FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Thursday, February 27, 2020
CONTACT: Liz Doherty
NEW Evidence Further Solidifies Greg Lindberg-Dan Forest Connection
Text Messages Provide More Insight into Dan Forest’s Role in Bribery Scandal
CHARLOTTE – On Wednesday, the federal bribery trial of Greg Lindberg focused on NEW text messages between Lindberg’s team and Dan Forest’s campaign.
Several of the text messages are between Dan Forest’s chief-of-staff Hal Weatherman and John Gray, who is facing federal charges for bribery. At the same time Weatherman sent these messages, he also sent emails trying to set up a meeting between Insurance Commissioner Mike Causey, Greg Lindberg, and John Gray. Remember: within a month from the time Weatherman sent that email, Lindberg donated $400,000 to the Forest-chaired Republican Council of State Committee and “more than $50,000 flowed into Forest’s campaign coffers from associates of Greg Lindberg and John Gray, at least in part because Lindberg hosted a fundraiser at his home.”
There are also texts with Heather Whillier, Dan Forest’s finance director. Lindberg is Forest’s single largest donor, and he has contributed over $2.4 million to Truth & Prosperity PAC and the NC Republican Council of State Committee.
Description of evidence, summarized by WRAL:
- Texts between Gray and Hal Weatherman, previously Lt. Gov. Dan Forest’s chief of staff and now his campaign manager in the 2020 gubernatorial race. Lindberg donated some $2.4 million to political committees backing Forest, and emails previously released by the Department of Insurance showed that Weatherman sought a meeting between Lindberg, Gray and Causey at Gray’s request in August 2017. These texts are from the same period. Forest has not been accused in the case.
- A text or texts including Heather Whillier, Forest’s finance director.
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