclu.com in the NSA intervening case. She is still pursuing the case, but no longer wants to represent this site.

Now here's Debbie's side of the story. She accuses Jay Stephenson of StopTheACLU of stealing money donated to pay for their intervention in the lawsuit and points to a distinction between StopTheACLU.org and StopTheACLU.com.

Since I informed Michelle and others that the only costs would be filing fees and costs, Jay volunteered to have the Paypal account for this set up at his site. That was a mistake (because Jay has since shown a predilection for stealing--more on that below). Both Michelle and I (and other websites) generously linked to Jay's site (he was one of hundreds of people who contacted me), and we asked that people donate at that Paypal account. Mistake #2. We gave Jay and his site many links each time he asked (incessantly).

Since then, Jay informed me that he misused the bulk of the funds on himself, spending $600.00 of the money on an ad for his blog and $200.00 on maintenance for his site. I doubt the fifty or so people who donated wanted their money meant to pay expenses to go to the Jay Stephenson a/k/a John Stephenson Personal Pleasure Account. In short, Jay stole the money. When Jay informed me of this, I insisted he put the money back. I don't know whether he ever did, and I doubt it. He refuses to provide any accounting.

(And apparently, Jay is stealing from anyone reading who is a U.S. taxpayer. You see, Jay is in the military, but yet, he appears to be blogging all day long. Don't you enjoy paying his salary to blog? Talk about conduct unbecoming.)

Thereafter, Jay decided to defame me and link to other sites that did, while still thinking I'd represent him. It's my policy not to provide free legal work to people who attack me. Not a smart move, Jay. But that was not the beginning, just the final straw after this misappropriation of funds. Jay, after agreeing in writing to provide an accounting and transfer the money--including that which he stole and claims he repaid--to an independent account, decided he wanted to keep the money for himself and refused to live up to his agreement. (Surprise, surprise.) I don't know exactly how much was raised, but it was about $1,400, the bulk of which Jay stole/misappropriated/spent on himself. I also don't know the names or contact information for the donors, either, because consistent with his dishonest behavior, Jay refuses to provide that. Instead he allegedly sent them a letter that, frankly, cannot be further from the truth.

If you gave money to Jay, please contact him to get it back. We are now working with StoptheACLU.ORG, which is run by an honest individual, a description that cannot be bestowed on either Jay Stephenson a/k/a John Stephenson or his StoptheACLU.com site. Remember that, the next time you may be tempted to contribute to his site or even believe anything you read on it. Jay has demonstrated consistently that he is neither honest nor trustworthy. We hope the IRS is reading.

I find this all highly amusing. First of all, if you sent in money thinking that you were going to be allowed to intervene in the case then, frankly, it's a wonder that you had money in the first place. Debbie Schlussel is pretty much a fraud herself, so hearing her complain about someone else being a fraud is quite funny. The very fact that she is telling people they'll be allowed to intervene is ridiculous. Basically, it's like people who gave money to Jim and Tammy Bakker and then complained - if you didn't know you were giving money to frauds in the first place, something was gonna get you eventually, most likely the Nigerian bank scam or a guy selling life insurance door to door.