James Skyles at BlogCon2012 with datechguy
James Skyles (left) at BlogCon2012 with datechguy (right)

James Skyles, the founding director of operations at the Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity, will represent the organization against Brett Kimberlin. James Skyles’ LinkedIn page (PDF) shows that he started at the Franklin Center in May of 2008, but the organization was officially founded in January 2009. The Franklin Center is a creation of the Sam Adams Alliance and funded by the Donors Trust, a Koch Brothers creation. Skyles will be representing the Franklin Center Pro Hac Vice. We will be talking about this all week, because we have many questions.

For instance, the Franklin Center claims to be “a nonprofit, online news organization” representing “a free market, limited government perspective on state and local government and politics.” On June 26th, 2012, the Franklin Center held a webinar with Lee Stranahan, Mandy Nagy, and Ken White, the blogging lawyer known as Popehat, to discuss the alleged SWATing of Aaron Walker. What part of their press release has anything to do with free markets or limited government?

Convicted domestic terrorist Brett Kimberlin and his associates have repeatedly terrorized bloggers and others who highlight his story with over 100 frivolous lawsuits and 4 SWATting attacks. SWATting is a dangerous tactic that involves calling a police department to report a false crime to get a SWAT team dispatched to the victim’s house. The attacks have included bloggers Patterico, Erick Erickson, and as recently as last night, Aaron Walker.

Kimberlin has actually filed a total of just two lawsuits against these bloggers, and both of them were filed more than a year after the Franklin Center’s webinar accused him of vexatious lawfare. Over that time, Mr. Kimberlin had to fight off state and federal lawsuits, peace orders, and attempted perjury by these same accusers. The Franklin Center, which purports to be a vaguely libertarian news and opinion organization, specifically blamed Mr. Kimberlin for a series of crimes in their press release. This is textbook libel and has no discernible connection to matters of government or public integrity. The Franklin Center has never corrected its “news,” and in reading the organization’s response to Kimberlin’s suit they clearly have not changed their opinion that Mr. Kimberlin is responsible for SWATing bloggers.

So what kind of nonprofit organization is the Franklin Center? The answer may be all too visible at BlogCon, an annual convention that the Franklin Center holds with FreedomWorks. Mr. Skyles attended Ali Akbar’s Blog Bash party at BlogCon 2012 to help honor the recently-deceased Andrew Breitbart. Fellow guests included Mandy Nagy and Brandon Darby, all names that loom large in the hysteria which inflated “Everybody Blog About Brett Kimberlin Day.” So there is nothing for us to not like about Mr. Skyles, who left the Franklin Center in 2011 to run his boutique Chicago law firm: he has all the right friends.

[youtube]http://youtu.be/Pe4NCaz4NgM[/youtube]

5 thoughts on “James Skyles To Represent The Franklin Center In R.I.C.O Case”
  1. What happened with Tabitha Hale who had left FreedomWorks to be the New Media Director with the Franklin Center? I remember tweeting to her asking her what is it that she does as the New Media Director with the Franklin Center when there were hardly any new updates on their website.

  2. I doubt it. It seems she copied this stuff as part of Franklin Centers retaliation against Kimberlin for working on liberal causes she didn’t like. I mean it says in the complaint that Kimberlin filed over 100 lawsuits against conservatives and was guilty of swatting 4 people. You cant defame people like that without having your ass handed to you eventually.

    Only lawsuit Kimberlin seems to have filed is the current state and federal case against these idiots. Where are the 100 conservative lawsuits? I can’t find any of them anywhere. So that was a lie. Doesn’t Franklin Center have to have “EVIDENCE” before they state something as fact? Don’t they do their due diligence before printing press releases or making statements or calling for meetings? I guess not…

  3. Back when The Franklin Center held their meeting someone posted this transcript of what was going on in the meeting. Here it is below. Interesting connections noted.

    Transcript of Franklin Center Meeting about Brett Kimberlin—-

    Tabitha Hale starts off with introduction. Panelists are Lee Stranahan, Mandy Nagy, Ken White from Popehat an attorney, and Aaron Walker, attorney. The discussion is about the First Amendment and Brett Kimberlin and his cohorts attempts at shutting down Conservative bloggers.

    Lee Stranahan; This is an interesting time we live in. (Talking about technology and it’s impact on news and how it’s presented.)

    Interesting new threats to free speech. Past couple of years, new form of cyber terrorism. Used to try and shut down others free speech.

    Scare you in first part. Mostly been aimed at Conservatives and Libertarians.

    Twitter: Mandy Nagy has been subjected to constant intimidation, usually by sock puppets harassing you. If you blog under your real name, sock puppets can use that to gain information against you.

    Even people with pseudonyms can be found out. Employers can be contacted, personal information can be disseminated over the internet. A new tactic by these cyber thugs is the phenomena of SWATTING.

    They create sock puppet accounts and use them to boycott businesses in an attempt to hurt them because of their political connections.

    SWATTINGS have been attributed to Brett Kimberlin, but there is no substantial proof that he’s actually behind them. Be careful because Kimberlin will use these accusations in frivolous lawsuits.

    The internet has been one of the greatest boons to free speech in history, but it has also been a boon to the enemies of free speech.

    A brief legal summary from Aaron Walker;

    A claim that writing about someone on the internet isn’t a threat against them. Aaron explains the Brandenburg decision from the Supreme Court.

    If you write about Brett Kimberlin, chances are good that he or some friends of his will come after you in some fashion or another.

    Kimberlin and his associates use a tactic called doxing where they use the court system and put the documents out on the internet. When bloggers write and copy the documents, then Kimberlin will use this as a reason to sue the writer or blogger because personal information is usually included in the docs.

    Aaron Walker has been to court four times because of Brett Kimberlin and has another date to look forward to on July 5, 2012.

    These people try to overwhelm you with garbage and get you to quit.

    Walker talks about the peace order. Kimberlin has a habit of using restraining order against his enemies.

    Popehat beat Aaron up for representing himself and rightly so.

    Aaron had tweeted that he was working on a blog post. Shortly thereafter, he gets SWATTED. I don’t think that’s a coincidence. Aaron’s talking about the SWATTING which has been documented on several blog sites.

    This and other SWATTINGS are an attempt by whomever to possibly get the intended victim killed.

    Lee asks Aaron if it’s worth it. And Aaron says that you have to fight for your rights. He talks about other people in the past who lost their lives over free speech.

    Whatever position you take on the issues of the day, you have to be able to talk freely about them.

    Mandy Nagy knows more about this deal than most people. Some of the attacks against Mandy are all over the web. Threatening statements, saying things against her, her personal life, accusing her of criminal activity. Trying to get in your head.

    Tweeting at her employer saying things that weren’t true. emailing her employers using whisper campaigns, ect. Contact your followers behind the scenes. effect your livelihood. using Lawfare. Her and Patterico were the first ones to blog about Kimberlin.

    Kimberlin would imply defamatory things about Nagy and Patterico in lawsuits against other parties where they couldn’t defend themselves.

    You have to find the right balance between your personal life and your online life. Don’t give out too much information, especially on twitter.

    Don’t get in pointless fights on twitter. Be careful who follows her. An hour fighting a troll on twitter is an hour you’re not spending on productive things like blogging.

    Cyber bullying is a part of the Progressive tool kit. People come at you in volume to overwhelm your twitter account.

    Everyone blog about Brett Kimberlin was one of the greatest things that happened in the struggle against Brett Kimberlin. A lot of people first learned about it through that day.

    Nagy always open to talk to people on twitter.

    People actually looked into the Kimberlin case, researching their articles.

    Popehat

    He used to be a piano player in a bordello, but really he’s a lawyer who specializes in free speech. More speech guy. Doesn’t believe in lawsuits against speech. Big fan of Everyone Blog About Brett Kimberlin Day. Fan of using SEO,( Search Engine Optimization), to fight against google bombs.

    Enjoys anti-slap motions. Anonymity has been used against Conservative bloggers.

    Progressives will screw up the internet. Make it illegal to be anonymous on the internet.

    Educate yourself about anti-slap statutes.

    Legal mechanism to get rid of frivolous lawsuits before incurring high legal fees.

    Popehat gives several examples of organizations that help on anti-slap laws.

    Federal anti-slap legislation being held up because of various law lobbying efforts.

    Use Streisand effect to fight. Popehat has screen cap of map of states that have anti-slap laws.

    Learn how to use screen capture because people will tweet then delete it. Keep records of harassment. Have documentation is important.

    Yid with Lid asks if you can remove content from the web. Popehat answers that’s it very hard.
    —-

    Very interesting things said in that meeting. Take note, I am sure that Kimberlin will need these files when the time comes to prove what a bunch of right wing idiots can get going all based on lies.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *