Breaking: "Marin Democrats" Members Who Pushed for Ceasefire Resolution Were Doxxed And Harassed. The Group Voted Thursday for Additional $500 for Investigation – Cheap!

Multiple confirmed Democratic Party registrants restricted from controversial March 7 meeting via new, time-limited, second check-in. And: Update on LORA request for Connolly's February Israel trip

Late last year, I referenced a doxxing/spy scandal that made international news, but which was barely covered by local media in the Bay Area, even though it involved one of our region's most powerful and respected institutions. The scandal was broken by Israel's Ha'aretz, and NYC-based The Forward, and it involved the now-deceased Bay Area billionaire Sanford Diller and San Francisco's Jewish Community Federation illegally funding an Israeli spying operation ("Canary Mission") that had doxxed, threatened, harassed, and deported academics merely for criticizing Israeli policy.

That illegal funding was particularly grievous as it involved a foreign country impinging upon the First Amendment rights of U.S. citizens. Perhaps unsurprisingly, neither the FBI nor the Department of Justice demonstrated any interest in even investigating the Diller/JCF funding. (If you're powerful, is it ever really a crime?) Instead, the JCF issued a short notice of contrition to the public, the matter was swept under the rug, and Canary Mission was allowed to continue its campaign of doxxing and harassment.

As it turns out, Marin County had its own mini-doxxing scandal, this one directed against members of "Marin Democrats" (Marin's DCC club) who managed to get a ceasefire resolution on the group's March agenda. According to a Marin County registered Democrat who attended the Marin Democrats March meeting, the pro-ceasefire members' contact information was released to pro-Israel groups, which in turn harassed and threatened the pro-ceasefire members over email.

That there were significant concerns about doxxing and harassment was confirmed through interviews with multiple elected members of Marin Democrats, and through the publicly noticed agenda, which showed an action item for funds to investigate the doxxing incident.

But who, specifically, was harasssed — and by whom? How extreme/mild was the harassment? Answer: No one is talking! And good luck to registered Democrats trying to get into that meeting if they weren't already at least marginally linked to Marin County insiders.

"Double Secret Probation!"™️ Will Get You Every Time:

I was alerted to the ceasefire aspect of the agenda last Sunday when a young father in Central Marin suggested I register for the Marin Democrats March 7 meeting, which was to be zoom-only on the night of President Biden's State of the Union speech. I immediately registered, and promptly received a confirmation that my registration was successful. The confirmation I received on Sunday ( which asked for a donation) did not indicate that any other action was necessary to attend. A subsequent email showed only a button to click should I wish to cancel my RSVP.

But on Thursday evening, when I tried to clink on the link to join the meeting, I was informed that zoom access was only possible if I had electronically RSVP’d by 2:00 pm that afternoon. It appears that this same-day, timed check-in even for confirmed registrants was specific to this particular meeting; it did not appear to have been required at previous Marin Democrats meetings.

Despite that, the meeting turned out to be significantly larger than normal, in large part due to interest over the ceasefire resolution and doxxing investigation. How did that happen despite the additional barrier?

Many Democrats who were linked to elected members of Marin Democrats received more specific instructions about the same-day check-in requirement. Others who did not receive that additional instruction — but who still had direct contact information/links to members — were able to flag their locked-out status directly, and were granted access. But many who did not have those insider connections were left out. This is simultaneously a very Marin County phenomenon and, even more sadly, a very Democratic Party phenomenon.

I had intended to listen to the meeting during my bicycle commute home from Marin Civic Center, where I had been fact-checking details provided in an email from Marin County's Registrar of Voters, Lynda Roberts, regarding the primary election gate-SNAFU at Civic Center. (More on “Grate-gate!” later.) By the time I finished the ride home, my fingers somewhat numb from the cold, I received a series of Marin Democrats bot-generated texts polling my perceptions of the completed meeting from which I had been restricted. I admit that I was less than charitable in some of my responses to the bot.

Reconstructing The Meeting:

The Marin Democrats, under the direction of longtime Marin Democrats member and Chair Pat Johnstone, didn't merely restrict multiple Democrats who had registered for the Thursday meeting. They also declined to make a recording of the meeting, thereby ensuring that those who had been locked out were unable to catch up on what they'd missed. (If you're a regular reader of this column, you'll notice there's a pattern here.)

Thus began a series of calls to leadership of Marin Democrats to attempt to piece together what, as one attendee suggested, may have been a defining moment for the group in terms of the stark divide just on the ceasefire vote (not to mention the ill will amongst members following what was assumed to be a betrayal of private information.) Among others, I reached out to Chair Pat Johnstone, Vice Chair Paul Cohen, and Secretary Steve Burdo. I also contacted members Lisa Bennett and Frank Egger.

Only Egger and Cohen were willing to speak with me at any length. Bennett responded with a series of minimal text messages that did, however, convey that she voted yes on the ceasefire item. The rest did not respond.

Frank Egger Shows How It's Done:

I called the home of 85-year-old Frank Egger, the seven-term (now former) mayor of Fairfax, and a friendly older woman answered the phone. Rather than hang up on me, she expressed moderate optimism that Frank would take my call. (In the background, I could hear Egger say, "Who is it?" to which she responded playfully, "A writer." Old School Marin: Egger took the call despite that detail.)

Egger, at 85, is whip-smart, and unafraid to answer questions. During our call, he issued the facts of the meeting with no pauses. He said the ceasefire resolution required a 60% majority, it didn't have the necessary 17 votes to approve, with 28 members present. (It is said that Burdo abstained.) Egger explained that the additional monies for the doxxing investigation were only to determine where the private information was sent from, and where it went. He said he voted for the ceasefire resolution.

Specific to concerns about restricted entry to the meeting, Egger acknowledged that he had been contacted by Democrats who were unable to get into the meeting because of the timed, same-day check-in requirement. Egger was explicit in stating his desire to see the meetings return to an in-person format, and notably did not recommend that it should be in-person only.

For the rest of the call we talked about Egger's involvement in the anti-war and anti-nuclear movements. This included marching in what he describes as the first anti-Vietnam War protest in Marin (1968 in Mill Valley). Egger later organized a 1969 march in Fairfax, and was elected to Fairfax Town Council the following year. Imagine trying to pull off an election win after organizing an anti-war march in today's more conservative Marin County.

Brief Historical Context:

Egger's efforts were historic, but they were not the first anti-war, 1960s protests in Marin. An April 17, 1963 article in The Daily Independent Journal shows that Mr. and Mrs. Othell Mallouf and another couple from Mill Valley were involved in "withholding portions of their federal income tax in protest over the billions spent by the United States for arms." Bookmark the name Othell Mallouf, because there's more to be said about him, including his WWII heroism, allegations that he was a Communist, his ardent support for Marin City, for racial integration, and much more. Mallouf, like his contemporary Bruce Risley, is part of a buried history of pre-1965 progressive activists in Marin who first took root in Marin City, and whose muscular bread-and-butter advocacy merit attention. But they existed in a particular moment. The wealth of Marin County in the immediate post-war era could never match today's uber-wealthy techno-aristocracy, its power made gargantuan through the military industrial complex and "security" state.

Marin Democrats First Vice Chair Paul Cohen Also Answers The Call:

Like Frank Egger, Marin Democrats Vice Chair Paul Cohen actually answers the phone. Cohen was reluctant to discuss the agenda's investigative action item in any detail other than to state that they voted for money to further investigate the distribution of private emails. He stated that he did not vote for the ceasefire resolution, as he considered it "performative" and did not believe that it would change any minds in Washington DC or anywhere else. I questioned that, as much of politics is performative, and occasionally the performative is necessary. (For example, a ceasefire resolution would signal to younger voters that we at least acknowledge the generational shift – not just in how Israel is perceived, but how the Democratic Party itself is perceived.) To Cohen’s credit, it was a dialogue, albeit one in which we frequently talked over one another.

When asked about how the vote broke down, Cohen said he was "not prepared to put that out." I then asked him if a recording of the meeting had been made; he said there was no real reason to do so – it was a meeting of a political party, and not a local or state government meeting.

Cohen did not dismiss my concerns about the restricted access to the meeting. He continually stated that my questions should be directed to Chair Pat Johnstone. I stated that I have found Johnstone to be generally averse to questions. Cohen said that I should email Johnstone directly through the Marin Democrats main email and cc Cohen, graciously providing his email address. (I followed his instructions to the letter on Friday morning, and I still haven't heard back from Johnstone.)

One interesting note is that in defense of not voting for the ceasefire, Cohen brought up Representative Huffman, and stated that Huffman's position on Israel is "nuanced." I disagreed with this assessment, even though I had once used the same term to describe Huffman's stance on Israel/Palestine. What I should have said, after the DSC-PSC meeting with Huffman following the sit-in, is that Huffman's position is performatively nuanced.

This is a developing story, and will be updated. One thing I am left wondering — after being unable to reach the members who were alleged to have been harassed — is whether their non-answer indicates that there may be a larger investigation ongoing.

Update on Legislative Open Records Act Request Re: Damon Connolly’s February Israel Trip:

You may recall that this column covered “Fail-Up” Assemblyman Damon Connolly's trip to Israel last month, about which neither Connolly nor any of his staff issued any public statement or even marginally disclosed. Because I had received no response from Connolly despite multiple requests to his office and constant bird-dogging of his twitter account, I submitted a Legislative Open Records Act request for trip receipts and other documents/records related to the trip. On Wednesday, March 6, 2024, I received a response from Lia Lopez, Chief Administrative Officer of the California State Assembly, which includes the sentence:

"In regard to your request for records relating to payments related to the trip, we have no responsive records."

Is the only way they could claim that they have no responsive records regarding the payments (receipts!) is if Connolly paid for the trip himself and it was non-official business? For example, if it were a personal holiday?

If so, that would be a remarkable claim on Connolly's part: A holiday trip to a country engaged in what can credibly be described as an ongoing genocide, wherein Connoly shook hands with Isaac Herzog, currently accused of war crimes. As you might imagine, I am not satisfied with the response from the State Assembly, and will continue to pursue answers.

©️2024 Eva Chrysanthe