National Republican Trust PAC: Where Exactly Are Its Offices?
11/29/08 Update: As a couple of readers pointed out, the National Republican Trust PAC is probably using a a mail drop at the UPS store as an address.
I've been posting about the National Republican Trust PAC's operations elsewhere on TPM if anyone is interested. I suspect the NRT PAC's Reverend Wright ad campaign was planned well in advance of the GOP convention and that Rick Davis and maybe others running the McCain campaign knew about it beforehand.
Based on an informal online survey conducted by me, it appears the Reverend Wright ad was broadcast a lot more frequently than was reported by the NY Times. That would mean the NRT PAC spent a lot more for air time than it reported to the FEC or the national networks gave the NRT PAC a very substantially discounted rate - as in free.
The ACORN smear, the Obsession dvd, the Reverend Wright ads, etc. etc. etc. - Coordinated by the GOP Department of Dirty Tricks? Paid for by whom?
As an aside, I don't know if one has anything to do with the other but the NRT PAC shares an address with the Committee In Support Of Referendum In Iran which is the US arm of MEK, the Iranian terrorist group so adored by the wingnuts.
Where are the National Republican Trust PAC's offices located and who is paying the rent?
Per the NRT PAC website:
The National Republican Trust PAC
2100 M St. NW Suite 170-340
Washington, DC 20037-1233
But the NRT PAC isn't located in Suite 170, Suite 200, Suite 210, Suite 302 or Suite 310.
Per the Hines Inc. (2100 M St. owner) website:
Retailer Profile
| Retailer Name | The UPS Store |
| Category | Office Supplies / Printing |
| Floor | 1st Floor |
| Suite | Suite 170 |
Tenant Profile
| Company | Stewart & Stewart Law Offices |
| Category | Legal |
| Floor | 2nd Floor |
| Suite |
Suite 200 |
|
Company |
Landmine Survivors Network |
| Category | Charitable & Non-Profit Organizations |
| Floor | 3rd Floor |
| Suite | Suite 302 |
| Company | The George Washington University |
| Category | Educational Services |
| Floor | 2nd & 3rd Floors |
| Suite | Suites 203 & 310 |
I know that UPS Stores exist as "virtual offices" offering postal addresses for businesses without physical locations. Perhaps this is the case here?
November 28, 2008 1:37 AM | Reply | Permalink
I believe the address refers to:
UPS Store 2100 M St NW # 170 , Washington DC 20037
They rent boxes, and provide mailing services.
170 is the suite number for the UPS store, and the last three numbers reference the actual leased mailbox. I located several listing to other orgs, that also list their mailing address as 2100 M St NW Ste 170-xxx. There were many more listings for business that used the same address, but nothing stood out as being related to either of the two listed as staff at the The National Republican Trust.
As to whether either of these listed orgs have connections to Scott Wheeler or Peter Leitner, I am unable to make a guess at this present time, as I haven't dug deep enough
The nationalrepublicantrust.com domain was Registered through GoDaddy, and the registrants used that company's anonomizing service, Domains by Proxy, Inc. The domain was first registered around October 1, 2009. It's numerical IP web address is 208.109.181.229, which points to a GoDaddy that hosts close to 3000 domains from this one IP. This is a strong indication of extremely low-end on the website. The hosting package looks to be what GoDaddy gives away for free with every domain registered through them.
The whole set-up is trailer trash all around. A PAC, which lists its address as a UPS franchise leased mailbox, without noting that this is only a mailing address. It has a total of two persons listed as staff in its entirety. The site did not sign up[ with GoDaddy to provide its online contribution service. It instead is using yourpatriot.com, which is a subsidiary of the Wisconsin based, Maelstrom Technology Solutions.
Would you like some data regarding the site's listed principals, Scott Wheeler, Peter Leitner? Wheeler is a former anti-Clinton journo, who later worked for the Washington times Insight Magazine for a couple of years. Last year, he took up high school football coaching in Kansas, but I'm unsure if he returned again to it this year. He has written a few columns for the Randroid website: objectivistcenter.org, and has been published at many of the usual lower-end circle-jerk web sites like: Newmax, CNS and World Net Daily. My first shallow data dive returned a Paul Weyrich taint, but the connection has not been confirmed has not been confirmed. He has posted responses in a manner that indicates familiarity at a website run by Dick Morris, and Morris has referenced Wheeler at least a couple of times in his web ravenings.
Peter Leitner is a bit more legitimate, sort of. He is extremely well-educated and has multiple graduate degrees. He was also a careerist DOD employee who got his start work for Caspar Weinberger. He's also testified in front of Congressional Committees. I have done even a decent shallow data-dive looking into to him though.
November 28, 2008 10:24 AM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks, PCA. I posted some info re Wheeler and Leitner in my last blog entry about the NRT PAC.
The FEC registration lists Joshua M. Ambush as assistant treasurer.
Cheesy as it seems, the NRT PAC managed to raise $10 million in a month and run the Reverend Wright ad a number of times before Election Day.
Something smells fishy.
November 29, 2008 1:24 AM | Reply | Permalink
Joshua Ambush? Is that the guy's real name?
Anyway, there's a chance some lobbying firms are involved in this. It's a short walk from the corner of 21st and M Streets to K St. lobbyist offices.
I'll be back in that neighborhood for Inauguration, so if you want me to check anything out, let me know.
November 29, 2008 10:05 AM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks, TH, but I haven't linked any lobbyists to the NRT PAC yet. I suspect Rick Davis,McCain's campaign, knew about the Reverend Wright ad campaign beforehand but that's it. Davis, of course, is a partner in Davis Manafort.
As you can see, I updated this post to incorporate some of my suspicions about the National Trust PAC's Reverend Wright ad campaign.
Joshua M. Ambush, NRT PAC assistant treasurer, is an Orthodox Jew and a Maryland-based lawyer. He has collaborated with Peter Leitner, through Leitner's Washington Center For Peace & Justice, on lawsuits filed against the Saudi royal family and others on behalf of the victims of terrors. Leitner claims to have sole power of attorney over John O'Neill's estate, for example. Kriendler & Kriendler, a NYC firm, led the way on this one when Libya recently agreed to pay Kriendler's clients, the Lockerbie victims,a few billion dollars.
I think the NRT PAC treasurer, Peter M. Leitner, is an Orthodox Jew, too, and this matters because Sheldon Adelson and other Orthodox Jews funded some of the more offensive attacks on Obama.
I don't know if you know much about the Obsession dvd distributed by the NY Times and other papers around the country in September. Obsession is an extremely anti-Muslim film apparently produced by Orthodox Jews. Who paid for the film's distribution is not clear but the timing of the dvd's distribution appears to have been coordinated with the presidential campaign.
In my previous post about the NRT PAC, I pointed out that the NRT PAC has paid the Philipse Brook Group at least $5.6 million to date for media buys. The Philipse Brook Group was only registered on 8/19/08 which indicates it was set up specifically to handle the media buys.
I am skeptical that the NRT PAC relied on its ability to raise $5 million in less than three weeks to fund the ads and I suspect the ads were run more often than has been reported.
I wonder how the media would handle the story if I am right about the NRT PAC and the Reverend Wright ad?
November 29, 2008 1:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
(Note: the URLs have been escaped to circumvent the two per reply limit. You have to copy/paste them)
Here's an angle which may be able to provide you with illumination regarding connections to Ambush And/Or Leitner. I'm not going to name drop much though, because this looks to a very nasty family matter, that got out of hand, and a great deal of potentially libelous statements have been made about private individuals, who may not be blameworthy. I haven't enough information to determine on my own where to place blame. You can find the names within in the links posted.
A 16 year old boy with severe behavioral problems, from a respected family in the NY Orthodox Jewish community, had been sent at his parents behest to a boot camp in Jamaica. Parties other than the parents intervened on behalf of the boy, claiming he was being abused at the boot camp. It's probable that the intervening party was an uncle and aunt of the boy's, who live in Silver Springs, MD., but a NY Daily News article about leaves the impression that the intervening party was a foster family for the boy from Texas. Foster family is a bit of a stretch though, as there was no legal proceedings involved. The boy's parents sent him to live with another Orthodox family in Texas, because he had been expelled many schools in the NYC area, and his behavior had become increasingly violent, even threatening his mother. The Texas family was unable to handle the boy, and sent him back to his parents in NYC. The parents then decided to send him to the boot camp in Jamaica, based on a recommendation by one of their Orthodox Community's spiritual leaders.
The Washington Center for Peace and Justice, represented by Joshua M. Ambush filed a lawsuit against the parents, and the Department of State on behalf of the boy. Ambush's law practise is based in Baltimore, and he is licensed in the Federal District Court in D.C. In the press releases, and news articles about this story I've read, it is inferred that Ambush was retained by The Washington Center for Peace and Justice, yet I also show Ambush as being the main contact for the organisation.
From a website identified as being The Coalition Against Institutionalized Child Abuse (CAICA)
http:⁄⁄tinyurl.com⁄5gywc5
A quick look at the CAICA website: the Domain ownership is stealthed using GoDaddy's service, and is hosted on a GoDaddy shared server account which hosts around 1500 sites. This is not a major site. CAICA does not claim to be a non-profit org, but has a Paypal donation button. Elsewhere on the web, Isabelle Zehnder identifies herself has being the CAICA founder. Zehnder is some sort of family counselor a loud critic of World Wide Association Of Specialty Programs and Schools (WWASPS or WWASP). Ambush has been litigated cases against WWASP in the past. There have been allegations that Zehnder receives compensation for referrals made to private boarding schools, and that in the past, she receoved compensation from WWASP.
Jewish Blogmeister
http:⁄⁄tinyurl.com⁄5dsjw6
http:⁄⁄tinyurl.com⁄5j9ak8
A lot of Yiddish idioms that I am not well-versed with, but some decent defenses of the boy's parents.
Mirror of NY Daily News article hosted at a site called Teen Advocates USA
http:⁄⁄www.teenadvocatesusa.org⁄ISAACHERSH.html
This site claims to be a "private not for profit" org. Its founder, Barbe Stamps, does not offer a referral service.
Ambush is listed on a website called: Association of HomeSchool Attorneys
http:⁄⁄www.ahsa-usa.org⁄directory.php
This site clearly states it is not a tax-exempt organization, and may well be just a client generating front.
A 2003 Maryland case decided by an administrative judge filed against the public school system by an Orthodox Jewish family with a Microcephalic child. Ambush was their attorney. They wanted the state to cover the expenses for having their child educated at an Orthodox Jewish school, and attempted to justify this through the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) Reauthorization, Disabilities Education Act Amendments of 1997. The State of Maryland prevailed.
November 29, 2008 6:36 PM | Reply | Permalink