It appears that one of the men running a blacklist to harm former Trump administration officials has snagged his panty hose.
In the last few days, young men have credibly accused John Weaver, one of the hate-Trump Lincoln Project’s founders, of stalking them online with the presumed object of a homosexual liaison. A Twitter user accused him of rape.
With multiple tweets and interviews with Weaver’s targets, conservative writer Ryan Girdusky laid out the evidence in The American Conservative on Monday.
Weaver has worked for the presidential campaigns of former Ohio Governor John Kasich, the late Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.), and George H.W. Bush. The rumors of his predatory behavior, Girdusky reported, go back decades to his days as a consultant in Texas.
Demanded Sex
Girdusky’s report describes a creepy weirdo who follows young men on Twitter, then grooms them with polite banter about career goals until he can segue into sex chat.
Girdusky discovered Weaver’s not-so-secret Twitter patrolling by accident after Weaver followed him on the anti-Trump social media site.
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One of Girdusky’s Twitter contacts said Weaver “was in communication with several young men solicited by Weaver for a job, after which he propositioned them for sex as part of the offer.”
As well, Girdusky reported:
He shared direct messages with me of both young men, one of whom had been “strung along for days about a possible job,” and when they met at his hotel, Weaver demanded they engage in sexual intercourse. They did, it was consensual, but Weaver never made good on the job offer….
Another other young man, who will remain anonymous, spoke to me and a journalist to whom I passed the story along. In his messages with Weaver, this young man said that Weaver reached out to him with the promise of a job opportunity. He told [me] Weaver would condescendingly call him “my boy.”
Weaver cajoled a college student into a phone conversation, the student told Girdusky, that ended in a revolting solicitation. Weaver called the student after midnight during finals week, “claiming he was away from his wife on a work trip.”
After they discussed school and career, Girdusky reported, “Weaver abruptly changed topics and asked if he played sports and was athletic.”
Then came the filthy come-on:
The Lincoln Project co-founder followed up by asking about his height and weight. At this point, the student became uncomfortable and said when asked about his build, he said he was “about average.” Weaver responded, “oh my boy, I’m sure certain parts of you are well above average.”
A tweet unmentioned in Girdusky’s story accused Weaver of rape. “John Weaver DM’ed and followed virtually every young gay on this site,” @Pittsburgfella wrote:
Even I was reached out to on an old account, but not sexually.
One of my friends has even shared with me that John Weaver raped him years ago.
It’s incredible how open of a secret this is but no reporting.
How the Story Developed
The explosive revelations surfaced on Saturday when another Lincoln Project bigwig, Stuart Stevens, warned that he and his blacklisting crew were tracking former Trump officials. They would, he threatened, be “held accountable.”
Girdusky didn’t care much for the threat. “Maybe I should start talking about one of the founding members of the Lincoln Project offering jobs to young men in exchange for sex… his wife is probably interested,” he replied.
That’s when another young man, Josh Price, fingered Weaver.
Reported Girdusky:
Price deleted his tweet and set his account to private quickly afterward. He was being attacked by several people who were calling him a liar for making his claims. Quickly afterward, another account tweeted, “Weaver used to follow me when I used my real name on here. Out of the blue, he DM’d being pushy with personal questions and trying to flirt with me. After I didn’t go along with it, he unfollowed me and never DM’d me since.”
Another witness to Weaver’s predatory grooming is writer Scott Stedman, who explained what happened when he followed Weaver. They exchanged professional messages, Stedman wrote, and Weaver wrote a blurb for Stedman’s book.
“One day, he DM’d me and said he had ‘advice,’” Steadman wrote:
He then proceeded to tell me how “hot” I looked and commented on my profile picture and my hair. He started calling me “my boy.” I found it deeply uncomfortable.
Weaver Still at Lincoln Project
Perhaps more shocking than Weaver’s behavior is that top Republicans were aware of it.
“Stories about Weaver along these lines aren’t new,” Girdusky wrote. “According to The New Republic, Karl Rove alleged that Weaver made passes at young men back in 2000. At the time, Rove and Weaver were competitors to be the dominant consultant in Texas. Their professional feud allowed any allegations to be dismissed as a smear campaign by Rove.”
That piece in TNR, published in 2009, confidently called Rove a “gay-baiter” who peddled a “nearly two-decades-old lie.” But if all those young men on Twitter are telling the truth, maybe Rove didn’t lie.
The Lincoln Project says it has “a singular mission: To defeat Donald Trump and Trumpism.”
Maybe so.
But at this writing and despite Girdusky’s report, The Lincoln Project brags that Weaver is part of “our team.”
What the project will do about the reports of Weaver’s on-line stalking it does not say.
