Young Americans For Liberty Scandal Goes Viral, Students For Liberty Host To Cover ‘YAL-Gate’ Tonight

It is now official: all of the work that the Young Americans for Liberty activists did in Michigan on their “Liberty Summer” for the “Clean Michigan Government” campaign was for naught.

The “Clean Mi Govt” campaign for a part-time legislature, spearheaded by career politician Brian Calley to rehab his image for his upcoming run for Governor, has been a catastrophe on every imaginable level. Calley’s public image, already in the dumps because of his tenure as Lieutenant Governor next to infamous water-poisoning Governor Rick Snyder, has sunk even lower after his part-time legislature campaign came unglued under his watch. Last week, the Detroit News revealed the campaign’s extensive connections to entrenched lobbyists and dark money PACs. Worse yet, the miserable campaign gave a unique glimpse the corrupt underbelly of the national student liberty movement.

It is unknown if the entire campaign was buried and redone to cover-up the fraud that whistleblowers uncovered, as told in my previous report about the “Liberty Summer” from Hell that these young liberty activists were intentionally deceived into joining. YAL activists caught forged signatures, watched as these forgeries were covered up, and then were threatened with their jobs if they told anyone about what occurred. After the part-time legislature campaign imploded, it was onto the next one like nothing ever happened for YAL leadership. Still maintaining the deception that YAL never really had anything to do with it in the first place, no accountability was ever taken. Personal responsibility, a libertarian trait, was eschewed completely. Damage control was the name of the game.

YAL President Cliff Maloney Jr. is, as a matter of fact, eating crow privately by issuing at least one apology for having bumbled so thoroughly the “Clean Mi Govt” campaign that he regrettably called his “brain child.” Although Cliff is aware of reality enough to admit the obvious in phone calls to his activists, he doesn’t have the courage and common decency to admit fault publicly and assure everyone that nothing like this will ever happen again. The reason why Cliff is running from accountability like it is a plague is simple: he has something to hide. Cliff must have gotten used to the pay-to-play action that he received as campaign advisor to Gary Johnson last year, and must not want that gravy train to dry up. Cliff’s dirty little secret is that he is funneling his “rent-a-mob” of activists to politicians across the country–some of whom may have an even more disgraceful record than Calley.

There have been multiple reports of YAL activists being funneled to work–either directly or indirectly–on behalf of Senatorial campaigns in Alabama and Missouri. In Alabama, Luther Strange became a Senator under a peculiar set of circumstances. Strange is tied to disgraced former Gov. Robert Bentley, who was forced to resign amidst embarrassing charges of corruption and infidelity that made him a laughingstock throughout the Heart of Dixie. Bentley appointed Strange to his position in the Senate after Jeff Sessions was appointed Attorney General by President Trump. To return the favor, Strange pleaded with the Alabama State House to discontinue investigations into Bentley for his alleged crimes. Currently, Strange is being bankrolled by super-PACs connected to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) who has given his full-throated support to the incumbent.

This is all bad enough, but what makes YAL activists working Strange’s campaign so unforgivable is his primary opponent. While Calley’s likely opponents for governor in Michigan were suspect on liberty issues for a variety of reasons, Strange is fending off one of the most liberty-friendly legislators that America has to offer in his primary battle for Senate. Rep. Mo Brooks (R-AL) receives a 94 percent rating from Heritage Action, an 87 percent rating from the Club for Growth, and an 88 percent rating from the Conservative Review in their respective scorecards tracking votes for fidelity to conservative and libertarian values. He is currently a member of the House Freedom Caucus, alongside Rep. Justin Amash (R-MI), working to hold Trump and all big government politicians in Washington D.C. accountable to their oaths of office. With Strange being the clear establishment candidate and Brooks being his rabble-rousing primary challenger, it would be expected that YAL activists would be encouraged to support the latter, but that is not the case. Strange is the man with the clear money advantage with an immense amount of out-of-state cash filling his coffers. The “rent-a-mob” constructed by Maloney, YAL Mobilization Director Justin Greiss, and others apparently care not for principle in the slightest. They will direct their activists toward any Tom, Dick and Harry as long as the pay is right.

Another fishy campaign with ties to YAL leadership is “Freedom Ninja” Austin Petersen’s run for Senate in Missouri. Petersen, a fervent atheist and open borders supporter, tried his hand at running for the President as the Libertarian Party candidate but failed to secure the nomination last year. This prompted Petersen to leave the Libertarian Party shortly after making comments indicating that he was committed to growing the party for the long haul and that the two-party system consisted of sell-outs. This is not the only instance of Petersen engaging in two-faced, unethical behavior; rather, it is a part of a trend. If the Freedom Ninja does somehow catch on as a GOP contender, the popular media will have a field day with this man’s checkered past.

Petersen has a series of embarrassing media appearances that will plague his campaign for Missouri Senate, and tarnish all who support him by proxy. During a particularly embarrassing appearance on libertarian-turned-fascist Chris Cantwell’s podcast, Petersen became unglued and turned loose his inner frat boy in an exchange that has to be heard to be believed.

“You know, Christopher, all the time I get women sending me naked photos, they do it so voluntarily and immediately and it does strike me as a little bit strange,” Petersen said in an angry tone, apparently serious. It would get even worse for Petersen from there.

After using crass terms to insult Cantwell’s physique, Petersen gave a line that media reporters will seize upon and make national news should his Senatorial campaign gain any traction. Petersen said that the host “could not even approach one quarter of the pyramid pile of p-ssy that I swim in on a regular basis, and it is because I have class, motherf-cker!” It was a Trump-esque outburst to be sure, but Petersen is going to get a rude awakening on the campaign trail that he is no Trump, and rural Missouri voters won’t be giving him any passes for his crude and braggadocios behavior.

Additionally, Petersen’s profile on a “Sugar Daddy” website will make for more embarrassing national headlines. We broke the story last year about how Petersen claimed to be a millionaire in order to ensnare young women on a seedy, quasi-prostitution web service, SugarDaddie.com. Pair all of this baggage with Petersen’s unimpressive background as a third-party failure, low-level Washington D.C. hack, and serial clickbait promoter, and it becomes immediately obvious that these are not the qualifications of a serious political candidate. Like Strange, Petersen has a competent primary opponent in Missouri State House Rep. Paul Curtman. Curtman has military experience, was a Ron Paul for President supporter in 2012, and has a proven record in the Missouri legislature. YAL is likely draining resources from this serious liberty candidate and diverting them to a self-serving egotistical clown just to pad their bottom line.

YAL activists are presently being funneled to Missouri under the guise of a campaign to support Right to Work. Right to Work is already the law of the land in Missouri, but there is a ballot campaign by the left to suspend Right to Work and put it to a vote of the people. The liberty activists are being used to supposedly convince voters to refuse to sign the leftist-backed petitioning effort. This story may seem plausible, but the Brian Calley part-time legislature scheme seemed plausible at first too. Activists were told that they wouldn’t be working for Calley, but as the campaign progressed, Calley’s involvement became increasingly apparent. With Greiss personally promoting Petersen’s campaign launch on his Facebook and the “rent-a-mob” showing up conveniently at that time, it raises serious questions that another deceptive and possibly criminal campaign is in the works.

While some of this analysis may seem speculatory, the complete and utter lack of transparency and shameful record of lies coming from YAL leadership makes this entirely necessary. We will keep raising the relevant questions until they are properly answered. While we still do not yet have all the details, more whistleblowers are emerging from the darkness and the story continues gaining traction. Independent journalist Joshua Heckathorn picked up the story, and aired an in-depth interview with a whistleblower on social media last week. Whistleblowers have appeared on multiple radio shows and podcasts to share their first-hand stories as well. Tonight, Michael Kirk, a former YAL activist who took an interest in the story, will join SFL-on-Air host Austin Mulka to discuss the story. The livestream of the discussion will air at 9pm on Mulka’s Facebook page, and the broadcast should effectively blow the lid off the story throughout the entire student liberty movement.

The truth will get out, especially in this digital age, regardless of how desperate institutional power may be to silence that truth. We will be publishing many followup stories as further details related to YAL’s scandalous actions are uncovered. There are still many questions that have yet to been determined. The financial records have not been made public. Greiss used a @RandPaul.com email address to push the liberty summer scheme, indicating that Paul’s staffers may have had direct involvement. There are other “liberty summer” campaigns going on across the country right now, and those details are shrouded in secrecy. The public must understand exactly how deep this corruption goes, and liberty activists must push for swift reforms to be enacted to make sure that the young liberty movement is not damaged any further. Sweeping this corruption under the rug is only going to make the problem much worse. Whistleblowers are encouraged to come forward so we can answer these questions and finally put this to rest.

UPDATE: After this report was published, a representative for Students for Liberty informed our editing staff via e-mail that tonight’s livestream covering YAL-gate was abruptly canceled. The suppression of the truth by national liberty organizations is a developing phenomenon that we will continue to cover.